How a neighbor and a Blake Street Bomber enabled “a natural” to flourish
Brendan Rodgers, the Rockies’ top prospect who made his muchawaited debut Friday in Philadelphia, probably wouldn’t have truly pursued baseball had it not been for two men.
One was his neighbor, Ralph Nenna, who was his first coach and convinced Rodgers’ socceroriented parents to let him try the sport. The other — as baseball fate would have it — was one of the Blake Street Bombers, Dante Bichette, who immediately saw what scouts saw many years later.
Rodgers — a 22-year-old infielder who carries the expectation of becoming the next franchise player — has always been “a natural.”
“I remember he was 6 and one of the first things his dad told me was, ‘Hey, we don’t know a lot about baseball, so I think we might put him back in soccer,’ ” said Bichette, who watched Rodgers grow up on the diamond while playing with his son Bo in Florida.
“I was like, ‘Listen, I don’t know how good he is at soccer — he might be the next Pele — but I can tell you right now, the kid has a serious future in baseball.’ ”
The message from the former Rockies star reaffirmed what Greg and Julie, Rodgers’ parents, had been told when being pressured by Nenna into letting Rodgers play baseball.
“(Nenna) would not take no for an answer, and was almost a bit over the top about it,” Julie recalled with a laugh.
“I was like, ‘Listen, I don’t know how good he is at soccer — he might be the next Pele — but I can tell you right now, the kid has a serious future in baseball.’ ” Former Rockies outfielder Dante Bichette on a young Brendan Rodgers
That’s because Nenna, the father of Rodgers’ childhood best friend, had seen all the proof he needed in an initial soft-toss session in his backyard.
“I knew there was something going on with him from his first swing, because he was still 5 at that time and he hadn’t even picked up a bat prior to that,” Nenna said.
Nenna’s intuition was confirmed in Rodgers’ first batting practice session at an actual field a couple of months later, where he hit a ball over the fence.
“When he was about 7, I was still a young man then, and I would try to strike him out in the cage in my backyard,” Nenna said. “I would stand 30 feet away and throw the ball as hard as I could to get it past him, and he’d put a barrel on the ball.”
Bichette cited the wunderkind being “fearless and aggressiveness,” saying Rodgers moved on the diamond in ways small elementary-school children weren’t supposed to and that “he attacked the game so hard that there was no chance he wasn’t going to be a very, very good player someday.”
Now, that “very, very good player” and former firstround draft choice is getting his first big-league shot at proving the hype true. It’s hype that was rooted in daily sessions in Nenna’s backyard, was amplified by the early endorsement of Bichette and, by the time Rodgers reached Lake Mary High School, had become hard to ignore.
“I had heard a lot about him as a younger kid coming in, but the first time I realized he was truly special, we were over in Daytona playing his freshman year and he hit a game-winner over the left-field fence, way gone,” said Rodgers’ high school coach, Allen Tuttle. “The next day, on social media, everybody was saying that he must have a juiced bat. … They didn’t think a small, skinny kid like that could hit it that far.”
Through his growing notoriety, and the plethora of scouts that followed him around his junior and senior seasons, the right-hander who could hit for power and average didn’t let his focus waver.
“He remained so passionate and focused on the love of the game itself,” Nenna said. “That was the big difference, and that’s what helped him keep growing as a player.”
That level-headed, in-the-moment mind-set helped him adjust to pro ball after Rodgers’ signed a franchise-record $5.5 million bonus as the No. 3 overall selection in 2015.
Even as a high school pick, he quickly settled into the minor-league system, and then dealt with the adversity of a tweaked hamstring and a shoulder injury late in last year’s season a year ago after being promoted to Triple-a Albuquerque. The shoulder issue, which Rodgers described as a “freak injury” that occurred as a result of an imbalanced swing, kept him from consideration for a September callup and cost him a spot on the team’s Arizona Fall League roster.
Rockies farm director Zach Wilson expounded on the importance of Rodgers’ “professional maturity” as the natural shortstop developed himself at third and second over the past several seasons, and as Rodgers patiently waited for his big-league debut.
“We have to remember Brendan Rodgers is only 22 years old,” Wilson said. “He’s been focused on waking up in the morning and doing everything he can so that by the time he goes to bed that night, he’s a little bit better. He’s focused on that more than he’s focused on what’s next for him.”
But now, what’s next for Rodgers is a rookie’s proving ground in the majors, where he’ll lean on his passion for the game that’s enabled him to meet high expectations at every level up to this point.
“You can’t take the game for granted,” Rodgers said. “I’ve been through ups and downs my whole career in the minor leagues, and I’ve wanted to be a big-leaguer since I was 6 years old. I just kept going (with that love) and trying to reach that goal, whether I was hitting .250 or .400 at the time. I kept going and going, and I’m finally here.”