Live from Opening Day: Heyward homers his first time up!
April 5, 2010: Jason Heyward at the cage. "He's the real deal," Chipper said. (Photo by M. Bradley)
Bobby Cox couldn’t think of a suitable antecedent. Neither could Terry Pendleton. Neither could Chipper Jones, who was himself a rookie of immense promise.
“The media spotlight is 10, 20 times bigger than it was even 10 years ago,” Jones said, and that’s true.
When Jason Heyward picked up a bat and walked to the cage Monday, he took in his wake a camera crew and two still photographers. And when he, on his sixth practice swing — actually his fourth full swing, the first two having been bunts — he hoisted a delivery from China Cadahia over the fence in right-center, a writer who has been covering the Braves since 1984 (i.e., me) felt compelled to note it.
“Everyone who gets here has talent,” said Pendleton, the Braves’ hitting coach, speaking as he watched Heyward take his pregame swings. “What’s impressive about him is the way he carries himself, the way he goes about his business.”
Said Chipper: “He’s the real deal.”
Having been here these past 26 years, I can say with some measure of authority that there has never been a Braves rookie whose Opening Day debut has stirred such anticipation. Chipper was a September call-up in 1993. Andruw Jones arrived in August 1996. John Smoltz, Steve Avery and Tommy Hanson were midseason promotions.
Bottom line: There aren’t many rookies who ever make their first big-league start on Opening Day, and there have been few in the history of the sport whose advent has been a bigger deal than Heyward’s. Think not? Just click on this link and you’ll find a story by Ben McGrath in the The New Yorker, which isn’t to be confused with Baseball Digest, on Jason Heyward.
“We had Rafael Furcal start on Opening Day,” Cox said, “and he was 19.” Or thereabouts, someone noted.
“Sometimes 19, sometimes 22,” Cox said, laughing.
And Rafael Furcal, however old he was, wound up being the 2000 Rookie of the Year. If the projections for Heyward are accurate, he’ll win the 2010 ROY award and then the MVP before 2015. You wonder if the wattage of this spotlight will prove too great for any 20-year-old, but everyone who has been around Jason Heyward makes the same point: He’s not just another 20-year-old. He’s different. He’s special.
And we’ll be here all afternoon and into the evening to see how he fares. Join me for this august occasion. (Though technically it’s April. I made a little joke.) I’ll be obliged if you did.
Update: On cue, Jason Heyward hit a home run his first time up. Off Carlos Zambrano. Three-run shot way back into the bullpen in right-center. Crushed it. Whoa.
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475 comments Add your comment
Eman
April 5th, 2010
4:54 pm
It’s just one game but I like want I see so far!! Can these Braves make the playoffs?
ChipNdip
April 5th, 2010
4:54 pm
That was a seminal Braves moment, hes different than Francoeur, you can just tell. To hit it off someone like Zambrano no less makes it more remarkable
DTC
April 5th, 2010
4:54 pm
Guess who won’t be winning the ERA title this year!!
Let's go highbrow for a moment (for the Tech crowd)
April 5th, 2010
4:54 pm
Try to raise the level of discourse and look what happens…
01HAWK
April 5th, 2010
4:54 pm
Once again the Braves seem to score alot of runs for DLOWE, but seem to not score many for the other pitchers. Hard to explain. No wonder he won 15 games last year.
kyle
April 5th, 2010
4:54 pm
My gut tells me this is going to be a special year fellas….
Biff Pocoroba
April 5th, 2010
4:55 pm
Lol, hopefully no fight today….have the Cubbies taken a good long look at Heyward?
.
Say Hey-ward Kid
April 5th, 2010
4:55 pm
depending on who he faces in his next few starts, Mark, that ERA might not go down much
Atlanta Chamber of Commerce
April 5th, 2010
4:55 pm
Two homeruns for the Atlanta teams, both by Atlanta natives. Three in the game, all by Atlanta natives.
Mark Bradley
April 5th, 2010
4:55 pm
Glaus strikes out again. He has made 40 percent of the Braves’ outs
wow
April 5th, 2010
4:56 pm
Glaus looks over matched again
WormBurner
April 5th, 2010
4:56 pm
Wow! I was gonna hammer on D. Lowe but the Braves offense has taken the heat off. Home Runs crushed by Heyward and McCann so far..nice!
Mike
April 5th, 2010
4:56 pm
Two strikeouts for Glaus…. nice job Wren
Atlanta Chamber of Commerce
April 5th, 2010
4:56 pm
New slogan: Atlanta – Power generated here
Say Hey-ward Kid
April 5th, 2010
4:56 pm
01HAWK, hope they give KK some runs this year
and maybe we’ll get many more KK/Doc H matchups this year, that was fun to watch last year.
01HAWK
April 5th, 2010
4:56 pm
Is the FREEMAN kid ready yet ? Troy Glaus looks like a AA player in the majors.
Mark Bradley
April 5th, 2010
4:57 pm
Chamber of Commerce, are you saying you don’t care for, “This is Braves country.”
AJC plug for free
April 5th, 2010
4:57 pm
In light of today’s story in the AJC, maybe it’s time to send Glaus to the glue factory.
Phil
April 5th, 2010
4:58 pm
Glaus…what a stud!
