I had the pleasure of being able to speak with Mariana Bichette, mother of top Yankee prospect Dante Bichette Jr. The following interview delves into how Dante turned into a highly coveted baseball prospect. I found myself reading over the answers to my questions over and over last night, and my initial thoughts on the younger Bichette were confirmed. This kid is not only going to have a long, productive career in the bigs, but he is every bit the excellent person that we all have heard about. Dante Bichette Jr is someone that Yankee (and all baseball) fans can be proud of, and that is a testament to his upbringing.
Trevor
Wolff:
To your average Joe, one would assume that Dante has
a leg up on other prospects considering he’s grown up around Major League
Baseball. How much do you think having
the benefit of growing up with Dante Sr as a father and Uncle Joe (Girardi) has
prepared him for life as a professional baseball player?
Mariana
Bichette:
Our son Bo's middle name is in honor of Joe. So my kids have grown up hearing about our
respect for Joe and Kim, as people. But,
since we have been out of the game and they remain in it we have really hardly
seen them. Still, hearing stories of quality
people who also had big league careers has given my kids the expectation that
they be quality people while they go for the goal of becoming big leaguers.
The benefit of growing up with a big league dad
seems obvious, but this conversation always leaves me conflicted. I'll try to give some insight. First, I always feel a little annoyed by the
assumption because truthfully, it seems that people forget that there are countless
sons of big leaguers that haven't been drafted, or even played in college, or
even in high school. Just like there are
sons of doctors and lawyers and car mechanics that are in the Major
Leagues. So, right or wrong, I think the
assumption is that big league genes = big league player is just not well
thought out. Also, my children were 8
and 3 when their dad retired; so much for growing up around the game. There are kids of front office people who
have much more experience growing up around the game than my kids do. BUT, of course at the same time I see the
countless benefits of having been raised by a father who actually retired TO
teach his children the game.
When Dante J (hereafter referred to as D) was 9, he
hit a home run in a league game. I was
with the boys in Orlando and Dante was in Spring Training in Vero Beach. I told him and about eight hours later he
called me and said "Come help me pack up, I retired. If D has natural ability I better come teach
him this game, and I do not want to miss another home run." Done deal, he retired, and the work
began. Now, through the years I have
seen a number of dedicated fathers, most of who had some baseball experience,
work with, teach, and push their kids. I
absolutely think the fact of Dante having played in the big leagues with good
success and for enough time that he was satisfied to walk away was a different
and better situation for my boys, and will continue to be as they inevitably
will struggle in this game. So, I think
that because my boys learned to listen to their father, and because they have
been repeatedly told about the work that
it takes to survive a big league career, they will have a leg up on other
prospects in that regard. My kids are
not going to chase something like draft day, planning for how much they need in
order to buy a car, and then relax and expect to live the life. No, they are going to learn to continuously
adjust, and to battle and to be thankful every day they are still in this game.
From just the actual baseball perspective, Dante
knows how to evaluate tools and he also knows that it’s the intangibles that
end up determining someones career; he saw too many ultra-talented people not
make it and too many sort of average people have careers. So he knows what plays and what doesn't and
could evaluate D objectively and help to make adjustments where necessary. He knew D had exceptional bat speed, crazy
hand eye coordination, a quick first step and great hands. He also knew that D's arm would get big a
little later, but he still knew it. He knew he could work with all that,
regardless of what anyone else thought or understood about D's tools. And I think his dad's vote of confidence goes
a long way in helping D to believe in himself.
What I do not agree with at all is that a big
leaguer's son would be drafted high because of his lineage ALONE. And what I am saddened by is that
implication. It takes away from the way
D has lived his life and from the work he has already put in. But then I remember that most people,
sometimes especially "experts" just really don't know whole lot about
the process, so I just roll my eyes and let go of it.
Trevor
Wolff:
What were you & your family’s
thoughts/expectations on draft day? Did it come as a pleasant surprise that
Dante was picked by the Yankees? Or were there hints by their staff that he was
going to be their selection if he was available?
Mariana
Bichette:
We knew he would be drafted and we knew it would be
in the first two rounds. I kept a pretty well documented book of team interest,
conversations, attendance, calls, emails, tests, etc. I knew, by the level of evaluator that
continued to touch base, where the strongest interest lied. I don't know how far into the second round he
would have gotten, but he absolutely wouldn't have gotten through that round. There was money to be made by agreeing to ask
for a large amount in order to have other teams pass him up so he could go
later in the draft. And I had all these
conversations with D. Because of the
amount of time he would have had to sit out as per last year's CBA before being
able to get going if he went over slot, holding out for money at a later pick
was out of the question. So his sign
ability was slot money through compensation round and then “get me on the
field.” He planned to go to school if he
couldn't start his career right away.
