Blue Jays’ prospect Alford already leading by example

‘Players are drawn to him and listen when he speaks’

LANSING, MICH. • Anthony Alford stays in touch with his former assistant football coaches at the University of Mississippi. They don’t beg him to come back to Ole Miss, but they do say they miss him.

“They tell me they just miss me being around,” he says. “They feel like I had an impact on the team as far as my personality and leadership. They feel like everybody respected me just because of who I was and what I represented.”

He says it in matter-offact fashion. It is an old story, which came into sharp focus at Petal High School in Mississippi, where Alford’s exploits drew a crowd of college football recruiters and big-league baseball scouts.

Now, having abandoned his two-sport ambitions, Alford is writing his first baseball-only chapter. As the leadoff man and centre-fielder for the low Class A Lansing Lugnuts, he reached base in the first 33 games he started this season. Entering Wednesday night’s game, he was batting .307 with a .454 on-base percentage and had walked in 20% of his plate appearances. And he continues to lead. “The players are kind of drawn to him and listen to him when he speaks, which is good when you have a young team,” said Lansing manager Ken Huckaby, a former Jays catcher. “He’s a young guy too, but I think his football experience brings a lot to what he offers mentally and how to go about the game, with winning being the focus.”

Alford is 20. This is his first full pro season.

While it is going well, in part because he oozes athleticism, both he and Huckaby say he has much to learn.

He has an uncanny knack for working the count and draws a lot of walks, but he also has a strikeout rate of 25%. A right-handed batter, he hits pitches hard and often to the opposite field, but admits he tends to pull off too many inside pitches. His exceptional speed gives him great range in the outfield, but he is “still learning where to make his throws and when — just overall game knowledge, which comes with experience,” Huckaby said.

The Jays made Alford a third-round draft pick in 2012, even though he had warned them — and the rest of Major League Baseball — that he was going to play football at Southern Mississippi. They said fine. Maybe eventually you’ll give up your Bo-Jackson ambitions and come around to baseball. And he did, after a year as a quarterback at Southern Mississippi, and part of a season as a safety at Ole Miss.

“I’m all-in for baseball, and I’m in for the long run,” Alford said. “When I make a decision, I don’t look back. So far everything’s been great.”

Because of college football obligations — spring practice and pre-season drills, which started in August — Alford played only 25 baseball games over the past three seasons. But in five games at Lansing last year, he offered a glimpse of his extraordinary potential. That quick visit also helped him decide, in mid-football season, that baseball provided a better opportunity for a longer, and healthier, professional career.

His two-sport background is paying off, however. As he discusses his season so far, he talks often about the team concept, and about winning, and how the two merge.

“In the 10 th and 11 th grade, we played for (and won) state championships, so it was all about team,” he said. “My coach didn’t really care about what you did as an individual. He was more about what you do to help the team win.

“And I think that’s what it’s all about. At the same time I’ve got to get better, and work on me as an individual. But at the higher levels they’re looking for people that are going to help the team win. It’s not all about you as an individual at the highest level. It’s about helping the team win, helping them get deep in the playoffs and possibly play in the World Series.”

In his previous mini-seasons, and during a winter-ball stint in Australia, Alford was anxious to make a positive impression and as a result became too aggressive at the plate. This season, he says he has reverted to his high-school habit of making pitchers work hard.

“I don’t know if I’m going to be a leadoff batter in the future, but if I am, I need to get ready for that now,” he said. “I need to learn how

I’m just trying to get better every day at something

to work the count. I need to learn how to hit with a strike or two strikes on me, knowing when to take pitches, knowing when not to be aggressive and not ambush a first-pitch fastball.”

His line in the May 25 box score was a testament to his offensive approach. In five plate appearances, he walked four times, scored four times and struck out once.

Huckaby said Alford’s patience at the plate is “very unusual” for such a young player. So is his laid-back leadership.

“I feel like I’m a naturalborn leader,” Alford said. “I’m not real vocal, but I just try to lead by example. It’s not about hoorah-ing and ‘you gotta do this or that.’ It’s more about just showing your teammates. If you make yourself do the right thing, people are going to say, ‘We’re going to try and do what he’s doing.’ ”

Alford has just over 350 professional at-bats; Huckaby offers a reminder that a player typically needs 1,500 to 2,000 minor-league at-bats before he’s ready to hit in the majors. But Huckaby also acknowledges that Alford is a special talent.

More than a month before his 21st birthday, Alford talks about the grind of playing every day, the way he studies opposing pitchers’ patterns from the dugout and the work he’s doing to stop pulling off those inside pitches. He says he’s having fun and has no regrets about giving up football.

“I’m just trying to get better every day at something, whether it’s mentally or physically,” he said. “Just becoming a student of the game.”