2007 MLB Preview

Young pays homage to his dad with every at-bat

By MARC TOPKIN
Published April 1, 2007

Delmon Young came up with the idea out of necessity.

Bats with his name on them were suspiciously disappearing too frequently during his first season of pro ball. So when he ordered his next batch of X-Bats, he had them instead labeled COOL LARRY.

It stems from an inside family joke about Delmon's father.

"Cool Larry is short for Uncool," Larry explained. "The kids would always be saying, 'You're so uncool, you don't know nothing,' so I started to call myself Cool Larry."

It couldn't have been a more fitting tribute.

Delmon has natural talent and a brother, Dmitri, in the big leagues, but he probably wouldn't be here if it weren't for his father. Larry spent countless hours working with Delmon on the physical and mental aspects of the game, providing everything from technical advice to theories of situational play, as well as demanding attention and focus.

"My dad was a big influence on me," Delmon said.

What makes their situation different is that Larry, 55, has never played baseball.

"I hated the game," he said. "I absolutely hated it. We had one TV growing up (in Mississippi) and on the weekends my dad watched baseball and dominated the TV when I wanted to watch the cartoons. So that was my experience in baseball."

Larry said he was too scared of failure to play any organized sports as a kid but eventually took karate lessons to build confidence. He spent six years in the Army, worked for a while and reenlisted, then switched to the Navy to become a pilot, eventually flying 14 Tomcats. He now flies commercially for Delta.

When Dmitri first wanted to play baseball at age 7, Larry realized he knew nothing about the fundamentals of the game. He started reading books, studying videos, watching major-league games and talking to coaches at all levels, gleaning enough to start teaching but constantly searching for more information.

When Delmon first signed, then minor-league hitting coach Steve Henderson gave Larry his number, and he called him repeatedly for information, advice and suggestions, once on Thanksgiving Day.

Delmon still considers Larry his primary hitting coach, and Larry continues to seek as much information as he can to pass on.

"It's been fun for me trying to learn," he said.

[Last modified March 31, 2007, 20:42:23]