This is Milwaukee Brewers bench coach Jerry Narron’s 2-year old grandson throwing out the first pitch before Monday’s 1-0 win against the Miami Marlins. Three observations.
1. The YouTube description says he’s JOHNNY Narron’s grandson, but the announcers clearly identify him as Jerry’s. Jerry’s the bench coach for the Brewers and Johnny’s the hitting coach. I’m gonna trust the guys who get paid to talk about the Brewers every day, and not the Internet. Or, you know, it’s a ‘My Two Dads’ situation where they’re both his grandfather.
2. He refuses to throw the pitch from the grass because that’s not how REAL pitchers do it, earning him BOSS 2-YEAR OLD INFAMY. And yeah, he doesn’t exactly fireball it in (he’s two), but his pitch is legitimately better than Carly Rae Jepsen’s. At least his went straight, and didn’t destroy anybody’s camera.
3. Before I mention it, watch the clip:
Something about this is really bugging me. Watch the kid’s mom. She’s physically trying to control him and get him as close to the catcher as possible. He has to break free from her and run to the mound, to throw the pitch where people actually pitch. As he’s doing it, the Mom starts trying to wave up the catcher. The catcher goes LOL F**K YOU HE’S GONNA THROW IT GET OUTTA THE WAY.
Parents, you’ve gotta stop (1) underestimating your kids, and (2) trying to protect them from embarrassment or failure. His mom just assumes he’s going to do a terrible job, totally unaware that he’s being bad-ass. She’s just shuffling around with an “oh well!” look on her face. I hate it. Loving your kid isn’t just coddling them and holding their shoulders and moving their arm forward when they throw a baseball and then clapping and saying GOOD JOB TAYLOR or whatever, it’s having the basic confidence to say “I did a good job, let’s see where this goes.”
I mean, what’s the worst that can happen? He doesn’t make it to the catcher? HE’S TWO.
