During the winter, when Fernando Tatis Jr. was not working to try to achieve his goal of becoming the best baseball player in history, he spent his free time working on his farms in the Dominican Republic. He rode horses and fed chickens, cared for lemons and hunted ducks. Tatis Jr. could be the flourishing face of baseball – his 14-year, $ 340 million contract with the San Diego Padres was formalized on Feb. 22 – but he’s very happy to get dirty doing such tasks from time to time. Several times this season, Tatis Jr. found himself crouched in the ground, milking the cows.
If the idea of pawning on the Tatis Jr. playing field confuses you, well, get ready for more. It’s not just about swag and dreadlocks. If 2019 was the introduction and 2020 the break, 2021 is ready to be the Year of Tatis Jr – the full flowering of an amazing talent whose appeal draws far beyond baseball. Not to mention Mike Trout, who still holds the title of Best Player on the Planet, or Juan Soto, who quickly secures the best batter on the planet, or Mookie Betts, who has demonstrated his ability to make a whole month when he stole October.
It is one of those moments when everything aligns perfectly: the player, the team, the weather. There will be triumphs and there will be impediments and everything is part of the hero’s journey, which, when imposed on a 22-year-old, may seem a little premature. It can be. It probably is. But then, Tatis Jr. is here, with all these things, because when he is presented with other challenges, other burdens, he has overcome them. And with each conquest comes a little more, this time, winning the first Padres championship or their first MVP award or doing the kind of things that only great players can do historically.
Before that, he needed some time to return to the place where he grew up, San Pedro de Macoris, the beach where he trains and the very modest gym where he lifts weights, to the rivers all over the country where he swims in search. of waterfalls. At the basics, like that inimitable feeling of dipping your hands into the ground and knowing that even in the middle of something dirty, you can find something beautiful.
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It’s a great time to be a baseball fan. It’s not just Tatis, Trout, Soto and Betts. Ronald Acuña Jr. shares qualities with all four. Luis Robert and Tim Anderson have their own dynamism. Jacob deGrom and Gerrit Cole are fighting for the supremacy of the mound as the Mets and Yankees rise. Wander Franco is coming. The Padres and Los Angeles Dodgers could be the top two teams in baseball, playing 19 times this season and hopefully more in October. Bryce Harper, Aaron Judge, Francisco Lindor and Christian Yelich are suddenly old bosses. Yelich is the most wrinkled in the group at 29 years old.
It is also a very scary time to be a baseball fan. For the first time in a quarter of a century, work disorders are imminent. This is not pessimism. Signs are everywhere. In talks with player associations and league officials, with players and owners. In the words of former Seattle Mariners president Kevin Mather, who, amid the shock of a discussion with a group of local Rotarians, said on the subject of labor relations: “I am very worried about what is to come in the future.” And in the changing market of free agents, the distrust of the parties towards each other and divergent opinions on the future of the sport.
Watching baseball in 2021, love baseball in 2021, does not require thinking about what will happen after 2021, of course. There is something powerful in enjoying the moment, something in the idea that if the sky fell, maybe those who did not panic would be the most enlightened, because they enjoy what they have in front of them.
It is not so easy for others either. There is anger, legitimate anger, righteous anger that this great game, these great players, can be kicked out for a precious time in their careers, a time when they could do miraculous things and they will not be able to, because of the fights for money. That a new generation of owners who do not understand the damage of a labor war is now leading teams and that this generation of players is so tired of losing in collective bargaining that a fight is the inevitable conclusion.
And if that is indeed the case, if the drums of labor discord sound beyond the expiration of the December 1 collective agreement, the accompanying music should be a wake-up call to enjoy the Year of Tatis. Jr., improves in bats and appreciates his bold field games and appreciates the way he leads the bases and fully adores him.
Tatis Jr. resonates with a wide crowd of people, and especially with a generation of children that baseball desperately needs, because that whole is equal to the sum of its parts, and each of those parts is exhilarating. No matter how hard Tatis Jr.’s attraction is, with every epic bat flipping and swinging 3-0 in a batting game, another little piece of baseball’s archaic past dies, substantial matches, even trump card style.
The best parts of Tatis Jr. do not come from an invented emotional reserve, but from a genuine passion for the game he plays, for the gifts that were given to him. He doesn’t throw his bat for GIFs; He does it because he plays with emotion and passion, and the last thing the sport should do is regulate it. He doesn’t swing 3-0 because he wants to set fire to the other team; He does it because sometimes a monolith deserves to fall and if he is the one who helps to remove the restrictions from the past in the game, he is not here to argue.
1:02
Fernando Tatís Jr. smiles in comparison to LeBron James and Patrick Mahomes.
Knowing what Tatis Jr. can do, knowing what he can be prevented from doing, could be the best reason for the union and the league to do everything in their power to avoid a work stoppage. Baseball certainly has its flaws, and those flaws are also worth an estimate. But if the collateral damage caused by this steals time from Tatis Jr., Trout, Soto, Betts, Acuña, Robert, Anderson, deGrom, Cole, Franco, Harper, Judge, Lindor, Yelich and many others, then it’s worth it to the last moment.flow of rage and rage that will accompany it.
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Fourteen years in sports is an eternity. In the 2007 season, 611 players from the position recorded at least one appearance on the board. Today, 11 of them are still under contract with a major league organization. So to understand what parents have done by hiring a player for almost a decade and a half, and to understand why Tatis Jr. would marry a team, you need to understand the player and how he thinks. .
That, more than anything he does on the field, more than his appearance, he could be the most beautiful thing at Tatis Jr. He could have hoped and pursued all the money and become so rich. He didn’t. However, this is not the commendable part. If someone like Tatis Jr. prioritizes money, he’s entitled.
No, Tatis Jr. turned San Diego’s faith in him, his support, with his. All the parents and their star illustrated that the relationship between the player and the team can be one of mutual respect, admiration and benefits. Padres did not manipulate Tatis Jr.’s service time, as Mather did with the sailors’ best prospect, Jarred Kelenic. San Diego never tried to change Tatis Jr. to end the most inflammatory parts of his game. His parents don’t make fun of him when he says he wants to be the greatest player of all time; They surround him with championship caliber players, because I understand that part of the calculation is the success of the team.
That’s how baseball can work. That’s how baseball should work. Young players, the essence of sports life, are paid proportionately and fairly. Teams trying to win are rewarded by players who appreciate the effort. Tatis Jr. really cares about baseball, its cultivation. In the off-season, after a season of MVP caliber, he played for Estrellas Orientales, his hometown team in the Dominican Winter League. Today’s stars don’t play winter ball. Tatis Jr. felt it was his duty. As much as he wants to be the best, his main goal is for everyone to say that Fernando Tatis Jr. loves baseball.
And look where he brought it. At 22, he is in the midst of the team’s current best rivalry with the Padres and Dodgers. He is in the middle of a fascinating conversation about who you would choose to start a franchise with: Tatis Jr., Soto or Acuña. He has rekindled his baseball discourse, although the truth is that no matter how much he embraces it, he doesn’t necessarily want it for himself. Baseball, he says, doesn’t need a single face.
Although, if he has one, he could do a lot worse than Tatis Jr. I don’t run away from responsibility. Sometimes it’s hard and other times it’s hard work, but he already knows: getting a little dirty is only part of the journey.