{"id":27516,"date":"2025-01-19T14:03:01","date_gmt":"2025-01-19T14:03:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sportnews.azontree.com\/?p=27516"},"modified":"2025-01-19T14:03:01","modified_gmt":"2025-01-19T14:03:01","slug":"atlanta-ballplayers-share-competition-big-league-dream","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sportnews.azontree.com\/?p=27516","title":{"rendered":"Atlanta ballplayers share competition, big league DREAM"},"content":{"rendered":"
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TEMPE, Ariz. — There\u2019s an old adage that youth baseball players often hear when starting the journey toward reaching their dreams in the sport they love. At its core, the phrase is some version of, \u201cIt doesn\u2019t matter where you are, as long as you can play, coaches will find you.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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It\u2019s an ethos that rests at the heart of MLB\u2019s\u00a0DREAM Series, which invites 80 predominately Black high school prospects to Arizona to receive intense baseball instruction and off-the-field guidance from former and current big leaguers, aimed at closing the opportunity gap to help them reach the next level of baseball.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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But if you ask a certain sect of the 2025 participants — specifically, the four prospects based out of Atlanta — they\u2019d politely push back on the first part of the saying. It\u2019s a unique source of pride to hail from Georgia\u2019s capital, a hotbed for youth baseball talent that has produced such big leaguers as Michael Harris II and Lawrence Butler, and 2022 No. 4 overall Draft pick Termarr Johnson.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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  • DREAM Series building up Black catching prospects<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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    \u201cI describe Atlanta baseball as a competitive, humbling experience,\u201d said Carson Ray, an infielder who will graduate high school in 2026. \u201cIt\u2019s rough, man. Everybody\u2019s good, you just got to try to stand out, be the diamond in the rough.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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    Said Butler: \u201cIt\u2019s so competitive, because there’s a saying in Atlanta that everybody thinks they\u2019re a celebrity — so it\u2019s the same thing on the field. Everybody thinks they\u2019re the best player out there. We all go hard, compete with each other. And at the end of the day, when the game is over, we\u2019re still friends. It\u2019s friendly competition. Everybody\u2019s trying to win — we don\u2019t want to lose the bragging rights to our bros.\u201d<\/p>\n

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    The Atlanta ties were heavy at this year\u2019s DREAM Series: Ray; fellow 2026 graduates Royce Woodson and Jonathan Griggs; and 2027 graduate Justice Morrison were among the players working out at Tempe Diablo Stadium, the most of any city. Instructors Marquis Grissom (who is from Atlanta and won a World Series in 1995 with the Braves) and Marvin Freeman (pitched for the Braves from 1990-1993) lent their assistance to the outfielders and pitchers. And current Major League talents Harris, Butler and Tampa Bay\u2019s Taj Bradley (all DREAM Series alumni) showed up to give pointers and impart wisdom on Friday.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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    More than any, the Atlanta congregation is representative of the generative power of positive examples of Black baseball players having ripple effects through a community. Grissom fondly recalls the impact that the legendary Hank Aaron had on him as a young Black baseball fan growing up in the city, coinciding with Aaron\u2019s relationship with Martin Luther King Jr. and U.N. Ambassador and Atlanta Mayor Andrew Young exemplifying how to lead within one\u2019s community. Harris cites seeing Grissom and his youth baseball organization influence Black baseball within the city, and he hopes that he and his fellow Atlanta big leaguers can return the favor that those before them completed.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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    \u201cI think it just helps them seeing us and knowing that we\u2019re from the same spot where they\u2019re from, and that we\u2019re doing what they want to do,\u201d Harris said. \u201cIt gives them a lot of motivation, and it puts a smile on our face, because we know who is behind us.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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    \u201cThere are kids from our same spot, who are trying to come up and do the same thing — we see them at these camps and different events — it puts a smile on our face to see them doing something good.\u201d<\/p>\n

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    And those rosy feelings are certainly reciprocated by the DREAM Series\u2019 participants this year.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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    \u201cThey\u2019re looking out for us,\u201d Woodson said. \u201cSo, hopefully, when I get there one day, I want to do the same thing for the youth coming up, too. It also makes me a better player, learning from them.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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    The familiarity forged in years of facing off against one another in high school games, playing on the same teams in travel ball and seeing each other at MLB Develops events has deepened each time they step on the field.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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    And as they continue to grow in close quarters, these prospects are able to use events like the DREAM Series as a measuring stick — a litmus test to understand where they can improve in comparison to their peers, so that when they return home they can advance to the best versions of themselves, to continue sharpening iron against iron in one of the most competitive youth baseball landscapes in the country.<\/p>\n

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    \u201cI pretty much know all of those kids \u2026 but I\u2019ve seen them play before, and it\u2019s a beautiful thing to see those guys get a chance to come here and see where they stack up against everybody else in the country,\u201d Grissom said. \u201cSo now, when you get a chance to get back home, you see you\u2019re really not the player you thought you were, and now you have work to do.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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    \u201cThat\u2019s what I love about it. As coaches, instructors, teachers and mentors — you can tell a kid a whole bunch and give him a whole bunch of information, but until he experiences it and realizes that there are a couple of players who are a little bit better, it kind of rewards us as a coach. That we\u2019re doing the right thing, that we\u2019re putting them in the right direction.\u201d<\/p>\n

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    But even if humbling moments may arise, with tough batting practice sessions and missed ground balls cropping up (as is the nature of the game we love), there\u2019s an almost unshakeable confidence that rests within the Atlanta natives. And with the beacons of their predecessors\u2019 success and guidance to follow, this current crop at the DREAM Series arrive at the same message to the rest of the baseball world.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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    \u201cWe\u2019re coming, and we\u2019re ready,\u201d Morrison said. \u201cAnd we\u2019re always going to be ready to compete.\u201d<\/p>\n

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    TEMPE, Ariz. — There\u2019s an old adage that youth baseball players often hear when starting the journey toward reaching their dreams in the sport they love. 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