Mark Hendrickson, grandfather, giving it a shot with Baltimore Orioles

Veteran left-hander Mark Hendrickson isn’t ready for the rocking chair just yet, so he’s getting a tryout with the Baltimore Orioles.

Mark Hendrickson hasn’t thrown a pitch in the big leagues for 3½ years and he will be 41 in June.

But the grandfather who delayed his baseball career to pursue his hoops dreams isn’t ready to hang up his spikes just yet and the Baltimore Orioles are going to give him a look.

Hendrickson spent last season with the York Revolution of the independent Atlantic League, posting a 1.54 ERA and nine saves with a 0.968 WHIP in 55 appearances and 55.2 innings.

That was enough to intrigue Orioles manager Buck Showalter.

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“He’s a straight shooter,” Hendrickson told MASN.com of Showalter. “He’s not doing a charity case. If he doesn’t think I can help, then I’m not going to be here. So for me, it’s just taking that initiative and saying, ‘Look, I don’t want to waste your time. You don’t want to waste my time. Let’s give this a shot.’ And I said, ‘Look what I’ve done the last couple years.’”

It was Showalter who convinced Hendrickson to try a sidearm delivery two years ago, when a similar tryout with Baltimore earned the 6-foot-9 lefty a season at Triple-A Norfolk, where he was 5-3 with a 3.06 ERA and 1.064 WHIP in 40 appearances and 67.2 innings.

If the name sounds familiar, it should—Hendrickson was in the bigs for 10 seasons, from 2002-11, with the Toronto Blue Jays, Tampa Bay Devil Rays, Los Angeles Dodgers, Florida Marlins and—the last three seasons—the Orioles.

He is 58-74 with a 5.03 ERA and 1.459 WHIP in 328 big-league appearances, 166 of them starts, covering 1,169 innings.

Hendrickson was drafted five times after graduating from high school, finally signing with the Blue Jays in May 1998 while in the midst of spending parts of four seasons in the NBA with the Philadelphia 76ers, Sacramento Kings, New Jersey Nets and Cleveland Cavaliers.

In 118 career games, he averaged 3.3 points and 2.8 rebounds.

He was a collegiate basketball standout at Washington State, averaging 16.5 points and 9.5 rebounds per game as a senior in 1995-96.

“I’m as motivated now as I’ve ever been,” Hendrickson said. “Things are a little different. I’m not 22. But the passion’s still there. You need that. That’s one of the things that I’m sure guys get burned out with is the mental and emotional commitment it takes. It’s not just a physical thing. That commitment has to be there. That focus has to be there. Life evolves. Things are different.

“I’m a grandfather, for goodness sake, and that was two months ago. Now there’s extra motivation. How many active grandfathers have been  in the big leagues? Well, that right there is motivation in itself.”

Well, for one thing, when his younger teammates call him “Gramps,” they won’t be factually incorrect.