When people think of standout Russian athletes, they often think about hockey and soccer players, gifted figure skaters, or burly weightlifters. They don’t usually think of Russian baseball players. 20-year old Anton Kuznetsov is seeking to change that. He is bidding to be only the sixth Russian baseballer to make it to the major leagues.

Kuznestov is a pitcher with this year’s Williamsport Crosscutters team, and a kind of long-shot prospect in the Phillies organization.

I had the opportunity to speak to Anton at the recent Crosscutters Media Day. I tried to break the ice with him by greeting him in Russian, using the smattering of that language that I know that is quite meager, but probably enough to get my face slapped. He seemed to appreciate my efforts.

His knowledge of English was serviceable, certainly greater than the pitiful amount of Russian that I know. He said that last year he still needed the use of a translator, but that he has worked hard at improving his English, in part through the help of a professor at a university in Petersburg, not far from the Phillies training complex at Clearwater.

I asked him how he got involved with baseball and he filled me in.

He said it started when he was in first grade. His teacher had a son who played baseball. She suggested that seven-year-old Anton might enjoy the game.

“At that point, my parents sent me to try out for baseball,” Anton told Webb Weekly. “In Russia, the system is a bit different. There’s not a big organized system like Little League, although in recent years a few League teams have been started. In my school, there was essentially an announcement — anyone who wants to play baseball, let’s make a team. It would be the equivalent of t-ball. So after that announcement, we got a coach and just began to practice with people who wanted to try it out.”

Anton, who was a pitcher and an outfielder, persevered enough in his baseball efforts enough to eventually make the Russian National Baseball Team. It was while playing in the 2016 Under 18 European Baseball Championships that he caught the eye of scouts from the Philadelphia Phillies. They signed him for the bargain basement amount of $10,000 and sent him to their Gulf Coast League club in Clearwater.

He was very pleased with his professional debut last year in the Gulf Coast League, where he put up some pretty good numbers. He made 15 appearances, 14 in relief and compiled a sparkling earned run average of 0.36 in 25 1/3 innings of work, with a healthy strikeout to walk ratio of 24 Ks to 4 walks.

In early action with the Crosscutters, he had a few rough spots but picked up his first Crosscutter win against the Auburn Doubledays.

“I’m very excited to be playing here in Williamsport,” Anton said. “I hope to have a lot of success and to make it to the Phillies eventually. My role so far is to be a relief pitcher, and I hope to be able to learn to do that well.”

Udachi Anton, which means, ‘Good Luck Anton’ in Russian.