By Alicia Couch Payne
Joey Bart is a 2015 graduate of Buford High School. Born on December 15, 1996, to Thomas and Karen Bart, he grew up in Buford along with his two older brothers, Danny and Mikey Bart, part of a very athletic family. Thomas played baseball in college and Mikey was a defensive end at the University of North Carolina, later signing with the Arizona Cardinals.
Starting as a freshman, Joey was the starting catcher for the Buford Wolves varsity baseball team. During his senior year, he had a .437 batting average with 35 RBIs and led the Wolves to become the 2015 GHSA State Champions. Joey received first-team GHSA All-State honors in 2013, 2014, and 2015. He was named to the Louisville Slugger All-American First-Team in 2015 and was named to the second-team 2014-2015 All-USA Georgia Baseball Team by USA Today. To top off all of those honors, Joey is Buford High School’s all-time leader in hits, RBIs, and runs scored.
“He has always been a great player with tremendous talents and work ethic and I was very fortunate to have a small role in his development,” recalls Joey’s former high school baseball coach, Buford Athletic Director, Tony Wolfe. “Joey was a pleasure to coach.”
Even though he was drafted in 2015 initially, Joey chose instead to go to Georgia Tech to play under Coach Danny Hall whose son, Carter, had been friends with Joey since he was 12 years old. Joey had an extremely successful collegiate career in the three years at Tech as catcher playing in 144 games.
As a junior at Georgia Tech, the San Francisco Giants selected Joey in the 2018 Major League Baseball draft. He was the No. 2 overall draft pick and earned the highest ever up-front bonus for a position player in MLB draft history. That bonus netted Joey $7.25 million. Joey became the highest draft pick not only from Buford but for all of Gwinnett County and for Georgia Tech. “It is a great honor and a testament to our community and school to have someone drafted that high,” says Wolfe of his former player’s achievement.
Joey finished his time at Tech with a .321 average, 30 home runs, 35 doubles, 112 RBIs, and 115 runs scored. Defensively, Joey posted a .990 fielding percentage behind the plate where he threw out 31 would-be base stealers. The honors he racked up while at Georgia Tech are too many to list here but perhaps his top honor was becoming Tech’s first-ever player to receive the Johnny Bench Award. That award is for the top collegiate catcher in the NCAA’s Division I and he took home that honor in 2018.
Since the 2018 draft, Joey has been playing for minor teams within the San Francisco Giants organization. He has played for the Arizona League Giants Orange, Salem-Keizer Volcanoes, and most recently the San Jose Giants. He has picked up numerous honors already during his stint in the minor leagues including being named a 2018 MILB.com Organization All-Star. He has recently returned from the injured list after breaking his hand in April 2019. Joey appeared in the MLB Futures Game on July 7 in Cleveland where he threw out Wander Franco trying to steal second.
Coach Wolfe proudly talks about Joey’s character. “His talent was off the charts, but his toughness, intelligence, and work ethic made him a remarkable player and young man.” Once a Wolf, always a Wolf.