So, draft day was filled with anticipation. We had EVERYONE praying for the RIGHT team to
take him OR for it to be clear that he should go to school. I fielded calls almost all the way to draft
time, which just goes to reinforce what we knew- that anything could happen,
that the clubs were thinking for themselves, that no one but the club decision
makers knew what was going to happen. So
we just had some friends over, watched the draft, played pool, talked, and
waited. The friends we had over were the
ones who would have been OK to be around if he wasn't taken day one. It wasn't like a draft party, everyone come
see me get drafted kind of thing.
By draft day I had bought into the Yankees. I wanted the Yankees in a serious way. I thought the amount of time they had
invested in getting to know D was impressive. And I thought the variety of eyes
they had on him was great. Some may have
taken it as a negative- like they weren't sure so they kept sending different
people out- but I thought it was a tremendous positive. Lots of clubs do psych tests, each geared to
find the type of player they see as a fit.
There are eye tests, pitch selection tests, everything. So it’s not to say that other clubs aren't
thorough, I just thought that the Yankees were really good that spring. It’s one thing to as a lot of questions and
another to as the right ones.
Anyway, I remember looking at Dante before the draft
and saying, "Oh my gosh, do you realize we have been raising a
Yankee?" Who knew if he'd be one at
the beginning of his career, but I felt like he was one anyway, because of what
he'd handled as a kid, the fishbowl sort of situations he'd been in and lived
through, his natural love of pressure, his ability to deal with both
constructive and ridiculous criticism.
When D came down the stairs in his Yankee hat and Jeter jersey all I
could do is hope his heart wasn't about to be broken, or, that our draft video
would not be of him frantically taking off his Yankee gear and trying to be
excited to be something else.
There was a collective scream of whatever- relief,
joy, fear, excitement, confusion- that came from our house at the moment we all
heard his name and I am going to stop writing about it now so I don't get all
choked up.
Trevor
Wolff:
In my opinion, being a good person off the field is
an underrated characteristic for prospects.
That certainly held true when he would organize trips to visit teammate
Ravel Santana in the hospital last year. He was also one of the representatives
for the RiverDogs on a trip to a Children’s Hospital earlier this season. As a
parent, how do you feel to see your son excel as a player on the field but more
importantly, as a person off of it
Mariana
Bichette:
How do you know about the Ravel trips? That was stomach wrenching and most of the
Dominican players D knew would want to see Ravel didn't have cars in Tampa, so
I think that would have been more stunning if he did not organize trips than it
is great the fact he did, but I was not at all surprised when he did. I have a great picture somewhere of them all
by his bed side.
Back to your statement, I agree, wholeheartedly.
Mostly because even though if you are going to be in the big leagues the entire
first half of your life, and you can get away with being a severely sub par
person if you are good, when you are done you have another half of your life
and its quality is going to be directly related to who you are as a person off
the field. The reason off the field
characteristics are underrated is because a 98mph fast ball or 40 home runs are
what people pay to see, those things are what pay the bills. But still, I agree, and I wish there was
reason to put more emphasis on the quality of person. But you know it is Major
League Baseball, not Major League Good Person.
So I get it.
Obviously, doing well matters and doing extremely
well is great, but I love the struggle too, because if you can persevere that's
where you learn. One hundred million
percent though, my kids could be MVP 20 years straight and if they are crappy
people I will not be proud. Period.
Trevor
Wolff:
I am sure that you’ve heard this question many times
before, but it’s something the readers of Sliding Into Home would love to hear
directly. When Dante hit two homers
against the Astros in Major League camp, what was going through yours &
Dante Senior’s heads? It couldn’t have been scripted any better.
Mariana
Bichette:
D has a knack for those moments. And again, you are right. I could not have made it any better in my mom
dreamland, but I had no problem believing he pulled that off. That was so
fun. We were surrounded by Yankee fans
and until D got in there and we started acting like crazy people, no one knew
who we were, so we got the full Yankee fan experience, haha. When they figured out obviously we had
something to do with D, there was a lot of high fiving, beer buying, and twitter
mentioning. I am glad we have video
because honestly I don't have my own memory.
I just was screaming and we were all hugging and saying thank you to
people like we were the ones who hit the balls...SO FUN.
Unfortunately every time we watch the video I first sound like I fell
off a building and then like I am imitating a train with the longest train
whistle ever. But oh well!