My first glimpse of Ajay Meyer comes at the start of the eighth inning in the first of three games between the Lansing Lugnuts and the Quad Cities River Bandits. As the sun sets over the hill beyond left field at Cooley Law School Stadium, Meyer’s Lugnuts lead 8-2.

I am sitting in the front row behind the bullpen, one section away from the outfield wall along the first base line. Believe it or not, I did not have to fight someone for this seat or even flash my media pass. This is Single-A Minor League baseball, the ultimate “who’s who?” of professional sports. Meyer sits about ten yards away at the end of the bullpen bench tossing a baseball in his right hand, maybe even more relaxed than I am.

I am here to report on one of the most overlooked players on any baseball roster. In most cases, the closer only pitches if his team is up by three runs or less going into the ninth inning. As his name suggests, his job is to close the game and secure a win for his team.

After transferring to Ashland from Owens Community College in Toledo in 2009, Meyer was the Eagles’ ace for two seasons. In 2011, he went 9-3 with a 1.57 ERA and 77 strikeouts. He pitched a school record 11 complete games and was a finalist for the Tino Martinez Award, Division II baseball’s top honor. After going undrafted, Meyer was signed by the Toronto Blue Jays last June. He went 4-2 with a 3.03 ERA in 13 starts in 2011 with the Bluefield (West Va.) Blue Jays, Toronto’s Rookie League outfit. Then he got called to pitch in the playoffs for the Single-A (short season) Vancouver Canadians, where he got his first professional ring as a member of the Northwest League champions.

Meyer’s performance was rewarded when he was told after spring training in March that he would be playing in Lansing. The move was another step up in the Blue Jays organization and brought him closer to home. It also meant that he would be the Lugnuts’ closer, a role he had no experience with.

“I just knew you’re going to get put in a lot of tough situations and I’ve been in a lot of tough situations in my life being a starter, so it wasn’t a huge adjustment, but just knowing that every game I’ll be in a tight situation no matter what,” Meyer said.

After I make my move from the press box to the first base line, the game starts to get interesting. The Bandits score two runs to make the score 8-4, which prompts Meyer to get up and start stretching in case he has to pitch. Meyer has thrived under the pressure of saving games. A save tonight would be his 24th of the season, tied for the most in all of the Minor Leagues.

“We’re trying to get the ball to Ajay in the ninth,” reliever Brandon Berl said. “If we’ve got a one-run, two-run or three-run lead it doesn’t matter. If he gets out there on the mound we feel like the game’s over.”

Bandits catcher Juan Castillo singles on a ground ball to right field, scoring third baseman Stephen Piscotty to make it 8-5. In the span of a few minutes, a game that once looked out of reach will almost certainly feature Meyer on the mound.

“It was crazy,” Meyer said the next day. “It was 8-2 and in my mindset I was like, ‘Alright, I’m not gonna pitch today,’ and then all of a sudden we started giving up runs.”

Luckily, the change of circumstances does not affect Meyer’s warm-up routine too drastically. He said that he does not normally begin stretching until the eighth inning anyway. Seeing your team give away runs like free t-shirts out of a mascot’s cannon does add an extra element to mental preparation, however. As a line drive by Bandits third baseman Roberto De La Cruz reaches the right field wall, scoring two more runs, Meyer becomes visibly jumpy. The Bandits are only one more run away from tying the game and sending him back to the bench.

“That does go through my mind, but I don’t want it to go through my mind, you know?” Meyer said. “I’m just getting myself mentally prepared in case I have to go in and then if I don’t I’ll just sit back down.”

The flash of emotion that Meyer showed vanishes as he goes back to stretching. A few seconds later he receives the signal from the dugout to begin throwing. He is not overly superstitious, not one to get stuck in routine. Perhaps this is an advantage he has as a closer, because he can be ready to go at a moment’s notice. When I press him about his warm-up routine, he just shrugs. He can only think of one thing that he does routinely during a game.

“I always look at my hat right before the start of the inning,” he said. “I don’t really have a specific, specific routine, that’s probably about as routine as I can get.”

Players do not get to choose their walkout music at Cooley Law School Stadium, which can provide for awkward moments such as Lugnuts’ slugger Kevin Pillar walking out to “Brighter Than the Sun” by Colbie Caillat in the first inning. Ever since Charlie Sheen’s character in the movie Major League walked out to the mound with the crowd singing along to “Wild Thing,” walkout music has become synonymous with the closer. When asked what his walkout jam would be, Meyer opts for something a little mellower. He said that he would choose a country song, probably something by Jason Aldean.

On this evening, Meyer enters the game to no sounds other than sparse cheers from the home crowd assembled on “Ladies Night.” So small is the crowd that I am able to move so that I am even with first base to watch Meyer go to work.

