By: Micheal McDonald – October 12, 2013

Everyone has someone that teaches them the wonderful game of baseball. Most fathers teach their sons about Babe Ruth, and how he has the most home runs in one season, because he hit 60 home runs in a 154 game schedule. Then they tell them about Roger Maris, who it 61 home runs in 1961, and went head-to-head with his roommate/teammate Mickey Mantle. Mantle who ended up with 54 home runs on the year made a historic chase for the homerun crown. Then thirty years later, Hollywood superstar Billy Crystal directed the movie 61*. The movie that featured Barry Pepper as Roger Maris and Thomas Jane as Mickey Mantle and their legendary chase of the most sacred record in baseball. I’m here to tell you about my grandfather, Frank Fiamingo, who is the reason why I chase the big league dream. I wasn’t instilled with the talent of a Clayton Kershaw or Jose Reyes, but he filled me with the desire to be the best in the game that I love most.

My father passed away in a terrible car accident three months before I was born. My sister Deanna who was a year old at the time survived with a broken collarbone. Three months later I was born, almost 8 weeks premature on my fathers birthday. At a little over a year old, my mother decided to pack us up from the home of little league baseball (Williamsport, PA) and move us to sunny Myrtle Beach, SC. We would spend our first few years living with my grandparents where my grandfather and I would watch the Mets on WWOR and we would make the trek out to Coastal Carolina to watch the Chanticleers during the college season. Then come April, we would get to see the likes of Carlos Delgado, Alex Gonzalez, and many others come up through the Blue Jays system with the Myrtle Beach Hurricanes. Needless to say, this is how it all started.

While most of you know me as an area scout for The Diamond Prospects, my journey started off at Socastee High School where I was an unheralded prospect/lightly-recruited catcher trying to chase the dream. I graduated in 2002 and attended Francis Marion University where I planned to walk-on and be drafted in the first round and sign for at least a million dollars. However, I was unaware of when walk-on tryouts were and ended up joining Pi Kappa Alpha Fraternity and living the frat boy dream.

I bounced around getting my grades together and after a while I went to Coastal Carolina, signed on with the Atlanta Braves and helped Billy Best cover North and South Carolina, while doing charts for the Myrtle Beach Pelicans and convincing myself that Billy cared what I had to say, all that really meant anything was that my grandfather was proud of the non-paying position the Atlanta Braves had bestowed upon me. My grandfather is the reason I continue to do what I love more than anything. I am so happy he taught me this beautiful game. While I have worked in baseball ops with the Atlanta Braves, Toronto Blue Jays, Diamond Prospects, and have done Statistical Analysis for Baseball Info Solutions, I just hope that he is proud of what I have accomplished.

My grandfather passed away recently at the age of 95, and while I never had to ask him, I know he is proud of what I have accomplished. I won’t say that I did it all for him, but, to say he didn’t have a lot to do with it would be a full truth. I can never thank him enough for teaching me this wonderful game. I will be indebted to him forever because of it. When I didn’t have a father, he was there. God couldn’t have blessed me with a better person to step in. I hope everyone that reads this takes a minute to thank the person that taught them the awesome game of baseball. I know I told him a hundred times, but, while he laid there deceased under an American Flag (he served in the Air Force in WWII)I thanked him again, just to make sure he knew, not only what he meant to me but to thank him for teaching me the game of baseball.

-Michael J. McDonald Jr.

*A special thank you to Austin Alexander for encouraging me write this tribute.