‘I know that he’d be proud of me’
Vancouver Canadians’ Podkul wants to use baseball to honour his late father’s memory
Nick Podkul can sound old, albeit for the harshest of reasons.
Podkul, the Vancouver Canadians second baseman, was only in high school when his father died.
Frank Podkul died in September, 2013, due to a cancer-related illness. He was 59.
“It never gets easier,” said Podkul, 21. “I think about it every day still.
“You do learn to take the best from what life gives you. I play baseball now to honour him. He was a huge baseball fan. I like to think I’m a pretty lucky kid that I get to be out on the field, honouring his name. I want to be a good player, be a good teammate, be a good person — everything that he taught me.”
The best of times frequently have a tinge of the worst, Podkul admits. Take draft day earlier this month for instance. The Toronto Blue Jays selected the 6-foot-1, 198-pound righthanded hitter with a seventh-round selection.
He had just finished his junior season with the Notre Dame Fighting Irish, wrapping up their 54-game NCAA schedule with a .312 average, eight home runs and 40 runs batted in.
Podkul is from Schererville, Ind., which is about a 90-minute drive from Notre Dame’s South Bend campus.
Podkul and his father would regularly go to Chicago Cubs games. That’s about a 45-minute drive north.
Frank Podkul played football and baseball at Wabash College, a small school in Crawfordsville, Ind.
He would go on to coach football and softball at Bishop Noll, the high school in Hammond, Ind., that he had graduated from. After that, he would coach golf and softball and handle athletic director duties at Andrean, the Merrillville, Ind., high school that Nick and older brother Frank, Jr., would graduate from.
“Draft day was really emotional, because you want him to be there,” Nick said. “You know he’s there in spirit.
“The rest of my family was there. I have a huge support network, which is nice. It was an emotional day, but I know that he’d be proud of me and the man that I’ve become.”
Podkul has a tight connection with his former Notre Dame keystone mate Cole Daily, 21, who’s now playing shortstop for Auburn Doubledays, the Washington Nationals’ short-season, single-A affiliate in the New York-Penn League. Daily, a 22nd-round draft choice of the Nationals, also lost his father at a young age.
Another former Notre Dame teammate is Cavan Biggio, 23, an infielder who played with the C’s in 2016 and is currently with Toronto’s double-A affiliate, the New Hampshire Fisher Cats of the Eastern League. Biggio gave Podkul the goods on playing at Nat Bailey Stadium.
“It’s tough to beat playing in a place like this. It’s a lot of fun,” said Podkul, who hit No. 3 in the Notre Dame batting order much of the season and has been a middle of the lineup guy for Vancouver manager Dallas McPherson so far this short-season, single-A Northwest League campaign.
“I was talking to Cavan about it and he always said he had a great experience. When I got drafted by the Blue Jays, I was hoping that they’d send me here. Luckily, it worked out. I’ve heard a lot of positives about playing here. It’s definitely lived up to them so far.”
The Toronto Blue Jays have added some pop to the middle of the Vancouver Canadians lineup.
Griffin Conine, an outfielder from Duke University who was Toronto’s second-round pick in this year’s amateur draft held earlier this month, and Jake Brodt, a first baseman from Santa Clara who was Toronto’s ninthround choice, have both been assigned to Vancouver.
They debuted on Saturday for Vancouver and hit in the No. 3 and No. 4 spots in the batting order, respectively.
Conine is the son of former major-leaguer Jeff Conine, who spent 17 seasons in the big leagues. He played mostly in the outfield and he won World Series with the Florida Marlins 1997 and 2003.
Vancouver has been Toronto’s short-season, single-A affiliate since 2011.