ST. LOUIS — It’s amazing behind so many successful athletes, there is usually a really dedicated mother.
Little Leaguers have about a .029 chance of making it to the big leagues.
But Andrea DeJong got an early heads up that her son, Paul DeJong, was going to the show.
“The third base coach came up to me and said, ‘Your son’s going to play in the major leagues someday,’ and of course as a mom I thought, wow how does he know, Paul’s only 5 years old,” she said.
That coach was dead on.
Paul is not only a big leaguer, he’s an All-Star who is the only Cardinal short stop in history to hit 30 homers in a season. And on the subject of homers – his mom was pretty superstitious at the time.
“It was a hot day and I was sitting there and I thought, I really need to put a little bit of lipstick or Chapstick on so I looked down in my purse and I heard the crack of the bat, and I knew I was in trouble. So, I looked up and I saw his first homerun go over the fence, so I missed the swing and I thought, I’m really failing here,” she said. “I thought, maybe the next time he gets up he’ll hit another one for me, so I held onto my Chapstick, and I stared, and sure enough he hit another home run.”
It’s amazing Paul had time to play travel baseball as a kid. Andrea is an executive with Disney, so he had free run of the park.
“The movies, the lifestyle, the parks, the food, the entertainment – it was just part of my childhood.” Paul said.
Andrea was with him every step of the way in that childhood, she was his rock.
“She just fulfilled any role that needed to be filled,” he said. “Whether it was giving me a pep talk when I was feeling down, cutting up some cherries and taking the pits out, taking us anywhere, driving across the country to take us to baseball tournaments.”
And it’s a relationship that keeps getting better and better.
“I got a two-bedroom place now this year so whenever she does come to town, I have her room all set up,” he said. “I think we’re growing and evolving in our relationship, trying to see her as much as I can.”
“I look forward to talking to him, whether it’s FaceTime or certainly in the stands would be my preference,” Andrea said. “I’m looking forward to lots of great things this season once we get it started.”
You can bet, when Andrea is not in Busch Stadium watching Paul, she’s at home watching him on TV.
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