Mike Hessman has major career in minor leagues
Minor league home run king savors game, mentor’s role
Home run recordholder knows time as player is short, looks to coaching.
TOLEDO, Next to Mike
OHIO Hessman’s locker in the Toledo Mud Hens clubhouse, six pictures line a poster board, commemorating the record he broke Aug. 3.
In the upper-left corner is the swing that sent out his recordbreaking 433rd minor league home run. Next to it is a scoreboard message congratulating him, followed by Hessman rounding the bases, Hessman reaching home, a ticket stub from the game and a shot of Hessman’s teammates dousing him with champagne.
Hessman, 37, has worked al- most two decades for a memory like that, and it’s an odd record to have. At 19 years, 2,078 games and two league championships, he’s one of the most accomplished minor league players in history. But for all that success, he has enjoyed only a small taste of the big leagues: 14 home runs in 223 at-bats in 109 games over five seasons.
He knows that journey is in its twilight. These days, Hessman gets to the ballpark at about 2 p.m. for 7 p.m. games. He starts in the hot tub and hits the weight room before batting practice.
Hessman is in his 20th year of professional baseball and his seventh with the Detroit Tigers’
Class AAA affiliate. The physical grind gets tougher every day and at home Hessman’s 5-year-old daughter is starting to notice he’s gone all the time.
“It gets harder and harder to leave them,” Hessman says of his wife and daughter. “I’d like to sit down and talk to the family, see what’s out there and go from there.”
He wants to get into coaching or managing after he’s done playing. But for now Hessman sticks to the thankless life of a minor league player. He’s beloved in Toledo — introduced as “King ” before Saturday’s game — but nearly five years have passed since his last major league at-bat.
At this stage, he serves as a mentor for the younger players, using his two decades of experience to help them with their journeys to the big leagues.
“There’s a lot of baseball in his head,” teammate Steven Moya says. LIFE IN THE MINORS Hessman’s impact on the club hasn’t been lost on manager Larry Parrish, who knows the veteran doesn’t have to continue battling. He knows Hessman could spend more time with his wife and daughter every afternoon and come to the park closer to 4 p.m. As it is, Hessman spends most of his time in Toledo during the season, while his permanent home with his family is in South Carolina.
How has he stayed with it all these years?
“It helps to have that lit- tle cup of coffee in the big leagues every once in a while,” Hessman said. “We’re pretty blessed to be able to play a game for a living, so to be able to do something that you love and make a living at it, it’s been awesome.”
Hessman has been through the long, overnight bus rides. He’s more than three years older than every other player on the Mud Hens. He has played in small, half-empty ballparks for most of his career.
Then there are the daily bumps and bruises that become harder to manage as he gets older. If he neglects the weight room for a couple days, he could suddenly be out for a week.
Moya, 24, says he doesn’t plan on being in baseball for as long as Hessman, and even Hessman says that if asked when he started rookie ball in 1996 whether he’d still want to be in the minor leagues at 37, the answer would be no.
“But like I said, we’re playing a game we love to play, and to be able to do it for an extended period of time, still having fun out there,” Hessman said. “I love the camaraderie with the guys in the clubhouse, coming out, messing around during BP and all that kind of stuff. There’s definitely some perks to it.”
His teammates say he’s good at managing the grind. Parrish said he had seen Hessman with his knee to his ankle discolored in purple, but Hessman kept playing. He has seen Hessman strike out with runners on, only to come back to the dugout and encourage the next batter.
“It’s not an easy thing to do, and it takes a certain passion about the game to play that long and do what he’s done,” Mud Hens catcher Bryan Holaday says. “He’s an inspiration to everybody.” HOME RUN MEMORIES Naturally, there’s a story behind each of Hessman’s 433 home runs.
Parrish remembers one night years ago when Hessman crushed one over the left-field foul pole. The third-base umpire called the ball fair, but after discussion the first-base umpire changed the call to foul. Parrish came out to argue the call and was ejected. The next pitch, Hessman smashed a home run off the scoreboard in left field. He muttered something rounding first base — he says neither the first baseman nor the firstbase coach heard him — but when he reached home, the first-base umpire was waiting for him and ejected Hessman, too.
In 2013, Hessman returned to Toledo with the Cincinnati Reds’ Class AAA Louisville affiliate. Before each game, the Mud Hens dub one opposing player the “ice cream strikeout player.” If that player strikes out, the team gives free ice cream to a row of fans. One night, Hessman held the honor.
He homered in his first two at-bats, and the next time he came up, the Mud Hens switched the “strikeout player” to the next batter. After the game, as an apology for doubting him, the Mud Hens left a batting helmet full of ice cream on his chair in the clubhouse.
“I crushed it,” Hessman said, beaming. “It was good.”
Hessman has compiled countless memories like these. His first major league home run in 2003 was special, of course. He hit one in the Beijing Olympics in 2008, when the USA earned a bronze medal. He puts those alongside the minor league record as his favorites.
He hit 28 for the 2005 Mud Hens, who won the Governor’s Cup, the International League championship. Saturday, Toledo honored that team’s 10th anniversary on its home field before the game.
The 2005 team included outfielder Curtis Granderson, utility man Don Kelly and pitcher Jason Grilli, who are still in the major leagues. Among the on-field honorees were Kevin Hooper, who manages an independent league team, and Marcus Thames, who is the hitting coach of visiting Scranton/Wilkes-Barre (Moosic, Pa.) after a lengthy major league career.
And then there was Hessman, who walked out to home plate in the same Mud Hens uniform, still hanging in there.
“I wouldn’t be (playing) if I still wasn’t having fun,” Hessman said. “I feel like I can still compete, still help the team win games, so if the time comes when I feel like I’m not playing to the standard I want to be at, then it’s time to move on to the next chapter.”
For now, he has the photos next to his locker to remember this one.