Father’s ‘tough love’ gave son boost into the majors
MESA, Ariz. — Matt Joyce’s dad, also named Matt, tried all kinds of ways to motivate his son as a youngster in the Tampa, Fla., area.
Dad would create little competitions — he’d park his truck behind the outfield wall during games and tell the younger Matt he’d pay him $100 if he hit the truck. The first time Joyce’s father did so, Joyce parked a homer right into the bed of the truck in his first at-bat.
More often, though, the elder Joyce could be heard yelling at his son, including the time he hollered, “You’re swinging like a girl!” at the top of his lungs from behind the plate. He turned around to see everyone in the stands staring at him. “Don’t worry,” he told the crowd. “You’ll see.”
The next time up, Joyce — now an A’s outfielder — hit one out.
“He’s a lot more mellow now, but I had to tell him and get mad at him in high school, because he was too much: ‘I
taught you better than that,’ stuff like that,” said Joyce, 32, who signed a two-year deal with Oakland this winter. “Tough love, you know.”
The older Joyce (the two have different middle names) had a plan for his son. He didn’t want Matt to wind up like him: giving up baseball to work a bluecollar job. As a single father, he wanted more for Matt and his sister, Danielle.
After all, he’d fought for them. When Matt was a baby and his sister was 3, his mother, dealing with substance-abuse issues, up and left with the kids.
“His mother got into some bad stuff and she cleaned me out. She didn’t even leave me a washcloth, and she tried to take the kids away from me,” the elder Joyce said. “I had to get a court order and go to New Jersey to get them back.”
The younger Joyce recalled living with his grandmother, Patricia Klein, at times, but said, “My dad basically raised us, and I became very close with my sister Danielle because my mother wasn’t around too much. So she was the motherly figure and very protective of her little brother. We’re still very close. Without them, I’d be a totally different person. They kept me in check.”
With little ones to look after, the elder Joyce, who’d had a tryout with the Reds as a pitcher, had to channel his love for baseball into softball leagues, in which he made $500 for a weekend. He became a local legend, nicknamed “Hammer,” playing until he was 48.
During the week, he worked as a carpenter at construction sites, then later drove a tractortrailer and finally was in beer distribution. He’d occasionally bring his son with him to help deliver beer, raising eyebrows when shoppers saw a 13-yearold wheeling around cases and kegs. But it drove home a point.
“One day, Matt said, ‘I don’t know how you can do this, it’s tiresome,’ and I said, ‘Would you rather do this or hit baseballs?’ ” his dad said. “Something clicked then, and I saw a change.
“I was pretty tough on him, but I wanted him to have an easier life than I did, to put it mildly. I didn’t want him swinging a hammer or up on a roof.”
The younger Matt is righthanded, but his dad is a lefty who taught his son to bat lefthanded because it was easier for him to demonstrate. And the younger Joyce says he got much of his on-base savvy from his father, who told him “Good hitters hit good pitches.” In 2014, while with Tampa Bay, he became the first American League player since Rickey Henderson to walk five times in one game, and last season, Joyce set a big-league record for pinch-hit walks, with 21.
“I’ll take any record I can get, for sure,” he said. “Hey, you’re on base. Same result as a hit.”
Joyce began his big-league career with Detroit in 2008 and spent the next six years with his hometown Rays, making the All-Star team in 2011. In 2015, however, he had a disastrous season after being traded to the Angels, batting .174 in 73 games, so that winter he worked with hitting coach Craig Wallen-brock and then Bobby Tewksbury, who has helped hone Josh Donaldson’s swing.
“He was cutting across the zone, using his shoulders too much to create his swing direction,” Tewksbury said. “His bat was pulling to right field too much. One of the first things I told him was, ‘You’re an All-Star. It’s not like you’re not capable of that.’ He’s very openminded and he wants to be the player he’s capable of being.”
“It’s just learning how the bat works with the body most efficiently,” Joyce said. “I’m still learning; it’s something you never really figure out.”
After watching some videos of his best early seasons and working on some timing and swing-path issues, Joyce played in the Dominican Republic and then signed a minor-league deal with the Pirates. He put up a career-high .403 on-base percentage and .866 OPS, numbers that helped persuade the A’s to give him a two-year, $11 million deal.
“I was really impressed with him last year in Pittsburgh,” said Joyce’s former Tampa Bay manager, the Cubs’ Joe Maddon. “It look like he redefined his swing a little bit, and he’s usually good out of the chute in the first half, but it looked like he was having better results toward the latter part of the season.
“I thought he was very dangerous in Pittsburgh last year, and I think this is going to be a fruitful addition for the A’s — he looked as good to me at the end of last year as when he was at his best with the Rays.
”I really anticipate a good year out of him, I think he’ll be superb. He’s an outstanding addition for the A’s.” Tuesday’s game: A’s vs. Diamondbacks, at Scottsdale, 12:10 p.m.