Chin, gamesee growth
Blackmon’s rise to star role for Rockies comes with beard, hot bat
There is a lot going on behind that gnarly beard and that gaudy batting average.
Charlie Blackmon is a devout Christian with a degree in finance from Georgia Tech who has a wickedly dry sense of humor. And, lastNovember, Jezebel magazine named Blackmon one ofAtlanta’s 50 most beautiful people.
“Oh, that!” Blackmon said, rolling his eyes. “Apparently they were struggling to find a fewextra beautiful people in Atlanta.” And then there is the juggling. “Ask him to juggle for you,” said Blackmon’s father, Myron. “I’ll bet he’ll grab three baseballs and start tossing.”
It’s true. The Rockies center fielder is ready at a moment’s notice.
“Yeah, I can still do it,” Blackmon said. “I used to do it with bowling pins, but I haven’t done that in a while ... kind of rusty.”
Blackmon’s mother, Ellen, said her son was obsessed with baseballs, footballs, Nerf balls, basketballs, you name it, fromhis days in the crib.
“My story is that the first word out of Charlie’s mouth was ball,” Myronsaid. “I’m pretty sure he said that. I’m sticking to it.”
These days, Blackmon, 27, is juggling his time. Interview requests pour in fast and furious. When you arrive, seemingly out of nowhere, to hit over .400 three weeks into the season, attention dogs you. And the beard? “I’ve grown a bunch of beards over the years,” Blackmon said. “This one I started when I was in Australia last October, when Iwas watching the Red Sox in the World Series. They had these big, rough, manly, lumberjack beards. I wanted one of those.”
In the Rockies’ home opener, Blackmon went 6-for-6 with three doubles, a two-run homer and five RBIs. The next day, he opened with three more hits, giving him a total of nine hits in back-to-back games. That tied a Rockies record set by Juan Pierre in September 2002. Suddenly, a guy who wondered if he would even make the openingday rosterwas a celebrity at Coors Field. On the first Sunday of the season, four teenage girls mugged for the TV cameras with faux facial hair taped to their cheeks.
“Charlie is actually very methodical and systematic about everything,” said his mother. “So it’s fun to see all this expression. I think that beard lets his personality come through a bit.”
Rockies second baseman DJ LeMahieu is Blackmon’s fishing buddy, his roommate in a condo near the Denver Art Museum and his offseason workout partner.
“To see his dedication to his body, his game and his team is pretty special,” LeMahieu said. “He’s had to work really hard to make himself the player he is.”
Blackmon was a 6-foot-3, 160pound beanpole left-handed pitcher at North Gwinnet High School in Suwanee, Ga., just north of Atlanta. His dream was to attend GeorgiaTech, but theYellow Jackets didn’t recruit him. So he went to play for coach Rick Robinson at Young Harris Junior College in northeast Georgia.
“I’ll tell you what I’m really proud of, something that tells you something about Charlie,” his father said: “At Young Harris, Charlie was doing really well and Georgia Tech started pushing really hard for Charlie to leave after one year.
“We left it for Charlie to decide, but I remember he said, ‘I made a commitment to play for Coach Robinson when I was 18. He reached out to me and helped me reachmy dream.’ SoCharlie stayed two years before going to Tech.”
When his left arm started aching, Blackmon transformed himself into an outfielder. He hit .396 as a junior at Georgia Tech and the Rockies drafted him in the second round in 2008.
He made his big-league debut June 7, 2011, only to fracture his right foot a month later. While he was hobbling around on crutches, he returned to Georgia Tech to finish his degree. In 2013, a staph infection in his right knee cost him the first half of March and scuttled any chance to win an opening-day job.
Through it all, Blackmon kept the faith.
“I try not to worry about stuff,” he said. “God has a plan for everybody and I try to do my part, and it’s more than just the baseball stuff.”
After getting called up fromTriple-A last season, Blackmon hit .309 with a .336 on-base percentage and six home runs.
More than the numbers, managerWaltWeisswas impressed with Blackmon’s drive.
“Charlie is a guy that is always working on his game,” Weiss said. “That’s why he’s getting better and better.”