Los Angeles Times

Only the beard is objectiona­ble

Toles’ success with Dodgers unites family, but his facial hair’s an issue

- By Andy McCullough

As the baseball disappeare­d from sight and her little brother rounded the bases, Morgan Toles felt her phone flood with text messages.

Andrew Toles’ grand slam at Coors Field in Denver last month cemented his place in the strange saga of the Dodgers’ 2016 season. It also ignited a flurry of communicat­ion among his family members, continuing a summer-long ritual.

The group message started out with Morgan, her younger sister and their parents when the Dodgers first brought Andrew to the big leagues in June. As the season went on and his role

expanded, so did the chain. Now it includes aunts, uncles, cousins, all of them reveling in Toles’ emergence from the long shadow cast by his family’s athletic prowess.

The group treats each milestone in Toles’ career with glee. Those on the East Coast are willing to stay up. Morgan joked about pounding 5-Hour Energy drinks at her desk in the women’s basketball office at Kent State.

At this point, the family’s only issue with Toles involves one of the reasons for his appeal among Dodgers fans: His mangy, jaw-consuming beard.

“He looks like a black hipster, hippie dude,” Morgan Toles said. “Or like a logger. Like Paul Bunyan, a lumberjack. My mom hates it. I’m actually glad that he shaved it down. Because he had been growing that thing for a minute. We’re like, ‘You’ve got to figure it out. You look homeless.’ ”

Toles, 24, offers value beyond the comedic potential of his facial hair. He has hit .320 with a .900 on-base plus slugging percentage. He’s swift afoot and can play all three outfield positions.

In a limited sample size, he has impressed his superiors with his composure as a pinch-hitter. Manager Dave Roberts suggested that even his veteran hitters could learn from Toles’ approach.

“He’s just so calm and cool,” Roberts said. “It’s a little bit of the naiveté, and not knowing how good some of these pitchers are, or the ballparks, or what’s at stake. It’s just like a young player going out there and playing baseball in his backyard.”

It was in his backyard in the suburbs of Atlanta that Toles first learned how to overcome failure. Morgan is a year older than Andrew. When she practiced basketball on the court behind the house, her brother often came outside and issued challenges. Mercy did not suit her.

“I’m not going to let my little brother beat me one on one,” Morgan Toles said. “So I would just destroy him. But as he got older, he got bigger and stronger, and he would try to body me up. He was just so bad, skill-wise. He would try to run me over, and it got to the point where my parents had to break us up.”

His mother, Vicky, played basketball at the University of New Orleans. His father, Alvin, starred as a linebacker at Tennessee and played four seasons for the New Orleans Saints. Morgan, who joined the Kent State coaching staff this summer, split her college career between Auburn and Florida State.

Basketball was never an option for Andrew. The Dodgers list his height at 5 feet 10, which looks generous. And his stature hurt his chances on the gridiron. Surgery for a hernia ended his football career during his junior year at Sandy Creek High in Tyrone, Ga. Alvin explained the reality to his son.

“He was like, ‘If you get hurt this much playing in high school, you aren’t going to make it in the pros or college,’ ” Toles said.

Toles flourished on the diamond but experience­d a rocky transition after high school. He has dealt with anxiety and left Tennessee after one season to enroll at Chipola College in Marianna, Fla.

The Tampa Bay Rays drafted him in 2012 and named him their minor league player of the year in 2013.

But Toles sat out games in 2014 because of personal reasons and negotiated his release the following spring. Back home in George, he pondered his next move.

“The biggest thing was just him being happy,” Morgan Toles said. “It wasn’t about baseball. If baseball wasn’t an option, we were fine with that. We just wanted to make sure he was good as a person.”

Toles spent a few weeks working at a Kroger grocery store while plotting a comeback to baseball. He ran and lifted weights in the mornings. He watched video of his swing on YouTube. He toiled in batting cages and his father ran him through drills.

When the Dodgers signed Toles to a minor league deal last October, his family figured he would need a few years of seasoning before reaching the majors. Toles required less than three months.

And whenever Andrew makes a move, Morgan expects her phone to buzz.

“It’s really cool,” she said, “to see the whole family come together and celebrate him.”

 ?? Christian Petersen Getty Images ?? ANDREW TOLES’ sister says Dodgers outfielder looks like a “black hipster, hippie dude.”
Christian Petersen Getty Images ANDREW TOLES’ sister says Dodgers outfielder looks like a “black hipster, hippie dude.”

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