Kris Bryant's All-Star homer came from another of his dad's lessons
SAN DIEGO — When the ball hit the bat, everybody knew it was gone. Chris Sale, who threw the pitch, knew. Kris Bryant, whose bat connected with the pitch, knew.
And sitting over in section 114 of Petco Park, Mike Bryant, who a few hours earlier predicted all this, knew too.
It was a first pitch fastball from Sale and Bryant blasted it off the scoreboard in left field, the first run of Tuesday night’s MLB All-Star game. Just as quickly as that ball flew out of the ballpark, Mike Bryant flew out of his seat. He started dancing in the aisle, shouting and hugging the people next to him.
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Take him out of the context of a baseball game, and you’d think, “That’s a man who just won the lottery.” But when you see his Chicago Cubs cap and Bryant across the back of his jersey, it makes a lot more sense. That’s a man who just watched his son hit a first-pitch homer in the first inning of the first All-Star game he started. For Mike Bryant, that’s almost like the lottery.
You know what made it even better? His son listened to him.
The two of them had arrived at the ballpark hours earlier, stepping off one of the trucks that paraded them through the streets of downtown San Diego. Like he has almost every day since Kris was 5, Mike had some hitting advice to offer his son.
“Listen to me,” Mike said. “Sale is going to throw you a fastball on the first pitch. Hit it out of the park.”
“No, Dad,” Kris told him. “I’m taking the first pitch.”
That’s what the scouting reports said he should do, Kris explained. And besides, he hadn’t had any success any Sale in his career — 0-for-6 with six strikeouts.
“It doesn’t matter today,” Mike told his son. Look for the first pitch and hit it out.”
A few hours later, as the American League was putting away the final outs in a 4-2 win, Bryant had been pulled from the game and sat down with a smile on his face.
“Obviously,” he told a room of reporters. “I should listen to my dad.”
Mike Bryant was a ninth-round draft pick in 1980 by the Red Sox. He played two years in their minor-league system before his pro career fizzled out. But he couldn’t quit baseball. So he became a hitting instructor in Las Vegas. Kris eventually became his star pupil, setting home-run records after hours upon hours of practice in their home batting cage.
Mike looks at Ted Williams as the deity of hitting. He’s studied Williams’ book “The Science of Hitting” for 40 years. When he was with in Red Sox organization, he learned directly from Williams, who was a roving instructor at the time. Mike Bryant came away with two lessons that shouldn’t be a surprise if you’ve watched his son play baseball: Hit the ball hard. Hit the ball in the air. So it was that a 5-year-old Kris Bryant starting hitting baseballs around 130 feet, and from there, they just kept flying.
As son tears up the big leagues, dad still keeps the cage open at home. He teaches private lessons, something he’s been doing for years. He taught Texas Rangers slugger Joey Gallo since he was a 7-year-old. Eventually, Joey and Kris were punishing opposing pitchers together on travel-ball teams.
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Things are a bit different these days, obviously. Kris isn’t just one of the best home-run hitters in Las Vegas. He’s one of the best in the world. At the All-Star break, he’s a legit MVP candidate with 25 homers, the most in the NL, for the first-place Cubs. Though Kris works with some of the best minds in baseball, he still gets advice from his dad.
“He always talks to me,” Mike said. “He’s learning from me and I’m learning from him now.”
When Kris was told in his press conference that his dad went nuts after the home run, he chuckled.
“I’m sure he did,” Bryant said. “He’s the best dad I could ask for. He’s always cheering loud. Sometimes I have to calm him down a bit.”
Mike was waiting for Kris when he walked out of his press conference, as were his mom, Sue, his fiancé, Jessica and her family. Kris posed for a few pictures and handed his dad a cap, which Mike promptly bent and put on his head.
Then the cameras returned. They wanted to talk to Kris again. Mike stepped to the side, beaming as the lights flash on his son.
His phone buzzed again. He’d counted 56 text messages since Kris hit that homer. That was another one.
“I love all this,” Mike said.
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Mike Oz is the editor of Big League Stew on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at mikeozstew@yahoo.com or follow him on Twitter! Follow @MikeOz
