It’s late Tuesday afternoon at Dodger Stadium and fans start trickling into the stands to watch the Detroit Tigers take batting practice before the night’s game. Amidst it all, 26-year-old Tigers outfielder Brennan Boesch takes center stage in the batting cage. And he’s living a dream’both for himself and hundreds of young Palisadians. After fouling off his first few attempts, the 6-foot-4, 235-pound Boesch finds a rhythm. He crushes one ball deep to center into the outfield bleachers, hooks another around the right-field foul pole, and drills yet another clear over the stadium’s visitors bullpen. It glances off the protecting bushes and bounces literally out the park. Just a blink of an eye ago, though, Boesch hit balls out of a far smaller venue: the Field of Dreams at the Palisades Recreation Center, where he played for the Pacific Palisades Baseball Association from ages eight to 13. After playing for the Dodgers each year with his dad, Phil, as his coach, Boesch moved on to high school at Harvard-Westlake and then played at the Division I level at Cal, where he made the All-Pac-10 first team as a sophomore and hit 10 home runs and 42 RBIs as a junior. Drafted in the third round by the Tigers in 2006, he played four seasons in the minors before moving up to the big leagues in Detroit in 2010. And in a little more than a year, Boesch has quickly become one of baseball’s elite young outfielders. Even still, his days in the PPBA haven’t soon been forgotten. ’Some of my fondest memories are in the PPBA,’ Boesch told the Palisadian-Post before Tuesday’s game. ‘It laid my foundation for a love of the game. I looked forward to playing every chance I got, it was just a great atmosphere and lots of fun. ’It wasn’t super competitive to where it was too much, and I never got burnt out. I made some lifelong friends through the league and have some great memories with my dad. It’s stuff I’ll never forget for the rest of my life.’ And in just his second season in the majors, he has quickly made a lasting impression. After hitting 14 home runs, driving in 67 runs and twice winning the American League Rookie of the Month Award in his first year, the lefty’s numbers have spiked across the board this season. Through Monday this week, he has 10 homers, 38 RBI, scored 53 runs and is hitting a robust .301. Among American League outfielders, he ranks fourth in average and runs, sixth in OPS (on-base plus slugging percentage) and sits in the top 10 in home runs. His recent L.A. homecoming came during a stretch where he played some of the best baseball of his career, hitting .389 with six homers in the month of June, including a 5-of-6 game with 2 home runs and 5 RBIs on June 6 against Texas. Such success has earned Boesch a place in manager Jim Leyland’s everyday lineup, where he regularly hits in the middle-of-the-order alongside two of baseball’s best hitters: 2010 AL MVP runner-up Miguel Cabrera and Victor Martinez, currently hitting .336 (second in the AL). Not bad for someone who dreamt more about taking the mound back in his PPBA days. ’I thought I was going to be a left-handed pitcher in the show one day,’ said Boesch of his early major-league dreams. ‘That was my goal. I liked to hit, obviously, but loved to pitch. But more importantly, I was just having fun playing baseball. And not a lot has changed, honestly.’ It was that love of the game that carried Boesch through the PPBA and over the course of his baseball career’but never in excess. Growing up in an age where travel ball and professional-career projections began dominating baseball’s youth ranks’the father of 21-year-old Braves outfielder phenom Jason Heyward famously told Sports Illustrated that he elected to have his son play baseball year-round because the individual nature of the sport gave him the best chance to play as a professional’Boesch passed on the hellacious travel schedule in favor of a healthy sprinkling of PPBA and a more typical childhood. ’I really wasn’t that kid driving around on the weekends playing in tournaments,’ Boesch said. ‘I played soccer, football, basketball and wasn’t really into travel ball. Once I got to high school, I pretty much stuck with that and didn’t start doing extra baseball until I was a junior to start getting recruited to colleges. ’I had a normal life, did normal things, was a kid and wouldn’t change that. I wasn’t the guy to do one sport. I was playing other sports, and even surfed. I really wasn’t into (surfing) much as a kid, but loved being in the water and I’ve gotten more into it.’ Now, though, Boesch is obviously spending most of his time on the field, perfecting his craft and earning his place on the Tigers. After an up-and-down rookie campaign, he came back in 2011 stronger, motivated and determined to improve his game. ’Your rookie year is like a flash, it happens, then it’s over,’ Boesch said. ‘After the season, I re-grouped, attacked my weaknesses and worked hard to get stronger and more prepared ‘ I worked on my defense, first-step quickness, speed, confidence playing outfield, and attacked the same stuff ‘ strength and conditioning ‘ to be an offensive threat. I never wavered from that and was confident in my routine. ’The second year is a lot better. As a rookie, you have that label all year and it was something I was ready to get behind me. Now, the rookie label’s gone, but I’m still a young player with a lot to prove and learn, so I’m just going to keep trying to get better.’ And while the former PPBA star keeps improving, both at Dodger Stadium and on baseball’s other big stages, the obvious question left for him is simple: how’d he do it? And should today’s PPBA players do the same? ’You have to love baseball, you really do,’ he said ‘There are a lot of talented players out there, but people get weeded out if they don’t love the game. I never lost that love for the game. I put that first, and have fun, enjoy myself on the field and good things happen. ’But you also have to treat it like a job and work at it tirelessly. It has to be first priority behind family and God. If you put your priorities in that order and you love the game, you have a chance. Just make sure you have fun while you’re young and enjoy the PPBA experience, because it’s a unique one.’
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