RESILIENT ROWDY READY TO ROCK
Young Jays slugger determined to honour memory of his mom, writes Rob Longley.
DUNEDIN, FLA. For several long and excruciating weeks last summer, Rowdy Tellez was being everything his mother didn’t want him to be.
He was down in the dumps and when things on the diamond weren’t going his way, the big first baseman beat himself up as much for what was happening away from the ballpark as between the white lines.
“I didn’t want to talk to anybody,” Tellez told Postmedia. “I wasn’t a good teammate. I was hard on myself and I was miserable. I didn’t want to be around anyone.”
The source of Tellez’s deep gloom revolved around his mother Lori’s battle with brain cancer, an ordeal that shook the tightknit family.
Weeks after she died on Aug. 19, however, the Blue Jays provided the best therapy imaginable for a promising prospect who had understandably regressed over the previous two seasons given his mom’s battle.
General manager Ross Atkins added Tellez to the long list of September call-ups, in part to help ease the pain and in part to further his development. But instead of a sample-sized taste of the bigs, the 23-year-old rocked the baseball world for the better part of a month.
“Every kid wants to play in the big leagues and I got to achieve that goal in September,” said Tellez, who is here at his third major-league camp looking to cement a future with the club. “I just took it and played. I didn’t make it anything bigger than it needed to be. I just wanted to go out and be comfortable and play the way I needed to play.
“I had such a great time. I got to step away from reality for a little bit and have my dad with me everywhere I went. It was a memory I’m never going to forget.”
To recap, Tellez made more than just memories; he made history. A late-season promotion that wasn’t 100 per cent performance based turned into a tour de force.
He made his MLB debut as a pinch-hitter on Sept. 5, belting out an RBI double on the first pitch he faced. A day later there were two more doubles in his first two plate appearances, then a third two-bagger later in the game.
In his first four MLB contests, Tellez banged out seven extrabase hits, the first player to do so since 1913. And on it went.
Even through the down times in Buffalo over the past two seasons — both personal and performance related — Tellez remained resilient in his approach.
“I never doubted myself,” Tellez said. “I’ve always been a really confident player, no matter how good or how bad it’s gone. I’ve always been a player who felt he was the best out there.”
As gratifying as September was, Tellez used it as fuel rather than a source of self satisfaction during the off-season.
“I got to the highest level and I never worked harder in my life in the off-season,” said Tellez, who is well behind 2017 all-star Justin Smoak on the Jays’ depth chart at first. “I got bigger and stronger and I did it in the right way. I put on a good amount of muscle and lost a lot of body fat. I feel more grown up.”
Suffice to say, the taste of the big leagues went down so well that Tellez wants another bite.
“Everybody says it’s easier to get here and harder to stay,” the California native said. “It’s no joke. I got into my off-season, took two weeks off, and it was go time. I’ve never lifted so much weights in my life. I always thought I had a good work ethic, but now that I know what it meant to get there, it was something cool.”
Tellez still cherishes the memories of his mother and the role she played in his development. Rather than feel sorry for himself, though, he’s ready to honour her memory.
“I don’t want this to be a fall back, but it’s good to have a clear mind for the first time in two years,” Tellez said. “Mentally, it’s a whole different world again. I’m back out there smiling and having fun every day.”
“We lost our wife, our mom, our best friend, our glue that really held it all together,” Tellez said. “If my mom was able to come to the games, she was the lady that would wear Blue Jays shoes, Blue Jays socks, Blue Jays hat, earrings ... she would have been all decked out.”
Lori Tellez didn’t have the opportunity to be in the seats at Rogers Centre for some of her son’s biggest moments. Rowdy, however, believes she was there in more than spirit.
“That’s why they had the roof of the dome open all the time,” Tellez said.