It's raining All-Star aces from the Northwest

ANAHEIM — They are linked by the challenges and tribulations of pursuing a baseball life from our soggy neck of the woods.

And yet, despite the wet winters and too-brief summers, despite major-league teams having a natural predilection toward scouting the sunny climes of California, Texas and Florida, which annually churn out phenoms, here they are.

Here are Jon Lester, Tim Lincecum and Evan Meek, fireballing Sons of the Puget Sound, united as All-Stars, bonded as hardy survivors of the surprisingly fertile Seattle- and Tacoma-area youth baseball scene.

"What's the first thing anyone thinks about when you say Seattle? The rain," said Lincecum, attending his third All-Star Game. "It's definitely a challenge. But here's the bottom line: If you're good, you're going to be seen."

Lincecum, a two-time Cy Young Award winner with the Giants who attended Liberty High School of Issaquah and the University of Washington, is 26. So is Lester, a second-round draft pick of the Boston Red Sox out of Bellarmine Prep in Tacoma, who has emerged as a Cy Young Award candidate in his own right.

Meek, who attended Inglemoor High School in Kenmore as well as Bellevue Community College, is 27 and emerging as one of the top relievers in the majors with the Pittsburgh Pirates.

One of the first players Meek saw when he arrived in Anaheim on Sunday evening was Lester, and they greeted warmly. It's a tight-knit fraternity, these Western Washingtonians in the majors. Meek and Lester were teammates in summer ball, played against each other in high school, were showcased together at the Area Code Games.

"Watching all his successes, and now seeing him here, it's incredible," said Meek.

"We played a lot of baseball together," said Lester, like Meek a first-time All-Star. "It's cool to see someone you played high school baseball with here at the All-Star Game. We shared some of the same experiences together. It was fun to see him last night, to see a friendly face and at least be able to talk to him about other things besides baseball."

Lincecum and Meek know each other mainly as mutual admirers, having not crossed paths much as youths. But Lincecum and Lester traveled parallel paths, their electric arms creating similar buzzes as they came up through the ranks.

"I actually remember him more as a first baseman than a pitcher, hitting home runs," Lincecum said. "I remember a tournament we had in Bellevue. It was a pretty hyped-up game and Lester was pitching. I didn't even know he was a pitcher at that point, because he still raked as a first baseman. Then he took the mound and he was throwing 93, 94. It was pretty impressive. The scouts were all watching him. I was hoping to be in that position one day."

Lester's triumphant story of overcoming lymphoma to win the clinching game of the 2007 World Series for the Red Sox, pitch a no-hitter, and become one of the top pitchers in the American League, is a familiar one, but that doesn't make it any less inspiring.

Meek has his own inspirational tale. An 11th-round draft pick by the Twins out of Inglemoor, he made a brief, ill-fated journey to community college in Midland, Texas.

"I don't recommend any of you to go there," the affable Meek told reporters Monday. "If you see a hill, it's a special thing."

Instead, he wound up at Bellevue CC (now Bellevue College), where his career was jump-started in coach Mark Yoshino's program.

"Meek struggled during the entire preseason for us, to the point where he almost lost his spot in the rotation," Yoshino recalled via e-mail. "We then made one mechanical adjustment which turned out to be huge. He struck out 17 in a one-hit complete game against Everett in his next start and never had a bad outing after that."

Meek joined the Twins' organization in 2003 and went 7-1 with a 2.47 earned-run average in Class A. But he struggled in 2004, and by '05, his control was completely gone. He seemed on the way to a Rick Ankiel-like blowout, walking 36 in 18 innings in A ball. He recalled throwing one pitch "20 feet over the catcher's head." On June 22, the Twins released him.

"I didn't touch a ball for a month," he recalled. "I didn't look at a baseball, didn't watch a game on TV. I did everything I could not to think about it. But then I started throwing again, throwing against a wall. I took a thing of duct tape, wrapped it around a ball and threw it against a brick wall. Gave it hell for about two weeks. A lot of emotion, a lot of anger was coming out."

But it wasn't until he returned home to Seattle and played simple games of catch with his father, David Meek — just as they had done their entire life — that his passion for baseball began to return.

"At first I just needed to be by myself, no one watching," Meek said. "But when I got home, we started playing catch like I did when we were younger. I started to forget everything, all the pressure you put on yourself. When you're in the minors, the big leagues seem so far away, because everyone puts it on a pedestal."

Meek would wonder wistfully how some players, like Lincecum, never went through such struggles, breezing through the minors on a path toward instant stardom. But he was reduced to throwing a tryout at Cheney Stadium in Tacoma for Charlie Kerfeld, then a Padres scout, and undertaking a hastily arranged simulated game at Bellevue CC at the behest of Mal Fichman, another Padres scout. In the latter, he gathered some high school friends to bat against him.

"I remember I actually hit a guy," Meek said. "One of my buddies stepped in, and I hit him right in the back. I went, 'Oh, no.' "

But the Padres signed him anyway, and Meek believes he owes his career to the San Diego organization. Slowly, the control came back; the stuff was always there.

The Padres eventually traded him to the Rays — for Russell Branyan — and Meek was starting to open eyes as a reliever when Tampa Bay left him exposed in the Rule 5 draft. The Pirates swooped him up before the 2008 season, and by last season he was a mainstay in their bullpen.

This year, he's a star, with an incredible 1.11 ERA in 40 games. And he has walked just 14 while striking out 45 in 48-2/3 innings.

"It's a lot of perseverance," marveled Lester. "He loves the game of baseball. He always had the talent. Even as kids, he always threw the ball hard, always had an idea what he was doing. It's nice to see him get recognition for what he's done."

Looking back, Meek can't pinpoint how he regained his control, where others in his situation never did. The truth is, he doesn't want to figure it out.

"I've let go," he said. "I spent so much time trying to figure out what happened. I had never been through anything like that before. I never came up with anything. The more I tried to think about it, it wasn't productive. It was one of those things where you have to let it go and start over."

And now, the reinvented Meek has joined Lester and Lincecum as Puget Sound home boys among the MLB elite.

Larry Stone: 206-464-3146 or lstone@seattletimes.com.