Andy Hargrove is hitting the baseball like his dad once did.
The 23-year-old first baseman went into the weekend batting .331 for the Seattle Mariners’ rookie-level team in Peoria, Ariz., leading the Arizona League with a .484 on-base percentage and 28 doubles, and ranking third with a .517 slugging percentage.
It’s been a good start to a pro career.
If only Dad could see it for himself.
In Seattle, where Mike Hargrove manages the major league Mariners, he tracks Andy’s progress through organizational reports and occasional phone calls from his son. It’s been that way for a while.
“Since he was 18 years old, I’ve seen him play five games,” Mike Hargrove said.
Ironic for a father-son relationship that blossomed because of baseball, the two are now separated because of it.
Andy grew up in Cleveland, where Mike managed the Indians, and he spent considerable time with his father during spring training and the regular season.
“It was a great way to grow up because I was able to be with him at the ballpark,” Andy Hargrove said.
That upbringing helped make the kid a good player.
He lettered four years at St. Ignatius High in Cleveland, then starred at Yavapai College (Ariz.), where he ranked third in the nation among junior college players with 23 home runs.
Mike Hargrove didn’t see a game that year, or since.
His duties as a major league manager keep him busy every day from February through September.
“I got to see him play one time his senior year of high school, two games his freshman year in college, two games his sophomore year, and no games the rest of the time,” Mike Hargrove said.
That was supposed to change last year, when Mike Hargrove had the first free spring and summer of his baseball career after being fired as manager of the Baltimore Orioles. He worked for the Indians as an assistant to the general manager, giving him plenty of time to watch Andy play.
“I was really looking forward to going to all his games,” Mike Hargrove said. “I was going to travel around the country with him and watch him play.”
That never happened.
After playing at Yavapai, Andy Hargrove attended Oral Roberts University in Tulsa, where he became a first-team Mid Continent Conference selection. He also became a casualty to weak academics and lost his eligibility.
In 2004, during the one spring that Mike Hargrove had free time and planned to travel and watch his son, he couldn’t play.
“I’m not sure if I was more (ticked) or he was more (ticked),” Mike Hargrove said.
Andy Hargrove transferred to Kent State, sat out a year and played this past season, with less-than-appealing results. He batted .271, eighth best on the team, with three home runs and 24 RBI.
Mike Hargrove, of course, couldn’t see a bit of it, having taken the Mariners’ managing job.
Because of the Mariners, however, they are back together in a way.
Mike Hargrove still hasn’t seen Andy play, although they’re now in the same organization after the Mariners selected Andy in the 47th round of the June draft and assigned him to their team in Peoria.
“Coming from a baseball family, he’s got a good concept of what he needs to do at the professional level,” said Andy Bottin, hitting coach at Peoria.
Homesickness and that baseball pedigree became suffocating during Andy Hargrove’s first week as a professional.
“He had a lot of strikeouts early on, and I think that was more a matter of trying to show he belonged and that he wasn’t here because of his dad,” Bottin said. “We talked about that.”
So did father and son.
After just a few days in Peoria, Andy Hargrove called his dad and said he wanted to come home.
“I told him that going home was not an option,” Mike Hargrove said. “I told him this was something he wanted to do all his life. The Mariners had drafted him and given him some money, and he owed it to them and himself to stick it out this year and see if he liked it.”
When they talked a week later, Andy was as happy as he had been depressed before, Mike Hargrove said.
“That’s normal for kids who come out,” Mike Hargrove said. “He was looking around thinking he’d be there for two months with nobody around to tell him they loved him. It could have been worse. He could have been stuck in Yuma.”
The summer has turned out fine for Andy Hargrove. He’s one of the hitting leaders not only for the Peoria Mariners, but in the Arizona League. And he likes it.
“There are good guys here and I’m having fun,” he said. “It was different than what I expected. I can’t tell you why it felt that way, but it was just different.”
Bottin said Hargrove’s teammates have accepted him for who he is, a ballplayer, and as the son of a big-league manager.
“At times he puts some pressure on himself, but we just remind him, ‘You are who you are,’ “Bottin said. “He’s having fun and he’s relaxed.”
If only Dad could see it for himself.
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