For years at Great American Ball Park, a young Ryan Weathers would take batting practice before every game. Before either of the teams rolled up for batting practice, David Weathers would stand in center field, his son just past second base, and the 7-year-old Ryan would hit ball after ball over the 404 sign in center field.
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There is no pitcher in Reds history who has given up more home runs than David Weathers to Ryan Weathers.
One day, though, Ryan wanted to do something different. Instead of hitting before batting practice, Ryan, then 7 or 8, asked his dad if he could hit after the visitors took BP. That would be cutting it close, David said, but they’d give it a try.
“What he’d come to know is that during batting practice, the fans would show up,” David recalled on Wednesday. “He started hitting bombs into the stands and people started cheering him.”
Over the years, few can match the number of baseballs that Weathers cost the Reds, both at Great American Ball Park and in Sarasota, Fla., where he’d take great pleasure in his homers on the half-field rattling the metal roof of the team’s batting cage, some then bouncing into a lake beyond the cages.
“He could drop $20,000 on us and still not replace all the balls he lost,” Reds clubhouse manager Rick Stowe joked.
The elder Weathers first played in Cincinnati in 1998, claimed off waivers from Cleveland. He returned to Cincinnati as a free agent before the 2005 season. In all, David played 19 big-league seasons, six of them — and 341 of his 964 career games — with the Reds.
Ryan, who will start at Great American Ball Park on Thursday for the Padres, was born in 1999 and grew up in the Reds clubhouse during the five seasons from 2005-09.
Ryan didn’t make it to Cincinnati until around game time Wednesday, coming in from El Paso, Texas. Now 21, Weathers made his big-league debut last year in the playoffs against the Dodgers, throwing 1 1/3 scoreless innings at Globe Life Field in Arlington, Texas. This will be the younger Weathers’ second stint with the team this season. He’s 3-2 with a 2.47 ERA in eight starts and 14 games this year.
“When he made the team in April, the first thing he said was, ‘Dad, it’s going to be so cool to go to Cincinnati as a player,'” David Weathers said.
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The elder Weathers is in Florida on vacation with the rest of his family and as of Wednesday afternoon, he was unsure if they’d be able to make it for Ryan’s start at Great American Ball Park.
Regardless, he’ll be watching, and it’ll be as special to the dad as it is to the son.
Although David, known as “Stormy” by just about everyone at GABP, played for nine different big-league teams, he didn’t play as long for any of them as he did the Reds. Cincinnati was also the closest of any of the nine to his home in Tennessee. After Ryan’s high school team won the Tennessee state championship in 2017, David brought the team to Cincinnati for a game.
“That was the team we followed until Ryan got drafted and, still, deep down, it’s still our team because we had such a great time there and all my kids were there,” David said. “Cincinnati will always be a special place for us.”
For so many, it’ll be special to see Ryan pitch here. Even the media members knew Ryan during his time. He was always in the team’s clubhouse, much of the time palling around with Darren Baker, son of then-Reds manager Dusty Baker. The younger Baker just finished his senior year as a second baseman at Cal.
It wasn’t that Darren or Ryan, both of whom had lockers at GABP, were forced to be out on the field. It was that they begged to do it. Those and so many of the other kids of players asked to take BP, to hit in the cages and treat GABP as their own private sandlot.
“It is. That is the biggest service you can do for your kids, let them do what they want to do,” David said. “I told him, when you come in here, you’re not just coming in here to drink and eat Grippo chips, you need to get out and work if you want to work. That’s what he chose. He did that until he graduated high school. I never had to ask him if he wanted to go to the cages or throw a bullpen.”
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He’d often sit on an overturned sunflower seed bucket next to hitting coach Brook Jacoby and watch the likes of Ken Griffey Jr., Joey Votto, Jay Bruce and Adam Dunn. He’d, at the age of 9, station himself at first base and take the throws of Scott Rolen as he took extra infield practice.
It was the greatest education in the game you could ever hope for — and he took advantage of it.
“He stayed out of the way. The kid grew up in the clubhouse,” Stowe said. “He knew how to act. It was almost like when we had the Boones here. They have a different way about them, they’ve been around. It’s funny seeing the kids that come up and you can tell their dads were big leaguers.”
Now, Weathers is teammates with the son of another big leaguer in Fernando Tatis Jr. There’s also the likes of the Dodgers’ Cody Bellinger, the Royals’ Adalberto Mondesi and the Pirates’ Ke’Bryan Hayes. The Blue Jays alone have three second-generation players — Vladimir Guerrero Jr., Bo Bichette and Cavan Biggio. Weathers remembers Biggio from his time in Houston. Like Ryan, the three Biggio boys were always on the field, always in the clubhouse.
David also remembers being with the Yankees in 1996 and Cecil Fielder sending a young Prince Fielder out to shag batting practice with the relievers, telling them, “Don’t let them get killed.” In 2009, as he finished his career with the Brewers, David was teammates with Fielder, who by then was one of the game’s biggest stars.
Reds manager David Bell, like Ryan, grew up in big-league clubhouses. His dad, Buddy, played for four teams, including the Reds, in his 18-year career. (Buddy, of course, was also the son of a big leaguer, Gus Bell.) Growing up in a clubhouse is special, the Reds manager said.
“What a childhood, to be around major-league players all the time, to really try to emulate guys and imitate guys and just be able to watch it that close and care that much about it,” David Bell said. “You’re bound to pick up a lot of great things. For kids growing up loving to play, it’s no surprise to me that a lot of players’ sons have gone on to not only be good players, but also be good teammates and be winning players.”
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Cincinnati, of course, has had more than its fair share of those players — from the Bells to Griffey, Eduardo Pérez, Pedro Borbon Jr. and Pete Rose Jr. (Not to mention the Stowe family running the clubhouse for all of them.) More recently the team had Ivan DeJesús Jr. and Chad Wallach. Even this spring, Dee Gordon was in the team’s camp.
“My favorite part about my major-league time, especially in the clubhouse, has been the kids. I miss it,” said Votto, who debuted with the Reds in 2007 and spent parts of three seasons as David’s teammate. “COVID’s been challenging in a lot of ways, but I think the thing I miss the most is seeing families come together at the end of games. Dusty used to allow kids in the clubhouse. I loved it. We’re here every day, traveling, dads don’t get to see their children and I think it’s just great. To have them in a group — all the players want to take care of the kids too, so it’s a communal effort. Ryan was a really good kid and all the work that he put in over the years paid off because here he is, a major-league player.”
The elder Weathers said he knows his son is looking forward to pitching to Votto.
“I can’t tell you how many times Joey walked by and popped him on the back of the head, he was 8 years old, 9 years old. And now he’s going to face him,” David said. “I know for Ryan, that’s going to be like, ‘I can’t believe I’m going to be facing Joey right here.’ That’s special.”
Votto, though, said he’s happy for Weathers, but he hasn’t thought that much about it. Sure, at one point, Weathers was the chubby kid who was always in the clubhouse, but now he’s a big leaguer. He’s earned his spot, regardless of who his father may be.
“The way I can pay respect is by not looking at him as the kid, the boy I saw in the clubhouse looking at him as a man and coming at him,” Votto said. “That’s the way I respect him. I don’t know what other way to put it other than that’s the way. He’s a peer.”
(Photo of Ryan Weathers: David Zalubowski / Associated Press)
