Daniels | Welcome to the show, Dylan Dodd

Apr. 4—BISMARCK — Karson Stevenson will probably feel like many baseball fans in east central Illinois on Tuesday night.

The Bismarck-Henning/Rossville-Alvin junior roots for the St. Louis Cardinals. And supports Dylan Dodd.

It's a win-win situation for the Dodd family, Stevenson, his Blue Devils teammates and all of east central Illinois on Tuesday night.

That's when Dodd, a 24-year-old left-handed pitcher and 2016 graduate of Bismarck-Henning, is set to make his Major League Baseball debut as the starting pitcher for the Atlanta Braves.

He'll have to slow down a Cardinals' lineup chock full of reigning NL MVP Paul Goldschmidt, Nolan Arenado, Willson Contreras and others. It's a far contrast from say, trying to stifle the Vermilion Valley Conference foes Dodd used to pitch against less than a decade ago. But Dodd made enough of an impression on the Braves' brass during spring training after climbing through the organization's minor league ranks in 2022 to earn this opportunity on Tuesday night.

One the small communities that make up his old alma mater, are embracing. The entire BHRA baseball team, coached by Dodd's father, Mark, is set to attend Tuesday night's game at Busch Stadium.

The high school sold tickets to the game late last week, and Mark said three buses of BHRA students are expected to make the trip, with countless other tickets being scooped up by Vermilion County residents. Keep an eye on a strong Blue Devils contingent down the third-base line on the first level at Busch Stadium.

"He should be well-represented," Mark said.

BHRA baseball assistant coach Michael Grant, who assumed head coaching responsibilities for the Blue Devils during Monday afternoon's game against Oakwood with Mark and his wife, Thea, en route to St. Louis, said the small Vermilion County school is essentially split between Cardinals and Cubs fans every MLB season.

But expect more Braves' talk in the hallways the rest of the school year.

"I think pretty much everyone here is a Braves fan now," said Owen Miller, a BHRA senior who is the Blue Devils' left fielder this spring.

Grant spent Sunday watching his favorite team, the Cubs, lose 9-5 to the Brewers at Wrigley Field, then Monday coaching the Blue Devils and plans to spend Tuesday making the trip to St. Louis.

"I like to visit a lot of MLB parks in the summer," Grant said, "but Dylan Dodd has got me in that routine before school ends this time, and that's OK with me."

Dylan officially found himself a part of the Braves' 40-man roster on Monday when Atlanta optioned fellow left-handed starting pitcher Jared Shuster and designated outfielder Jordan Luplow for assignment. Dodd found out March 26 when he would make his first MLB start when Braves manager Brian Snitker told he and Shuster in spring training in Florida they'd get a chance to start for the Braves in the first week of the season.

How did Dylan inform his parents that all of their lives were about to change that Sunday morning?

"That was actually pretty cool," Mark said. "My wife had just gotten home. She had gotten off a flight and had been in Florida at spring training. She got home around 1:30 in the morning. My younger son, Dawson, was home, and we all didn't go to bed until about 2:30.

"At 7:30, I get a phone call, and it kind of woke me up. It was Dylan, and of course, my heart jumped because you don't know if you're going to jump for joy or have to console. He was pretty cool about it. He said, 'Just wanted you guys to know my next start won't be until April 4.' And then he paused before he said, 'It's going to be in St. Louis.' That's when the screaming started."

Mark, the veteran BHRA football coach who started coaching the Blue Devils in the fall in 2007 and has coached the BHRA baseball team since 2014, admits he'll find himself in a varied state of emotions on Tuesday night in St. Louis.

"I am going to be a basket case," Mark said. "But when his game starts, I really try not to talk to anybody, focus and say little prayers. I'll just be a fan, be dad and hope that he can perform at his best so that this can continue on a little longer."

Dylan went a combined 12-9 with a 3.36 earned run average in 2022, making 26 starts in advanced Class A, Class AA and Class AAA. No matter the outcome on Tuesday night, Mark said he hopes whenever Dylan pitches again in the future, it becomes more of an everyday occurrence without all the attention surrounding it.

But the elder Dodd understands why so much hype is building around what his son is about to accomplish.

"This one has a lot of significance for everybody," Mark said. "That's what makes it even more special is we can share this. There's people that don't even know Dylan or don't know me who are in contact with me saying, 'Hey, I'm rooting for you son.' It just doesn't happen very much in a little place like this."

That is true.

Drive to the high school in Bismarck and miles of farmland greet you out the window. Drive just past the high school and a few cows in a field next to the elementary school greet you, with a few shops, a post office and a smattering of houses nearby.

That's about it. It's quite the different environment than what Dylan will experience Tuesday night, in the heart of downtown St. Louis with 40,000 fans watching his every move on the mound.

"This is the coach speak in me, but I told him when he was going to spring training, all those guys that are veterans, they're there to just get in shape," Mark said. "You're going to compete. You have to do something. You're the nobody from nowhere."

But how quickly Dylan Dodd has become a somebody.

Matt Daniels is the Sports Editor at The News-Gazette. He can be reached at 217-373-7422 or at mdaniels@news-gazette.com