Nutty Fan
April 5th, 2010
4:58 pm
Told you Glaus is a bust. Feasts on spring training pitching, can’t do anything when the season starts.
Chris Miller
April 5th, 2010
4:58 pm
Fight? If the Cubs threw at Heyward in his next AB, they’d be scrambling up at Dobbins.
kyle
April 5th, 2010
4:58 pm
I guess ya’ll forgot what Glaus in spring training. 2 at bats doesnt make a season. Let him play atleast half a game first…..geez
Say Hey-ward Kid
April 5th, 2010
4:58 pm
I think Mac is going to have a huge year
Mark Bradley
April 5th, 2010
4:58 pm
On the other hand, Heyward has not done much if you take away the three-run home run to put the Braves ahead.
Scoots
April 5th, 2010
4:59 pm
Jason Heyward: Putting the fear of god in pitchers since 2010.
Killer 81
April 5th, 2010
4:59 pm
Didn’t a certain Jeff Fran. do the same thing when he started ? We saw where that ended up….Good luck to this “kid” and for Bobby for keeping him around for his fairwell season.
Atlanta Chamber of Commerce
April 5th, 2010
4:59 pm
There’s room for many slogans, except, “One Wild and Crazy Summer.”
01HAWK
April 5th, 2010
4:59 pm
Is it my imagination or does it seem like Escobar is moving better this year. Came close to beating out that grounder to 3rd base. He looks trimmer.
kyle
April 5th, 2010
5:00 pm
If I remember correctly Jordan “HGH” Shaeffer also hit a homerrun in his first at bat, as did Frenchy…
thadd
April 5th, 2010
5:01 pm
yea
Aaron
April 5th, 2010
5:01 pm
I think it is a little early to start bashing on Glaus. No one wants to be that one guy who doesn’t get a hit in a blow out, but someone has to. I think he will turn it around.
lanier
April 5th, 2010
5:01 pm
Mark I’ve been here since 71 and these were the sports guys for the 2 papers. It was a great time to read about sports in Atl. Flames were here and they were good and full of characters.
Bisher – the best pure sports guy of all time in ATL
Jesse Outlar – best remembered as getting SHOT outside Atl stadium. avg writer
Frank Hyland – pretty good writer but kinda of a drunk lived at Manual’s Tavern
Hudspeth- super guy and a lot of fun. knew him and Lizzard. both entertaining in public as you could be then. He had entertaining columns
Grizzard- fair sports writer and a fun guy early on. bought a DeLoran to show off. after finding big sucess after sports kinda became a pain. Thought he was a star, hell maybe he was but sure felt that way about himself in person
Mark Bradley
April 5th, 2010
5:02 pm
Schafer hit a home run in his first game but not the first time up.
thadd
April 5th, 2010
5:02 pm
mark, real quick i told you duke was gonna win the title
Mark Bradley
April 5th, 2010
5:02 pm
Actually, it was “One Crazy Summer.”
Scoots
April 5th, 2010
5:02 pm
So, for those saying Francouer, Shaeffer and others hit homers their first at-bats: what’s your point?
Newbomb Turk
April 5th, 2010
5:02 pm
I told my co-workers that if J-Hey hit a homer his 1st at bat, that I would pull down my pants. Well it is moon over Oakwood, baby!!!
thadd
April 5th, 2010
5:03 pm
huh
Mark Bradley
April 5th, 2010
5:04 pm
And Francoeur did not hit a home run in his first AB. He hit it in the eighth inning, if I remember.
Reality Check
April 5th, 2010
5:04 pm
Kyle – Frenchy didnt hit one in his first at bat. He did however hit one in his first game.
Atlanta Chamber of Commerce
April 5th, 2010
5:04 pm
And Jim Varney’s dead.
Coach (2011 or Bust)
April 5th, 2010
5:04 pm
Three run bomb, two run bomb…..Bobby ball at it’s best! Now if the pitching will hold up for a few more innings we can all celebrate an opening day win for the second year in a row.
YJ09
April 5th, 2010
5:05 pm
Tyler, But Frenchy did it on his third at bat I believe.
Mark Bradley
April 5th, 2010
5:05 pm
Not over yet. Aramis Ramirez with a two-run blast.
01HAWK
April 5th, 2010
5:06 pm
DLOWE does it again. HE IS WORTHLESS
the mook
April 5th, 2010
5:06 pm
d. lowe sure does want to make sure this game is close.
maybe he just wants to give heyward another chance to be the hero.
Chris Miller
April 5th, 2010
5:06 pm
I thought one of the cooler things about Heyward’s homer was how excited McDonough got. I was beginning to feel for the guy after hearing the disdain in his voice while calling another Tuesday night Western Michigan-Toledo scrimmage in a monsoon.
(ticked off) atlwolf
April 5th, 2010
5:06 pm
AND I FREAKING HAD TO MISS IT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! DAMMIT, WHY DID I HAVE TO HAVE CLASS DURING THE GAME?????
lanier
April 5th, 2010
5:07 pm
Mark if you want a good short column go to TJ’S and get Tim to tell you about playing for Boom Boom on the Flames. Especially his pregame instructions on how to win the game
Say Hey-ward Kid
April 5th, 2010
5:07 pm
… Braves might need 15 in order to win