Jan 09 2008 12:49 PM
Following in Dad's footsteps
Former players themselves, Larry Baker and Kevin Maine helped set the stage for their sons' successes
BY BRIAN HUNSICKER AND LACY LUSK
pnsports@potomacnews.com
Thanks to genetics and maybe even a little fashion sense, Jeff Baker and John Maine took their first steps toward becoming baseball prospects way back when they took their actual first steps.
Maine's father, Kevin, was a 22nd-round pick of the New York Mets in 1969 out of high school in Lyons, N.Y. Baker's father, Larry, made the varsity team at West Point in 1973. Both fathers no doubt passed on a little talent for and knowledge of the game of baseball.
In a moment of foreshadowing, Jeff Baker was wearing an "All-American Baseball Player" outfit when he came from the hospital after he was born. Now he's a preseason All-American as Clemson's third baseman.
"My wife had to stay at the hospital, so I picked out the outfit Jeff wore home," Larry Baker said of the couple's only child. "It was a little blue jumpsuit with a little baseball and those words on it. I tell my wife [Dawn] that he was destined to be a baseball player."
The Bakers moved to Prince William County in 1990, prior to Jeff's fourth-grade year. Before Jeff was to start the 11th grade at Gar-Field High School, the U.S. Army requested to send his father to Arizona. Instead, Larry retired as a lieutenant colonel after 24 years of service so the family could stay put.
Jeff was born in Germany but the family moved to El Paso, Texas, before his first birthday. Thanks to his father's occupation, Jeff saw much more of the world by the time he went to Gar-Field; the Bakers lived in Phoenix for two years, at West Point for three, in the Persian Gulf for two and in Norfolk for one.
Until Jeff went to Woodbridge Middle School, Larry was the head coach of all of his teams. In middle school and at Gar-Field, Larry served as an assistant coach every season. The father-son team's most unusual experience may have come in the Persian Gulf, as the family lived in the nation known as the United Arab Emirates.
"You talk about something interesting; it's teaching Arab children how to play T-ball," said Larry Baker, who helped start just such a league. "They would sometimes run to third base first. Or hit the ball and say, 'Do we still run?' "
Jeff Baker was more of a natural than those players. His grandfather, Glen, played high school baseball and was on a state championship team in Ohio. And his father played for Army's junior varsity team as a freshman and was on the varsity roster as a sophomore. But Larry had a torn anterior cruciate ligament in his right knee, and decided not to have the surgery so he still could be commissioned in a combat arm of the military.
To this day, the 48-year-old computer science teacher hasn't had surgery performed on his knee. "It hurts, but I don't know if that's the injury or old age," he said.
Injuries also forced Kevin Maine from the game. He spent two years in the Mets' organization getting as high as Class A. Then came the arm troubles and then came his release.
After giving up on baseball, Maine went back to school, enrolling at the University of Rochester.
Maine's journey eventually took him to Virginia. He enrolled at U.Va. to get his master's degree, and planned on ultimately getting his doctorate.
But other plans interrupted the trip.
"If was I going to [teach], I wanted to stay in school long enough to get a Ph.D. and teach at the collegiate level," said Maine, who instead went the high school route and is now in his 26th year of teaching English at North Stafford. "But I kind of burned out on school, then got a job, and the next thing you know I've got a kid and there are bills to pay. It just didn't pan out."
Three states, 500 miles and years away from his hometown, Maine recalls the memories. Lyons is a small town, but had excellent athletics for a town its size.
"It was a very unique town in that it was a small school, but they always played the AAA schools. They were very good," Maine said. "For some reason, it was almost like a mecca of really, really good athletes."
One basketball player a few years ahead of Maine played at Boston College under then-coach Bob Cousy, who made his name as one of the best point guards in NBA history with the Boston Celtics.
Perhaps the town's most famous athletic alumnus is current Syracuse University basketball coach Jim Boeheim.
"He graduated in '62, the same year my brother did," Maine said of Boeheim. "But I remember playing pickup games behind his house on their basketball court."
As for the Maines, baseball was the family game. Kevin's oldest brother also had a stint in the minor leagues, and Kevin's other brother played collegiately.
With John a successful pitcher at UNC-Charlotte and one of the most promising pitchers in the upcoming draft, the sport of baseball, it seems, is the family heirloom.
"He pushed me on as a kid," John said. "He gave me the ball and told me to go out there and do it."
During John's time at North Stafford, Kevin served as one of the team's assistant coaches. Often, Kevin said, the difference between coach and father wasn't easy to distinguish.
"I coached until he graduated, and it's always been difficult for me to separate the coaching persona from the father persona," Kevin said.
That makes it easier to understand when listening to father talk about son; in one breath, Kevin knows John's shortcomings, and in the next, he's hopeful for his son's shining future.
"[Last year] he was 19 years old. He's still got a lot to learn, an awful lot," Kevin said. "But his progress has been in leaps and bounds.
"He just has the absolute determination and the ability and the physique, which is key in this case with what he needs to do."