Baseball baby steps are supposed to be mandatory this time of year from guys like South Bend Cubs infielder Jared Young.
They take it slowly while easing into the first full professional season. They struggle and stumble early and often as they learn what it takes to make it, learn what it takes to come back the next day after having a good day one day, a bad the next. It takes time. Effort. Energy. Patience.
It isn’t supposed to be as easy as Young has made it look. Forget baby steps, he’s already at a full sprint through his first foray through the Midwest League.
Less than a week in, Young has played old. Heading into the final game of South Bend’s home stand Thursday against Bowling Green, Young was leading the team in batting average (.444), hits (eight) and total bases (16). He was tied for the lead in doubles with three and was second in runs at six.
Heck, the first time Young played at Four Winds Field – in Saturday’s chilly home opener – he went 4-for-4 with a walk, a run scored and two RBIs. Now that’s a groove.
Just don’t expect him to speak much on it. The 22-year-old native of Prince George, British Columbia is a friendly guy. He’ll talk baseball or hockey or the sudden warm break in the ridiculous spring weather while in the dugout after a workout. But muse over making it look so easy so early? Nah.
“The game will humble you,” he said. “As soon as I start thinking about it too much, that’s when things start not to go my way. I’ve just got to stay with what I’ve been doing and keep playing the game.”
Stay with what he’s been doing really since spring training. Down in Arizona is where South Bend manager Jimmy Gonzalez noticed the 6-foot-2, 185-pounder, who was a 15th-round draft pick out of Old Dominion last summer. There was just something about Young’s approach at the plate that got to Gonzalez.
His left-handed swing was short and sweet. He was aggressive, yet patient to not jump on any pitch except the one he wanted. When he got it, he hit it. The ball jumped off his bat and headed somewhere where nobody would get it. What Young’s doing now is what he did for the last month of spring training. See the ball. Hit the ball. Get on base. Play.
“He puts together great at-bats, great swings,” Gonzalez said. “He’s got a great plan and he executes it. He competes at the plate and that’s all you can ask for from a guy like him.”
Yet the organization has asked for a little more from Young, a natural second baseman and one of only four infielders on the current roster. That’s nowhere near enough. Not in this organization. Outside of pitchers, who just do what they do when they do it, cross-training is almost mandatory. It’s not good enough to be good enough at one position. The more versatility, the more one can advance up the minor-league ladder.
Young’s willing to make the climb any way — and anywhere — he’s asked. If that’s at second, great. Outfield? He also can do that. Designated hitter? Sure.
So on opening night in Grand Rapids, Mich., Young looked at the lineup card and saw “1B” next to his name. He’d never before played first base in an actual game — and only once in spring training — but that’s where he’d be for his South Bend debut.
“That was something else,” he said. “I’m not totally comfortable there, but I’ll get there.”
Young played the position with some advice from one of his buddies in the organization, former South Bend Cubs infielder Austin Upshaw, now at Class-Ad advanced Myrtle Beach. Upshaw kept it simple — just find the base. Young did. While teammates took batting practice Wednesday afternoon, he worked for 30 minutes fielding grounders and finding first. He even made a sweet scoop of a low throw from third.
It looked like he’d been at the spot for years, not days.
“When they said try it at first, absolutely,” Young said. “Why not? I’ll head on over there. As long as I’m in the lineup, put me anywhere.”
Have bat, will travel
Anywhere and everywhere also describes Young’s baseball journey. It’s taken him from being a high school hockey goalie — after all, he is Canadian — who passed on the country’s pastime at age 15 to living with four South Bend teammates in a house across the street from the University of Notre Dame.
Young still can’t believe that one. Living across from Notre Dame. Him. Them. Huh.
He played three years of college at three schools on three levels. He spent his freshman year at Division II Minot (N.D.) State, where he was a second team all-conference selection. How does someone from Western Canada end up in North Dakota?
“I’m not too sure,” Young said. “It was one of the offers that I got so I figured I would go there and try it out.”
Exploring the Plains was next. Young transferred to Connors State College in Warner, Okla. There, he smoked the opposing pitching with a ridiculous .480 batting average. That when Cowboys assistant coach Bobby Foreman called one of his friends, Old Dominion’s Chris Finwood and said, “I got a guy for you.”
Next stop for Young was Norfolk, Va. In his one season at ODU, he led the Monarchs in 11 offensive categories, including batting average (.367), runs (57), hits (83) and total bases (131) to earn third team Division I All-American honors.
“He’s always been able to hit; I think he was born swinging the bat,” Finwood said. “We hated to lose him. I think the world of him.”
Success at each of those three stops gave Young the confidence to try pro ball. No matter how far from home it took him. South Bend is 2,210 miles from Prince George.
“You just work your way up and keep trying to play the game wherever you can until they tell you that you can’t,” he said. “I felt like I got better at every level. I’ve had success at every level.
“I hope to just keep that going.”
Hot start aside, Young knows he’s going to cool. Maybe in the next series. Or next week. Or next home stand. It’s bound to happen. It just will. That’s baseball. On Wednesday, Young went 0-for-3, which snapped his four-game hit streak.
Regardless of how it’s going, Young has a set routine to turn everything off. The season’s so long, the games so many, that it can consume him 24/7 if he lets it.
The trick is not to let it, not through a 140-game schedule.
No matter what Young does at the plate or in the field on a given night, he’ll dwell on it only for as long as it takes to take a post-game shower. Once he shuts off the water, he shuts off being Jared Young the baseball player. He becomes Jared Young the son, who calls home to catch up with his parents. He’s Jared Young living a “normal life,” hanging with his roommates at their house. He’s not Jared Young, who just went 4-for-4 with four putouts, or Jared Young who may go 0-for-4 with four errors.
The next day is a new day. And a new game.
“You don’t get too high or too low,” Young said. “You’ve got to lock into what makes you good and try to keep that.”
