The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Bellinger no stranger to victory parades
Rookie remembers when dad won two titles with Yankees.
LOS ANGELES — Although Cody Bellinger is making his playoff debut this week for the Los Angeles Dodgers, the 22-year-old rookie is already a veteran of ticker-tape parades.
Bellinger’s father, Clay, played only four major league seasons, but three ended in the postseason with the Yankees — and two concluded with championships. In some of Cody’s earliest memories, he is a wide-eyed kid sitting in a car alongside his parents while cascades of paper and cheers pour down into Manhattan’s metal canyons.
“I definitely remember the World Series parades,” Bellinger said Wednesday in the Dodgers’ clubhouse. “I remember being there.”
Bellinger’s rookie season in Los Angeles has already been indelible, and he headed into the NL Division Series against Arizona on Friday night shouldering none of his teammates’ baggage from these 104-win Dodgers’ recent playoff failures. With Bellinger’s 39 homers and left-handed bat in the heart of their order, the Dodgers have a different, more dangerous look than the previous incarnations of the team that has fallen short of the World Series in four straight postseasons.
To earn his own parade memories down Sunset Boulevard or Figueroa Street, Bellinger must extend the extraordinary season that has left him all but certain to be the Dodgers’ second straight NL Rookie of the Year.
“I’ve dreamed about it for a long time,” Bellinger said. “It’s weird. I’ve always seen commercials for the postseason, but now I’m actually in it.”
The first baseman and outfielder set the NL rookie record and finished second in the league behind only Giancarlo Stanton in homers, connecting every 12.3 at-bats, while ending up sixth in slugging percentage (.581) and eighth in extra-base hits (69).
He isn’t worried about being a target under the October spotlight, and his coaches and teammates don’t expect postseason pressure to affect a player who began 2017 as a humble prospect simply hoping for a September call-up.
“He just stayed the same guy he was in spring training, when we were all over him, telling him to go do stuff for us,” said Andre Ethier, whose locker is next to Bellinger’s stall at Dodger Stadium.
For the son of a big-leaguer, Bellinger was raised in remarkably normal circumstances. His father became a firefighter after his big league career, and he still works in Gilbert, Ariz..
Bellinger really is humble and unaffected, according to his fellow Dodgers — and they’re trying to keep him that way.
“Andre always makes me feel like a rookie,” Bellinger said. “No matter what I do, I’m always getting the smack talked about me.
“But it’s all fun and games, and I’m still a rookie, so I deserve it.”