In the backyard of the house I grew up in, there is a well-traveled path from the garage to the back corner, where home plate would be during the wiffleball games played there. That place also became worn out, partly due to the passage of time, but also due to the countless hours I was there alone, throwing a ball at myself with the same cadence:
“Two outs, two strikes, bases loaded in the bottom of the ninth.”
There are probably thousands, and thousands, of those places in backyards from coast to coast, with young baseball and softball players living that same dream in solitude.
On Friday night, Southern Miss third baseman Drey Barrett came to the plate with two outs in the bottom of the ninth, with his team trailing Troy by a score of 6-3. In fact, the bases were full. Southern Miss, as the top seed in the Sun Belt Conference tournament, had earned a bye to the quarterfinals, but was on its last strike.
It was then that Barrett lived that childhood dream:
Barrett hit a 93 mph pitch in the zone, hit a grand slam to deep left field and unleashed chaos in the Golden Eagles dugout.
Here’s another look at Barrett’s golden swing:
The Sun Belt Conference tournament is played in Montgomery, Alabama. Barrett grew up just down the street in Holtville.
Where there is probably a patch of grass in a backyard, similar to the one described above.
“That was an incredible experience,” Barrett he said after the game. “Especially being 20 minutes later. I told his catcher, when I came up to the plate, ‘That’s why we do it, huh?’
“That was the moment you dream about when you’re in the backyard playing wiffle ball with your little brother.”
The sophomore had that moment Friday night.
