AN ALL-STAR STORY OPENS NEW CHAPTER
Even an eventual all-star shortstop can use friendly advice from his mentor
Like a flash flood, text messages swamped Trevor Story’s smartphone. Family, friends and high school teammates rushed to congratulate Story when the news became official last Sunday: The Rockies’ 25year-old shortstop was an all-star.
One special message quickly caught Story’s attention. It came, naturally, from deep in the heart of Story’s beloved Texas. It came from Brandon Sherard, who has been Story’s hitting coach, confidant and close friend for more than a decade.
“Congratulations! All of the hard work paid off. So proud of you!”
Story’s quick response: “Let’s go, baby!”
Tuesday night, Story will join teammates Nolan Arenado and Charlie Blackmon at Nationals Stadium in Washington for the 89th Midsummer Classic. Entering this weekend’s series vs. Seattle, the shortstop was hitting .289 with 18 home runs, 63 RBIS and an .896 OPS. Story is batting .349 (52-for149) since June 1, the second-highest average in the majors over that span.
It has been a remarkable bounceback season for Story, who batted just .239 in 2017 and set a franchise record with 191 strikeouts. Story credits Rockies hitting coaches Duane Espy and Jeff Salazar for getting him back on track, but he also emphasizes that he would never have become an allstar, let alone a major-leaguer, without Sherard in his corner.
“He knows me better than anybody,” said Story, a groomsman in
Sherard’s wedding three years ago. “My dad taught me the basics, but it’s really Brandon who taught he how to hit and take it to the next level. He’s seen me swing at least 50,000 times. He knows me the best.”
To understand the dynamics of the Sherard-story connection, you have to understand Story’s incredible talent and passion as a kid, as well as his persistence. There are countless baseball phenoms who burn hot and then quickly fade away. But Story’s narrative was going to be different. Sherard was sure of it.
“Trevor’s work ethic is beyond any player I’ve ever been around,” said Sherard, 35, who is a youth coach and also president of Dallas Patriots Baseball, an organization that grooms many of the best players in Texas. “He has this burning desire to succeed and to win. The most important thing is that he knows he can do it. That mind-set is the great separator.”
Story grew up in Irving, Texas, the son of Ken and Teddy Story and the younger brother of Tyler. It was a baseball-crazy family, and it was Ken who taught his sons the basics of hitting. By the time Story was a freshman at Irving High, it was clear he was a special player.
Even so, Irving High coach Jay Malone was initially reluctant to promote Story to the varsity team.
“Trevor was a natural, plain and simple,” recalled Malone, who now teaches and coaches at Carthage High School in Texas. “But he was playing with a special group of kids, and I didn’t want to take Trevor away from that group. You couldn’t believe what a great leader Trevor was. He kept that group bonded together. I didn’t want to shake that up.”
Toward the end of the season, Malone promoted Story to the varsity, in part so that he could play with his older brother.
“From the time he was a little kid, Trevor always tried to emulate Tyler,” Malone said. “So what does Trevor do? In his very first at-bat — we were playing Grand Prairie — he ripped a double off the wall. And I’m thinking to my- self: ‘I must be the dumbest coach of all time. Why didn’t I play him sooner?’ ”
Malone made Story the team’s No. 3 hitter as a sophomore, and he kept him in that role until he graduated. As a senior, Story hit just under .500 with 20 extra-base hits and 11 stolen bases.
At a college showcase, a radar gun clocked Story’s fastball at 96 mph, but he never seriously pursued pitching, mostly because he loved playing shortstop and was such a good hitter. He committed to play baseball at Louisiana State before graduating from high school in 2011. But the Rockies selected him 45th overall in the June draft that year and offered him a large enough signing bonus — $915,000 — to lure him to pro baseball at the age of 18.
Story’s big-league debut in the spring of 2016 was Roy Hobbslike. Batting second, Story hit two home runs off Arizona ace and former Cy Young Award winner Zack Greinke. Story ended up hitting home runs in the first four games of the season; he became the fifth player in MLB history to do that, joining Willie Mays, Mark Mcgwire, Nelson Cruz and Chris Davis. By his sixth game of the season, Story had launched seven home runs, eclipsing the record of six set by three legendary hitters: Mays in 1964, Mike Schmidt in 1976 and Larry Walker in 1997.
Story finished his rookie season batting .272 with 27 home runs, the most ever by a National League rookie shortstop, despite a season limited to 97 game because of a torn ligament in his left thumb.
The 2017 season, however, was sobering. Major-league pitchers now had a book on Story, and they exploited holes in his swing. He not only led the NL in strikeouts, his strikeout rate was an unacceptable 38 percent, made worse by a drop in his power numbers. His ISO — a sabermetic formula that measure a hitter’s raw power and reveals how often a player hits for extra bases — dropped from .296 to .219. All of that led the Rockies to contemplate whether Story needed a trip down to Triple-a for a tuneup.
Story turned to his trusted mentor.
“We worked on the evolution of Trevor’s swing for over 10 years, from high school to the minors to the majors,” Sherard said. “There is a trust factor there, and this is just not about baseball. We are good friends. That’s why he was in my wedding.”
Last offseason, Story and Sherard got to work in late November, and they continued their routine until spring training. The duo spent two hours together, five days a week. They broke down video and worked in the batting cage, tweaking Story’s swing. Story insisted that he pay Sherard a salary, but Sherard refused.
“He won’t let me pay him,” Story said. “He just loves baseball that much. He told me that his reward will be coming to the Allstar Game to see me play.”
Over the winter, the duo simplified Story’s swing.
“One of the biggest things we did was have him change his mind-set to where he was hunting the ball out in front of the plate and slowing his body down,” Sherard said.
Added Story: “That’s really helped me with pitch recognition. We really focused on my swing path and getting my swing back in the groove I’ve had for such a long time. That was huge.”
Story’s on-base percentage is .352 this season, up markedly from .308 last year. And while his 28 percent strikeout rate remains higher than he would like, he has become a smarter and more selective hitter.
Arenado — who is even more obsessed with hitting than Story, if that’s possible — has been impressed with his teammate’s evolution.
“I don’t think you are seeing the big swings and misses we saw the first two years,” Arenado said. “You don’t see those 1-2 counts where they throw Trevor that slider in the dirt and he’s swinging over the top of it. You don’t see that much anymore, which is huge. He’s being selective, looking for his pitch and just trying to hit the ball hard.”
Story’s 51 home runs were the most by a shortstop through their first two seasons in major-league history. He has added 18 so far this season, and Sherard is confident there are greater chapters in Story’s future.
“He’s going to get better and better, I have no doubt,” he said.
As for that all-star text exchange, Story counts it as one of the most gratifying moments of his life.
“That was so awesome,” Story said. “Brandon and I have been through so much together. A lot of good, a little bit of bad. So that’s what made it so sweet. He’s grinding with me every day during the offseason. He’s just as committed to this as I am.”