The first thing I notice when Meyer is on the mound is just how tall he is. Add his listed height of six-feet, six-inches to the height of the pitcher’s mound ten-and-a-half inches above home plate, and the ball leaves Meyer’s hand at a height nearly equivalent to that of retired basketball star Yao Ming. His height isn’t the only thing he has going for him. He mixes fastballs, curveballs and sliders while using multiple arm-angles. This means that batters must look for pitches steaming towards the plate from high over Meyer’s shoulder and from a lower, side-armed motion.

“I’ve been doing it since high school, but I didn’t do it a lot in high school,” he said. “I probably really started to incorporate it my junior year in college.”

Like everyone in Single-A, however, Meyer still has things he needs to work on.

“We’ve worked a little bit on the slider, maybe developing a little bit of a split-finger, a little more of a true out pitch,” Vince Horsman, the Lugnuts’ pitching coach, said. “Ajay throws strikes with all of his pitches, he’s just lacking that really true out pitch where he can come in with something that’s just flat-out nasty.”

The first batter Meyer faces is Bandits second baseman and leadoff hitter Luis Mateo. Mateo fouls off a sidearm fastball for strike one. Meyer then throws a sidearm curveball for a called strike two. His third pitch is a curveball over the top that reaches the dirt before it crosses the plate, a pitch that seems pretty nasty to me. Mateo swings. Three pitches. Three strikes. One out.

Up next is shortstop Matt Williams, who is also retired after three pitches when he hits a slow ground ball down the first base line. The Bandits decide to pinch hit Nick Martini in place of designated hitter Colin Walsh, a decision that turns out to be a good one when Martini drives the 2-1 pitch to right field for a base hit.

This prompts Horsman to come out to the mound for a chat with Meyer and catcher Carlos Perez as Casey Rasmus replaces Martini as a pinch runner. The conversation only lasts long enough for fans to hear a few bars of Blink 182’s “Adam’s Song” blast over the stadium speakers before play resumes. Unfretted, Meyer throws a first-pitch strike that whizzes by Bandits third baseman Stephen Piscotty. His second pitch flies into the dirt, leveling the count. Piscotty hits the next pitch high and deep to right field.

It has to be a terrifying moment for Meyer as he turns his head to see where the ball will land, knowing that, no matter what, he has thrown his last pitch of the night. The ball comes to rest in the glove of right fielder Chris Hawkins, and Meyer joins the foray of high-fives among teammates that marks another Lugnuts victory.

“It’s great,” Meyer said, explaining the feeling of closing out a win. “Especially when you’re home and the fans are cheering. Not a better feeling than that.”

I spend my last two days in Lansing conducting interviews and watching baseball, but Meyer does not pitch again. He is given the day off for the second game. He would not have pitched anyway, as the Lugnuts suffer their worst loss of the season, a 15-3 shellacking. The next night, with Meyer throwing in the bullpen, the Lugnuts tack on two runs in the bottom of the eighth that force him to sit back down. They end up winning 4-0 to win the series.

Though I do not see Meyer pitch again, I do get a taste of life in the bullpen. It is a tight-knit, eccentric bunch. The guys keep their sunflower seeds in a pink backpack that hangs from the fence. Both English and Spanish are spoken and, as with any good workplace, laughs are plentiful. Though most of the players are several years younger than Meyer, they are some of his closest friends.

“We have a good group of guys this year,” Berl said. “We have a good feel of when to be loose and when to get serious, but Ajay’s definitely one of those guys in the clubhouse who helps keep things loose.”

Because minor league bullpens are so close to the stands, it becomes a place where children camp out looking for autographs and foul balls. Though the players are told not to sign anything during games, I witnessed one kid get lucky during the eighth inning of the first game. He handed a baseball (one of those multi-colored team logo balls that you can find in most every ballpark gift shop) and Sharpie pen to lefty reliever Tyler Ybarra, who passed it down the bench from left to right. Meyer received the ball last, inked his name and passed it back down to Ybarra, who gave it back to the delighted child.

Who knows? That ball might be worth something some day. The last player from Ashland to make it to the Major Leagues was Gene Stechschulte, a righty reliever from Kalida, Ohio who pitched for the Saint Louis Cardinals from 2000-2002.

Less than two years into his professional career, Meyer has already moved through two rungs of the Blue Jays’ system, won a championship and made an All-Star team. On August 4, he recorded his 30th save of the season, setting the franchise record for saves in a season. With the Lugnuts in first place in the Midwestern League, he also has a good chance of winning his second minor league championship. All of these accomplishments have helped put him on the map.

“I don’t know what the future holds for Ajay, but as long as he continues doing what he’s doing he’s going to get himself an opportunity and a chance to pitch for a long time,” Horsman said.

As Meyer congratulates his teammates with another round of high-fives after the third game, fireworks shoot from beyond the outfield wall. Baseball is fun. There will be another game tomorrow. Meyer will continue to pitch in baseball games – doing what he loves for a living – until his body betrays him or somebody tells him he is no longer good enough. For now, that day seems to be far, far away.