After turbulence, prepared for takeoff
A’s Heathcott could be center fielder and aeronautical scholar
MESA, Ariz. — Walk into the A’s clubhouse at Hohokam Stadium most afternoons, and there will be one intenselooking young man sitting with a pile of textbooks, studying.
Outfielder Slade Heathcott, once one of the top prospects in the country, is in Oakland’s spring camp as a nonroster
Slade Heathcott, a 2009 first-round pick, has come a long way since high school, when he sometimes slept in his truck and nearly shot his stepfather.
invitee — and after a rough early life, he’s now covering his bases, working toward his next career, whenever that might be. He’s getting a degree in aeronautical science, with a minor in airport management, through Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University.
“I’ve always known that’s what I want to do after the game,” said Heathcott, who
got a pilot’s license in 2011. “I love flying — and I didn’t want my son to have an excuse not to go to school. I will say I believe school is not for everyone; lots of people go a different way. But I didn’t want him to have an excuse not to be better.”
Heathcott chose not to attend college out of high school — he signed with the Yankees after being drafted in the first round in 2009, turning down a scholarship to play baseball and football at LSU after playing tailback and linebacker at Texas High School in Texarkana, Texas.
He already had been through a lot by then: He was living on his own his junior and senior years, staying with friends, the school’s athletic director, and even sleeping in his truck at times. He got a DUI while in high school. And one night, aged just 16, he pointed a shotgun at his stepfather, Jeff Heathcott.
“Things got a little twisted at home,” Heathcott said. “My dad first started getting in trouble between my freshman and sophomore years, sometimes just not even showing up. I didn’t know what was going on. I was pretty clueless.”
After Jeff Heathcott was jailed for possession and, later, forgery, the younger Heathcott’s mother, Kimberley, began divorce proceedings. That didn’t end things, though.
“When my dad got out of jail, he owed people money and we had to move around a couple of times. There were restraining orders and things like that,” Heathcott said. “One night at the beginning of my junior year, I woke up and my mom said, ‘Hey, Jeff ’s at the door, I’m calling the police.’ I heard the banging and this was the fourth or fifth time it had happened. I always kept the shotgun right by my bed because of things like that, the kinds of people he was bringing around.”
In an effort to protect his mother and his younger brother, Zane, Heathcott leveled the shotgun at his stepdad, and, he said, “I told him, ‘If you come in here, I’m not going to have any choice.’ ”
With sirens approaching, his stepfather and an unsavory friend quickly departed. His mother and brother left town shortly thereafter, and Heathcott stayed, bouncing between friends’ houses, working, going to school and playing sports — and drinking. He was pulled over early one morning, still under the influence from the night before.
“I was actually on my way to work,” Heathcott said. “I had to wake up early in the morning on a Saturday to go mow lawns.”
As a young Yankees minorleaguer, he was out drinking a little too often. Once, after blacking out the night before, he overslept, dropped his passport somewhere and missed a flight to the Dominican Republic.
“There were a group of us out and I was obviously underage, so that was a bad decision, but it taught me a lot,” he said. “It was one of those things: I had to grow up.”
The Yankees were alarmed that their prospect might do himself some real harm — he had cut up his arm severely after a drinking binge in high school — and the team made sure Heathcott got the help he needed. He began going to Alcoholics Anonymous meetings in 2010, and he also started attending church. He credits those developments, along with the birth of his son Kysen in 2015, with helping turn his life around.
Heathcott finally made it to the big leagues with the Yankees in 2015, but he was starting to compile a lengthy injury list, and the team released him May 26, 2016. He signed a minor-league deal with the White Sox the next month, then spent last season in the Giants’ organization, at Double-A Richmond and Triple-A Sacramento — where he hit .290 in 26 games.
The A’s were one of the first teams to call this winter; after all, Heathcott is still only 27.
“He was such a highly thought-of prospect, always had all the tools in the world,” A’s general manager David Forst said. “He got there with the Yankees and you sort of assumed he’d continue on. It’s the whole skill set: the speed, the athleticism, the power. I’m a little surprised he got derailed, but injuries will do that.”
Fully healthy this spring, Heathcott is learning to play first base to increase his versatility. And he is drawing lots of comparisons in the A’s clubhouse with former Oakland third baseman Brett Lawrie for his high energy level, tattoos and his all-out playing style; he’s 2-for-5 through the first four games, with three runs, plus a sacrifice fly and a stolen base.
“He’s a super-aggressive teammate, a great center fielder. He’s fast. He’ll run into walls,” said left-handed reliever Jeremy Bleich, who played with Heathcott in the Yankees’ system. “He plays really hard. He’s the kind of guy you want behind you. Anything in the air gets caught.”
“I’m kind of 100 percent all the time,” Heathcott said. “A lot of people think I’m reckless, I’m not, that’s just who I am. For a couple of years, I backed off, and I think that actually (led) to more injuries. So, I just go out and don’t think about it and just play. I made a decision last year if I’m going to go out of the game, I’m going out my way.”
After his turbulent youth, Heathcott makes a point of telling his story to kids and talking to them about making the right decisions. He doesn’t judge others; he simply wants to help where he can. He knows well what good can come out of tough circumstances and those who might look like lost causes, and he now has a decidedly philosophical bent.
“I don’t believe in mistakes in life. If you learn from them, then they’re lessons,” said Heathcott, who often works with the I Am More Foundation for sick children and their families. “We’re living in a world that is so much about division and telling people what’s right and wrong — but we each have our own path.
“I became a believer in 2010 and that was a huge step in my life, but something that gets missed is: We say we want to be Christ-like but Jesus hung out with the worst of his kind and you know what he did? He loved them. That’s what we’re missing. We’re all in this together, everyone, black, white, purple, green.”