Lookout Valley’s Chandler full of talent, leadership
There have been a lot of great talents who have come through our school on the baseball diamond and my teammates and I have tried our best to carry on the legacy of this program and continue to add to the tradition.”
— CHRISTIAN CHANDLER
Every time Christian Chandler puts on the Lookout Valley baseball uniform, the senior takes great pride in playing for a program rich in history.
The Yellow Jackets’ eight TSSAA state tournament appearances rank second alltime behind Central for the most among Chattanooga public schools.
“Playing for this baseball program certainly means a whole lot and to a lot of people,” Chandler said. “There have been a lot of great talents who have come through our school on the baseball diamond and my teammates and I have tried our best to carry on the legacy of this program and continue to add to the tradition.”
Chandler has certainly become a legend in his own right, playing on a home diamond with one of the best backdrops of any baseball field in the state. A field on which he has tied a record previously set by former Lookout Valley great Larry Knight, who was selected in the second round of the 1980 Major League Baseball draft by the Philadelphia Phillies straight out of high school.
On three different occasions the southpaw has tied Knight’s single-game program record of 18 strikeouts, while Chandler’s 332 strikeouts over 159 1/3 career prep innings shows just how discombobulating he can be on the mound for opposing hitters. His strikeout total ranks fourth alltime in program history.
As just a sophomore, Chandler was able to hit 91 miles per hour on the radar gun as he
which had the pundits howling for the Braves to eat the remainder of the four-year, $65 contract he signed before the ’21 campaign. Ozuna also was hounded by off-the-field issues — arrests for domestic violence and drunken driving roughly 15 months apart — that provided further cause for the team to move on.
But Snitker was impressed by Ozuna’s demeanor around his teammates, even when things looked so bleak.
He remained one of the most popular, upbeat figures in the clubhouse, supporting those around him and keeping everyone smiling with his endless antics. The work ethic never wavered, either. Ozuna just kept plugging away, confident in his routine and optimistic that his numbers would eventually improve.
“A lot of people a year ago were saying it’s time to get rid of that guy,” Snitker said. “I remembered him for who he is. I remembered who the real Marcell Ozuna is.”
Ozuna apologized for his mistakes, served a 20-game suspension and completed a diversion program that resulted in the domestic violence charges being dropped.
On the field, he never lost faith in his abilities — even at his lowest.
He remembered the advice that Juan Pierre doled out when Ozuna first arrived in the big leagues with the Miami Marlins in 2013.
“I was hitting real good,” Ozuna said. “But he says, ‘One of these days, (you’ll go) 0 for 4 and then you will see, Papi. Nobody will see you.’”
He’s sure hard to miss these days.
The Braves’ faith in Ozuna was rewarded with a stunning turnaround that began roughly a year ago, after the calendar flipped from April to May. He posted 40 homers and 100 RBIs last season, becoming a vital cog in a fearsome Atlanta lineup that tied the major league record for homers in a season (307).
Ozuna is on pace for even loftier numbers this season and emerging as Ohtani’s most prominent challenger in the NL MVP race. The cumulative numbers since the start of the previous May are downright staggering: 50 homers, 136 RBIs and a .301 average.
Chris Sale, who went six scoreless innings in Atlanta’s latest win, loves watching Ozuna at the plate. But the pitcher is just as impressed by what he sees when no one is around.
“He’s got like a magnetic field around him,” said Sale, who is in his first season with the Braves. “You just wanna be around him. He’s a fun guy to play with. He keeps the energy up in the clubhouse, in the dugout, on the bus, on the plane.”
Sale has been through plenty of ups and downs in his career. That makes him even more appreciative of the way Ozuna dealt with all that adversity.
“He went through some struggles,” Sale said. “For him to be able to put all that aside and grind it out, be where he finished last year and then pick up right where he left off, that says a lot about him, who he is as a person, as much as it says who he is as a baseball player.”