Nowadays, it’s hard to picture an NAIA World Series without the Georgia Gwinnett Grizzlies.
The team hailing from Lawrenceville, Ga., has made the approximately seven-hour flight to Lewiston to compete at Harris Field for the last five years.
The last time the Grizzlies failed to qualify for the Series was in 2017, the third time in four years they failed to make it.
Georgia Gwinnett baseball alums from 2015-17 may not have had an opportunity to smell the pungent Lewiston air as they rounded the bases inside of Ed Cheff Stadium — but 2017 GGC grad Arsenio Watlington managed to reach the NAIA World Series in a different way.
Watlington was in attendance during this year’s edition of the Series and was even on the field. But instead of hitting dingers and making plays in the outfield, he’s given a platform to today’s players.
The St. Thomas, Virgin Islands, native founded “Nexup Baseball” in 2018 — a social media brand whose main focus is to showcase the game of baseball from a new perspective.
“I thought, being from the Virgin Islands, that my perspective on the game would be a little bit different,” Watlington said. “So we started to buy cameras and shoot games, and I was fortunate enough to work with programs like GGC to promote what they had going on on the field.”
Throughout his five years of work, Nexup Baseball has amassed over 28,000 followers across all of social media. While the followers are a great accomplishment, probably the most exciting thing for Watlington is finally being able to go to Harris Field with his alma mater.
“It’s surreal,” he said. “I never knew what it was going to be like until I got here and got around the people. Everyone talks about how special this place is and it really is special. The special part isn’t about the city, it’s about the people and the environment.”
Watlington has always been comfortable behind a camera or a computer screen, editing a video. But what got him to take the next step was a need.
“I think basketball is way ahead of baseball in terms of picking up a camera, shooting it, and making a clip go viral,” Watlington said. “I thought that was always fascinating, and I loved sites like Bleacher Report for creating that.”
He took inspiration from what sites like Bleacher Report were able to create with basketball and did the same with baseball. But at the time, the sport had a limited social media presence. So he picked up his camera and began to get to work.
When he began his journey with Nexup Baseball, he started with what was familiar, so he went back to GGC and shot a practice. When he came back and edited the footage, it came back up to snuff, so he felt like it was something he could do long-term.
After shooting a couple more practices for the Grizzlies, he transitioned to filming high school baseball in Georgia.
“I focused on that for the first couple of years, and I carved out a niche for myself there,” Watlington said. “It was a very inviting environment. Everyone wanted to figure out how they could help. So I had a lot of help because of how the community is.”
After a few more years of craving a name for themselves, Watlington and Nexup started to produce several viral videos. One of the first viral videos he shot was of Arizona Diamondbacks’ 2022 draft selection, Druw Jones.
Jones, son of long-time MLB outfielder Andruw Jones, was the No. 1 overall prospect going into the 2022 amateur draft.
Jones attended Wesleyan High School in Norcross, Ga., and while Watlington was attending and filming a game, Jones smacked a home run over the center field wall as the fans were chanting “Overrated.”
Watlington’s video got picked up by outlets such as ESPN, CBSSports and USA Today.
After Watlington filmed the video of Jones, he was able to secure a spot to film his draft party.
“It’s just been a steady incline,” Watlington said. “I rarely get moments to think, ‘Ah, this is cool,’ because I’m still in it. I’m still trying to grow the business. I want it to be as big as Bleacher Report because I love baseball.”
Pixley may be contacted at (208) 848-2290, tpixley@lmtribune.com or on Twitter @TreebTalks.
