The Vavra family isn’t used to free time in the spring.
But they’ve found ways to fill it during an unprecedented situation.
The Chi-Hi grad Joe and his Menomonie graduate sons Tanner, Trey and Terrin are all heavily involved in the sport of baseball. But those involvements have taken a backseat this spring as cancellations and postponements to sports leagues in effort to slow the spread of COVID-19 have left the family with more open time during a period of the year when they’re usually busy as ever.
Joe is entering his first season as the hitting coach for the Detroit Tigers, taking over the position under manager Ron Gardenhire after spending his last two years as the team’s quality control coach after joining the organization following the 2017 season. Joe has a long and storied career with baseball, starting from his days as a player in Lafayette through the Chippewa River Baseball League, college at UW-Stout and professionally in the Los Angeles Dodgers organization before transitioning into coaching.
He noted it is ‘quite a bit strange’ to not be around baseball right now but the Chi-Hi graduate has kept himself busy with springtime projects around the house, things he said hasn’t had the time to do this time of the year in nearly 40 years. Joe was at spring training with the Tigers in Lakeland, Fla. when the news of sports leagues cancelling events started to circulate in the middle of last month. He returned home to the area and has kept in contact with his players, taking as much about life and the current situation as anything baseball related.
“We really don’t know when we’re going to get going,” Joe said of the stoppage. “It’s indefinite really.”
Once spring training resumes, Joe said an abbreviated Major League Baseball season could possibly include expanded rosters to start to better allow pitchers to build up their strength and endurance without taxing the full team. Joe previously worked with Tigers manager Ron Gardenhire during their days together with the Minnesota Twins earlier in the 2000s.
Terrin was one of the pro players impacted by the cancellations. A minor leaguer in the Colorado Rockies organization, Terrin was in Arizona when news started to break and after a while he and his teammates knew they would be impacted.
“It just didn’t really feel real,” Terrin said.
A third round pick in the 2018 MLB Amateur Draft, Terrin put together a story first full season in the minors in 2019. The infielder hit .318 with an on-base percentage above .400 to go with 10 home runs and 52 runs batted in across 102 games for Colorado’s Class-A affiliate in Asheville.
Tanner, Trey and Terrin opened Triple Threat Training in Downsville last year, a baseball training facility for youth baseball and softball players. Having that place to stay sharp helps Terrin, but the 22-year old said it’s hard to know how to train when it’s still unclear when teams will return to action.
“The hardest part is managing the time because you really don’t know when you’re going to have to go play. So if we’re 10 weeks out from the season, you don’t want to be working too much right now,” Terrin said. “It’s really hard to know how to go about it because you want to stay in shape but at the same time you don’t want to tax your body too much because eventually there is going to be a season and you’ve just got to make sure you’re ready for it.”
Tanner and Trey already had their season underway as coaches at St. Thomas before the cancellations. The Tommies were off to a 6-1 start before the remaining sporing season was cancelled. Tanner and Trey had accomplished collegiate careers before each were drafted and spent time playing in the Twins organization. This spring marked the first both brothers were to serve as full-time assistant coaches and the abrupt ending to an encouraging start was difficult.
“It was really, really disappointing. It’s not anything different than what everybody else is dealing with too,” Tanner said. “But just seeing the progression that a lot of the guys had made from year one being there to year two, you were just really excited to see what they were able to do and what they were capable of doing and they really came out of the gates hot.”
Trey noted the cancellations will have a significant ‘trickle-down’ impact on the sports, starting at the top with this year’s MLB Amateur Draft on down to the college level as teams look to balance the incoming classes of recruits they already have with seniors who may exercise their right to another year of eligibility. That will also carry over into recruiting where college teams will have less opportunity to see players in person and will have to rely more on video or what they’re told from coaches.
Triple Threat is still able to offer coaching remotely with Tanner saying many clients have been able to send video of them swinging at home for further teaching and analysis.
The family will get the chance to take part in spring outdoor activities such as turkey hunting and the spring fishing openers, things they’ve been too busy to do in the past.
Baseball is missed but the family members also understand the health and safety of the population are the most important thing. So until the game they love returns, the Vavras and others will bide their time, stay safe and do whatever is asked to help.
“It’s impacting everybody,” Joe said. “We’re just part of it and we’re biding by the rules and trying to do the right thing and trying to as they say lessen the curve. It takes everybody involved to do that.”
The original article written by Brandon Berg can be found here:
https://chippewa.com/sports/local/baseball-vavras-adjusting-to-rare-spring-without-baseball/article_43df7cb4-d004-57ae-b1bd-f832b9b6c197.html#tracking-source=home-top-story-1