INDIANAPOLIS – Talk about awkward. In a way that’s exactly how Saturday afternoon’s scene seemed while the Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre Yankees were taking batting practice at Victory Field.

Sort of like running into, not just one, but two ex-girlfriends while courting a new one.

With the matinee matchup between the Chicago Cubs and Arizona Diamondbacks playing on the scoreboard in right field, there stood JD Closser, a former farmhand for both Major League Baseball clubs, taking cuts some 400-plus feet away.

Working on his gap-power hitting in preparation for the New York Yankees affiliates’ second of four games against the Indianapolis Indians, Closser didn’t get sentimental as the likes of Derrick Lee, Chris Young or Kosuke Fukudome appeared.

Not to say, the Yankees catcher didn’t offer a glance in the big screen’s general direction in between hitting sessions as the Cubs trailed 2-1.

But in the grand scheme, little attention was paid. Nothing too substantial. No watering eyes. No hard feelings.

Not in this business.

“Things can change in this game quick,” Closser said. “Who knows what will happen? You never know. You don’t always necessary end with the team you started with.”

Originally drafted out of Alexandria-Monroe high school by the Diamondbacks in the fifth round with the 163rd pick overall, Closser’s career is evident of that harsh hardball fact.

Having seen several twists and turns and even more stops since becoming a professional baseball player shortly after winning the 1998 Class 2A State baseball championship, which also brought with it Indiana’s 1998 “Mr. Baseball” award, the 28-year-old has worn the emblems of six teams in 10 years.

Four of those teams have come in the last year-and-a-half, going from the Milwaukee Brewers to the Oakland Athletics to the Chicago Cubs to now the New York Yankees.

Getting his break with the Colorado Rockies after a trade sent him from the Arizona desert to his newly adopted home state — where he and his wife Holly are raising their two daughters — Closser reached the big leagues from 2004 to 2006, logging 447 at bats.

Since then, however, he’s played the game while learning his own extents after being released by the Cubs on April 10 before signing with the Yankees on May 1.

“That’s the key to this game; you can never get down on yourself because a lot of things can happen,” said Closser referring to the importance of perseverance for any ball player. “(When the Cubs let me go), that was the first time in my career I’d ever been released. It was something new to deal with, and that’s what this game will do to you. It’ll throw you new situations to deal with. I was just able to hang in there, and I found a job. Here I am again.”

Indeed. Back home where it all began. The same place he won it all with the Tigers and head coach Monte Sprague; the same field where his dad, Jeff, sat two rows from the first base dugout to watch his son finish 1-for-3.