| Page 2 of 5 < > |
Embracing the Momentum
First baseman Dmitri Young, who will represent the Nationals at Tuesday's All-Star Game, has had an up-and-down career.
(By Ricky Carioti -- The Washington Post)
TOOLBOX
   Resize
COMMENT
 Discussion Policy
 CLOSE
Comments that include profanity or personal attacks or other inappropriate comments or material will be removed from the site. Additionally, entries that are unsigned or contain "signatures" by someone other than the actual author will be removed. Finally, we will take steps to block users who violate any of our posting standards, terms of use or privacy policies or any other policies governing this site. Please review the full rules governing commentaries and discussions. You are fully responsible for the content that you post.
Who's Blogging  |
At times, Dmitri would take 100 swings or so, then complain about being tired.
"We got 100 more swings," Larry Young would say. "You better get on the other side."
So Dmitri became a switch hitter. He is to this day. He enters the All-Star Game hitting .365 from the right side, .330 from the left.
"He was a masher from both sides of the plate," said Robert Fick, a Nationals teammate now, an opponent in high school way back when. "Just an absolute stud."
Wayward Son
That's what he was supposed to be, at least. But the pain of his son's unrealized potential first hit Larry Young in the years after the St. Louis Cardinals made Dmitri the fourth pick in the 1991 draft. He was supposed to rocket to the majors. Instead, he rose slowly. Baseball America, Dmitri remembers now, had him listed as a "has-been" at 21.
"I questioned whether I'd make it," Dmitri Young said. "I wasn't exactly taking the game serious, not really working out or trying to be in any sort of baseball shape."
He was coasting, going out with friends until all hours, flailing his way through more than two years in Class AA. There was no off-field supervision, no one to keep his thumb on Dmitri, who badly needed the restraints of home. The routine by that point was familiar: He would come home in the winter, tell his dad he was going to work out, and lie around instead. He would arrive at spring training not to compete for a job, but to get in shape.
"To tell you the truth, it was extremely depressing," Larry Young said. "When he was in high school, the focus was on a process -- you need to do these things to be able to get where you want to go. But once he got out on his own, he was out from under me, and he just kind of backed off. That was sort of frustrating that I couldn't get through to him to get him to apply himself."
So Dmitri Young was wayward. In summer 1995, while playing for the Arkansas Travelers, Young and fellow outfielder Keith Jones were being taunted by fans in Wichita. "They said they were yelling 'Pork Chop,' " Young says now. "But it was racial slurs."
Young, 21 years old, had a moment to decide what to do.
"It was one of those things where either you let it slide," Young said, "or you do something and pay the consequences."
After the game, Young and Jones did something. They went into the stands. Young punched a man, breaking his glasses. He was thrown to the ground by a mob. Jones entered, wielding a bat. He whacked another man in the back. The next day, they were suspended by the Texas League.
