The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
'Absolutely special'
Dodgers rookie Cody Bellinger, just 21, is taking baseball by storm.
LOS ANGELES — Clay Bell-inger played high school
baseball in Oneonta, N.Y., in the shadow of Cooperstown. He hit .193 over four major league seasons, but collected more championship rings than many members of the hallowed insti
tution near his hometown: the National Baseball Hall of Fame. Bellinger played for four teams, and each one reached the World Series.
“He’s got three rings— two with the Yankees, and an Angel ring,” said Clay’s son, Cody. “He would have had four if they beat the D-backs. It’s crazy.”
Cody Bellinger uses that word a lot: crazy. Everything is crazy right now. His team, the Los Angeles Dodgers, has themost wins in the National League, and he has themost home runs. He blasted two more — his 23rd and 24th — at Dodger Stadium on Sunday, when he also beat out a routine grounder to short for an in fifield single and made a diving catch in right fifield.
The fans gave Cody Bellinger the fifirst curtain call of his career. He is still only 21 years old. Entering Wednesday, he has 56 RBIs in 59 games. Everything seems possible.
“He’s incredible,” said Kenley Jansen, the Dodgers’ All-Star closer. “He’s probably going to break Barry Bonds’ record. Hemight do it in two years if he keep shitting two every game.”
It was hard to tell which home run record Jansen meant — 73 in a season or 762 in a career — but Bellinger shattered his family’s home run record more than twoweeks ago, whenhe connected against the Cincinnati Reds for his 13th, which came in his 154th career at-bat. Clay Bellinger hit 12 in 311 career at-bats.
“We were at the house watching,” Clay Bellinger said. “I think my wife said something fifirst: ‘You know, he passed you now!’ I was hoping hewas going to, you know what I mean? Maybe not so fast....”
Clay Bellinger spoke late Sunday afternoon in the stands behind home plate at Dodger Stadium, having watched fromthe front row as more than 40,000 fans chanted his son’s fifirst name. He has heard such cheering for himself, if not by name, then for his greatest career
moment: his catch at the top of the left- fifield wall in Game 2 of the 2000World Series, to steal a possible homer by
the New York Mets’ Todd Zeile in the ninth inning.
That helped the Bellinger family earn a ride through Lower Manhattan in a championship parade for the second year in a row. Cody was 4 and 5 years old at the parades, in 1999 and 2000, and said they were some of his earliest memories. Afew years ago, the family watched
the home movies, transferred from video cassettes to DVDs. Cody’s brother Cole — who was drafted by the San Diego Padres this month— was just a baby, bundled up in the arms of his mother, Jennifer. Cody got into the spirit.
“You’ve got literally millions of people, 300 deep down alleyways, hucking toilet paper at you,” Clay Bellinger said. “I remember him taking stuffff and throwing it back at everybody. It was an insane time, man.”
He reflected a bit more, and continued: “Hopefully, these guys keep doing what they’re doing, and they get a chance to experience one of them. It’s been a fewyears, I think. I don’t know, exactly.”
Fall Classic in L.A.?
Clay Bellinger had one at-bat — his fifinal one in the majors, as it turned out— for the Angels in 2002, the last year the World Series came to Southern California. The Dodgers have not made it since winning it in1988, making this the longest stretch in team history without a World Series appearance. Their victory Sunday was
their 10th in a rowand their 17th consecutive game with a homer, their longest such streak since 1960, whena different slugger, Frank Howard, was the National League rookie of the year. Howard was a hulking specimen — when he played in Washington, they called him the Capital Punisher — but Cody Bellinger is tall and lean, with an all-around set of skills.
“He hits so many home runs that guys don’t get to see him run much, but he’s
the fastest guy on the team,” Dodgers pitcher Alex Wood said. “It’s beautiful towatch him run. I mean, I’d literally rather see him hit a double so I could watch him run. He hit one out the other night, and I was like, ‘Why don’t you mix in a double every now and then?’ He’s got a great arm, hits for average, hits for power, plays great defense. He’s absolutely special.”
During theweekend, Bellinger’s teammates delighted in finally having a reason to tease him: his sheepish admission, to ESPN, that he does not know who Jerry Seinfeld is. Bellinger protested in the clubhouse — he knew the name, and recognized the face when he sawa picture — but it underscored his youth.
Kris Bryant clone
Bellinger’s agent, Scott Boras, said he could tell in spring training that Bellinger was already one of themost talented players inthe game. Bellinger reminded Boras of another one of his clients, Kris Bryant of the Chicago Cubs, who is also a slugger with the athleticism to play multiple positions. In Bellinger’s case, it is fifirst base and the outfield corners. Bellinger also shares Bryant’s distinctly modern hitting approach: Launch every-thing hard and to the sky.
Manager Dave Roberts said Cody Bellinger first impressed himin the Dodgers’ major league camp last year, at age 20, by being attentive and observant, but also confifident. The Dodgers’ coaches have told Clay Bellinger approvingly tha this son arrives early, nomatter how he is playing. Mann y Mota, a former Dodgers All-Star who is now a broadcaster, gives Cody Bellinger the same message: You already got paid for yesterday. Bellinger said he appreciates the reminder.
“I go into the day with a new mind, refreshed mind, so I don’t really think about it too much, whether it’s good or bad,” he said. “I go to the cage every day and work on my swing and try to stay consistent.”
His father is not so sure about that swing, actually. The swing from Class A, which produced 30 home runs and sent Cody Bellinger on his path to the majors, has evolved.
“He changed it again to get this new thing a lot of people are teaching: getting in this loaded, cocked position,” Clay Bellinger said. “It’s a lot of movement, and I’ve never been a big fan of
that. It seems like you’ve got to be so on point.”
Clay Bellinger smiled. He cannot argue with the results. Inevitably, therewill be slumps and adjustments, as there are for all players, even those with plaques near Oneonta. But few have ever made such a rousing introduction.
DODGERS ‘He’s incredible. He’s probably going to break Barry Bonds’ record. Hemight do it in twoyears if he keepshitting twoeverygame.’ — Kenley Jansen, Dodgers’ All-Star closer