Hernandez could see greatness in Correa
Dodgers utility man got a first-hand look before the Astros shortstop was a star.
Dodgers utility man Enrique Hernandez was a firstyear professional ballplayer when he met Carlos Correa, and he remembers it well.
It was long before Correa became the star shortstop of the Houston Astros.
The Astros selected Hernandez in the sixth round of the 2009 draft. When he returned home to Puerto Rico for the winter, they forbade him from playing winter ball, so he sought ways to practice hitting.
One place he went was to the practice of the teenage travel-ball team coached by his father, Enrique Hernandez Sr.
Before the team showed up, Hernandez and a fellow first-year Puerto Rican pro did front-toss drills, thrown by a Boston Red Sox scout.
In front toss, the thrower stands far closer than in batting practice. Hernandez said he and his friend were hitting grounders and low liners into the outfield. After a while, Correa, then 15, arrived and tapped into the drill.
“All of the sudden,” Hernandez recalled, “this kid starts hitting balls out of the stadium.”
The balls flew off his bat to both sides of the field, through the power alleys in the major-league-sized stadium.
“We decided to stop hitting because this kid was embarrassing us,” Hernandez said.
Hernandez had heard of Correa before then. He said his father, then a Pittsburgh Pirates scout, continually mentioned a particular teenage talent he was coaching. Hernandez said he thought it was “cute” that his father was such a fan of a pupil.
“It wasn’t until that day, when I saw his action, that I was like, ‘Yeah, this guy’s going to be something,’ ” Hernandez said. “You could tell at a very early age he was a very special talent.”
Not so long later, Correa already is something. He just turned 23 last month and is already a veteran of 21⁄2 major league seasons, has won the rookie-of-theyear award and been an AllStar. During this regular season, he batted .315 with 24 home runs and 84 runs batted in.
Correa does not recall meeting Hernandez until November 2012, when they played together on Puerto Rico’s Gigantes De Carolina winter league team. They now know each other well, having been World Baseball Classic teammates this spring. Their significant others became friends.
Correa said Hernandez’s father threw many hours of batting practice to him when he was a teenager and hit just as many ground balls. He thanked the elder Hernandez when Houston made him the No. 1 overall pick in the 2012 MLB draft.
“He’s a great man, and I learned so much from him,” Correa said. “His experience and his help meant a lot to me.”
The Astros were off the night of the fifth National League Championship Series game. Correa watched the Dodgers finish off the Chicago Cubs from his Houston home. When Hernandez hit his third homer in that game, Correa said he leaped off his couch.
“I couldn’t believe it,” Correa said. “It’s historic. For a Puerto Rican to do something like that, especially now, when a lot of people in Puerto Rico need things like that to happen for them to have a little bit of happiness through these tough times, it was awesome.”