Boston Red Sox shortstop Trevor Story has some great plans for his next off-season. In fact, the 30-year-old intends to create a training camp for Red Sox infield prospects and it will all be held at his home in his native Texas.
So where did this original idea come from? When he was a minor league prospect in the Colorado Rockies organization, none other than Troy Tulowitzki held a camp like this for him.
pay it forward
So Boston’s star player wants to reproduce what Tullo created several years ago. At that time, the former Rockies star, who later wore a Blue Jays as well as Yankees uniform, invited Story to his Las Vegas home. The latter was a top prospect for Colorado Ally and Tulowitzki had taken him under his wing, so to speak.
The Sox’s number 10 has an amazing memory. According to him, this is the thing that had the biggest impact on him during his teenage life. For a week, he was taught how to train like a professional player, to become not only a star player, but one of the best players at his position. Apparently, it worked well, because a few years later, Tulowitzki was traded to Toronto to make room for rookie Story, who was holding his own within the club’s hierarchy.
camp story
It’s undeniable that players like Marcelo Meyer, the eleventh-best prospect in MLB, as well as Nick York, the team’s 2020 first-round selection and sixth-best player in the organization, will receive invitations. Meyer and York play shortstop and second base, respectively, and represent the future of the club in the infield. It is certain that such a winter camp can only be beneficial for both, especially in terms of on-the-ground togetherness, work ethic and relational complexity.
In fact, unlike the private camp to which the main interested party in this text was entitled, it seeks to invite as many people as possible. He may also plan to extend the invitation to hitters. Why? Because the story just loves being a hit!
The tone of the story is very noble and generous and says a lot about the quality of the person it symbolizes. This raises the question of whether more such mentoring initiatives should be in place not just in baseball, but across professional sports more broadly.
- Ricky Tiedemann in AAA.
- Player of the week.