He grew up in the shadow of that other Sin City phemon, but rookie of the year Kris Bryant has quickly become one of the brightest talents in the game. Exactly as his dad planned it.
The father of last year’s national league rookie of the year puts a ball on a tee, picks out a point in the upper right corner of the enclosed batting cage and tells a 12-year-old boy to swing away.
In his backyard west of the Las Vegas Strip, Mike Bryant is trying to teach yet another kid to be like his son Kris.
Yes, that Kris, the Cubs’ 24-year-old All-Star third baseman. In his first major league season last year, he posted a .369 on-base percentage, 26 home runs and 99 RBIs. As such, Mike’s hitting lessons have picked up—parents want their children coached by the man who brought Kris forth. The man who’s agonized over his own brief pro career and has spent years passing lessons learned from father to son. The man who has become the greatest entry point to Kris, a preternatural talent who prefers to let his on-field play speak for him.
Mike’s student takes an uneasy cut at the teed-up ball and squibs a grounder up the middle. “Elevate it!” Mike says, his Boston accent booming off the walls, a Cubs hat pulled over his bald head. “Feel what your body’s doing.” He adjusts the boy’s feet, tells him to open up his hips a little more. “You need the right knowledge,” Mike says. “Believe me, I’m not wrong. I’ve spent the past 15 years being vindicated and validated.”
As proof, Kris’ likeness hangs in the batting cage on a massive banner that adorned Wrigley Field last season, a gift to Mike from Cubs president Theo Epstein. There’s a jersey Kris wore at the University of San Diego, where he hit 31 home runs in his junior year—more than 223 Division I teams that season—and made himself into the No. 2 pick in the 2013 draft. Kris’ bronzed cleats from his first major league at-bat are mounted to a plaque on the wall.
The kid drives a ball to the upper corner.
This story is from the March 28,2016 edition of ESPN The Magazine.
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This story is from the March 28,2016 edition of ESPN The Magazine.
Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 8,500+ magazines and newspapers.
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