In the backyard of the house I grew up in, there is a well-worn path from the garage to the back corner, where home plate would be during the wiffleball games that were played back there. That spot was worn down as well, partly due to the passage of time, but also due to the countless hours I was back there alone, tossing a ball to myself with the same cadence:
“Two outs, two strikes, bases loaded in the bottom of the ninth.”
There are likely thousands, upon thousands, of such spots in backyards from coast-to-coast, with young baseball and softball players living out that very 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. The bases were indeed loaded. Southern Miss, as the top seed in the Sun Belt Conference tournament, had earned a bye to the quarterfinals but was down to its last strike.
That is when Barrett lived that childhood dream:
Barrett turned on a 93-mph pitch down in the zone, blasting a grand slam to deep left field and kicking off bedlam in the Golden Eagles’ dugout.
Here is another look at Barrett’s golden swing:
The Sun Belt Conference tournament is played in Montgomery, Alabama. Barrett grew up just down the road, in Holtville.
Where there is likely a patch of grass in a backyard, similar to the one described above.
“That was an incredible experience,” Barrett said after the game. “Especially being from 20 minutes down the road. I told their catcher, when I got to the plate, ‘This is why we do it, huh?’
“That was the moment you dream of when you’re in the backyard playing wiffle ball with your little brother.”
The sophomore lived that moment on Friday night.