It was a chilly spring night in Des Moines, Iowa, last Friday.
The devoted fans in the stands at Principal Park were bundled up to watch their Iowa Cubs, the AAA-minor league farm team for Major League Baseball’s Chicago Cubs, tangle with the Toledo Mud Hens.
Prince George’s Jared Young stepped to the plate in the bottom of the eighth inning with the bases loaded and one out, his Cubs locked in a 1-1 tie with the Mud Hens.
He swung at the first pitch.
The ball landed in the Des Moines River, 431 feet from home plate and well past the centre field wall. Cubs win 5-1.
Along with the double he hit earlier in the game, it was a nice night’s work for the 26-year-old Young, by far Prince George’s most successful male baseball player ever.
Young’s slow but steady rise to now just one step from the Major Leagues has been the result of hard work, resilience, commitment, and a positive attitude.
And ample doses of both good and bad luck.
His good luck was devoted parents (his mom Dana is one of our advertising representatives here at the Citizen) who have enthusiastically supported him from the very first time he picked up a bat as a youngster here in Prince George. The encouragement from friends, family and coaches fostered a competitive drive, a passion to get better and a dream to play at the highest level.
His bad luck? Growing up in Prince George. If he had grown up in the United States, he would have played a lot more baseball as a boy, he would have had far more opportunities to develop and he would have been identified for his talent and potential much earlier.
Three nights before Young’s heroics in Des Moines, Vladimir Guerrero Jr. of the Toronto Blue Jays hit three home runs in a single game in New York’s Yankee Stadium. Young’s homer travelled further than two of Vladdy’s dingers, by the way. Both Vladdy and teammate Bo Bichette are the polar opposites of Young. Their dads were longtime, hugely successful Major Leaguers (Guerrero Senior is in the Hall of Fame), they grew up playing the game and were given every opportunity to succeed.
Guerrero Jr. or Bichette have worked hard for their success. The sons of world-class athletes have a significant step up on everyone else to also become top athletes but nothing is guaranteed and surprisingly few of them are able to follow in their father’s footsteps.
But rooting for Young is to root for the underdog, the player who comes out of nowhere, keeps succeeding, despite the odds and the obstacles, and keeps knocking on the door for serious consideration to play at the next level.
His post-game interview last Saturday night is telling. When asked if he hit the weights, bulked up and worked on his home run swing in the off-season, Young politely but firmly said no. He tried that a few years ago, after the Chicago Cubs named him their minor league player of the year, and his numbers at the plate tanked. He learned his lesson and now he’s back to basics, stepping up to the plate each time looking to make “just” good contact on the ball. The “just” is important – the pitch he hit out of the park last Friday came in at 92 miles per hour.
Specifically, he just wanted to hit a flyball far enough into the outfield so even if it was caught, his teammate on third base could tag up and race home for the go-ahead run. He had faced that pitcher once before and knew if he fell behind in the count, his chances of being successful would fall. He went to the plate with a plan, got a first pitch he liked and put the bat on the ball.
Top athletes, from Young to Guerrero Jr. and Bichette, are keenly aware that you have to be good to be lucky, meaning all of the advance mental and physical preparation gives you a better chance of exploiting the random opportunities for success that arise over the course of every game.
The baseball season is long. If Young stays healthy, keeps swinging a hot bat and takes care of business on the defensive side of the ball playing first base and in the outfield, he’ll have a chance to get called up to the big-league Cubs later this year. But for that happen, several players in Chicago will have to be injured to warrant the move.
Some good luck. Some bad luck.
The only thing Young can do is keep working and be ready for his big chance to hit another home run that, instead of landing in a river, would leave Wrigley Field and bounce off the pavement on Waveland Avenue in downtown Chicago.
