Baseball Hosts Inaugural Leadoff Dinner
2/13/2019 3:26:00 PM | Baseball
Max Muncy, others returned to celebrate start of 2019 season.
By Jerry Hill
Baylor Bear Insider
Family, the same thing that first attracted Max Muncy to Baylor 10 years ago, is the same thing he sees in the baseball program with coach Steve Rodriguez.
"The way the coaching staff welcomed me in, it was more like you were joining a family," said Muncy, who spoke at the first Baylor Baseball Leadoff Dinner last week after making a big splash last season with the Los Angeles Dodgers. "From what I can tell with Coach Rodriguez, talking to him and the coaching staff now, nothing has changed. They try to make it feel like a family when you come here, and that's the best way to do it."
Rodriguez, who begins his fourth season at the helm with a four-game series this weekend against Holy Cross, said anyone who has played for the Bears is "part of the family."
"I don't care who you played for, you are part of the family," Rodriguez said. "You've come here and you've done something very special to allow Baylor to get the notoriety and recognition it currently has, the facilities that we currently have.
"When they have the success that they have in professional baseball . . . getting to where you hope most of our guys want to be, it is an absolute gift to have those guys come back and just feed into them all the information they're willing to take in. What a blessing it is to have that kind of personality come out and share his time, when he's getting pulled in a lot of different directions. He made it clear that it was a pretty big priority for him to be able to do that, because someone did that when he was here."
A two-time All-Big 12 pick who hit .311 with 27 homers in his three-year career at Baylor, Muncy said he didn't realize until after he left school "that's exactly where I was supposed to be, that's exactly where God wanted me to go."
"I wouldn't change a single thing," he said. "If I had to do it all over again, I would definitely choose Baylor."
One of the highlights of the dinner was each of the players introducing their teammates, something Rodriguez had done in his previous stop at Pepperdine.
"It's probably one of the more fun parts of the evening, because guys get to show their personalities or sense of humor, their lack of sense of humor, their inability to talk in front of people," Rodriguez said. "That's what makes it fun is you get to see all those little things that a lot of people never get to see on the baseball field. They get to share some insight into our guys that a lot of people never really see."
Going into the event, Rodriguez said there was some anxiety "trying to figure out who's going to show up, but the big thing is we wanted the community to be able to come out and share something with baseball."
"I want them to see our guys and meet our guys, because we have some tremendous kids on this team," he said. "It's really important, because this community is full of great people with great connections. And I want them to be able to connect those ties."
After the player introductions, fifth-year senior outfielder Richard Cunningham addressed the crowd at the Baylor Club and talked about how "the momentum behind this program is unbelievable."
"I just want to tell you, it's so far beyond baseball," Cunningham said. "This past fall, we had a guy named Ryan Bertelsman on our team get baptized. We had half the baseball team there supporting him and cheering him on as he took on that spiritual endeavor. I cannot tell you just how deeply it goes."
After Cunningham performed the wedding services for three of his former teammates in the last year, "I was waiting for him to go ahead and marry someone while he was up there," Rodriguez said.
"When he talks, he has such a gracious heart, and you can just see God pouring out of him in so many different ways," Rodriguez said of Cunningham. "He just lures people to him. It's a gift to be able to do that. When people talk, and they have the ability to actually have people want to listen to them, it's pretty special."
Ranked as high as 12th in the preseason polls, the Bears open the season with a game against Holy Cross at 6:35 p.m. Friday at Baylor Ballpark. The series continues with a doubleheader at 1:05 p.m. Saturday and a single game at 12:05 p.m. Sunday.
Junior catcher Shea Langeliers and left-handed pitcher Cody Bradford were named to the 55-player Golden Spikes Award preseason watch list that honors the top amateur baseball player in the country. Langeliers, Bradford, junior third baseman Davis Wendzel and sophomore shortstop/pitcher Nick Loftin were named to the preseason All-Big 12 team.
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