A grandpa’s influence
Tuesday, May. 6, 2008 @ 1:02 am
Rod Scurry’s love of baseball was started by his father, but it is continued by his grandfather
Photo by Rebecca Chase/Nevada Sagebrush
When Rod Scurry was a kid playing little league baseball he would bend the bill of his hat so much that the top of his bill came to a v-shaped point.
Scurry thought it was cool, but his grandfather thought it shielded his peripheral vision.
“He would say ‘you can’t see anything,’ so I went and got a new hat the very next day and left (the bill) straight,” the Wolf Pack pitcher said. “Now I just buy hats and put them on, never bending the bill.”
Scurry’s grandfather said he had a friend in little league that wore a hat with the same exaggerated v-shaped bill and he was hit in the face with a baseball because he didn’t see it. His grandfather was trying to keep the same thing from happening to his grandson.
The act epitomized the love Scurry’s grandfather gave his grandson throughout his life.
Scurry’s grandparents raised him after his dad died of a cocaine-induced heart attack in 1992. His mother, who was busy raising two children and working her own business, called her parents in Florida and asked if they would help take care of her children.
“Laura (Scurry’s mother) called and said ‘things weren’t good,’ ” Jim Gerling, Scurry’s grandfather, said. “We flew out as fast as we could and she asked if we would stay for a while.”
Gerling, and his wife Pat, decided to move to Reno where they helped their daughter raise Scurry and his sister for more than a decade.
“I can’t help but be proud of him,” Gerling said. “I’m really not trying to brag, he is a great kid.”
Scurry’s father, also named Rod, was drafted by the Pittsburgh Pirates in 1976 and played eight seasons in the major leagues, 1980-1988.
His dad battled some of the best major league hitters of that decade, but it was his cocaine addiction that proved toughest.
Scurry’s father was one of several baseball players investigated in the 1980s for cocaine abuse problems. In 1985, Rod Scurry Sr. was brought before the Pittsburgh Grand Jury for his involvement in the Pittsburgh drug scandal.
The players were granted immunity from prosecution in exchange for testimony before the Pittsburgh Grand Jury.
Rod Scurry Sr. had entered a drug treatment facility the year before the indictments, but still was called to testify. Among other players who admitted to cocaine use were Tim Raines Sr., Keith Hernandez and Vida Blue.
In 1992, Rod Scurry Sr. collapsed at his home after using cocaine and was taken to intensive care where he died.
The younger Scurry mostly remembers his father through pictures and stories told by his grandfather.
“We were in the backyard and my grandpa was catching (my dad) at the time and he was just out there throwing,” Scurry said. “My dad called a curveball and my grandpa who was 6-foot-4 jumped up and stuck his hand in the air, but it dropped so much that it hit him in the foot and he fell over. I couldn’t help but laugh at that.”
Scurry would spend hours playing baseball, basketball and football with his friends in his grandparents neighborhood, Gerling said.
His grandfather loved baseball, but he also got his grandson involved in football.
Scurry was a wide receiver at Galena High School and lettered one year in football, two in baseball.
“His grandmother was worried he would get hurt. I said ‘you can get hurt walking down the street,’” Gerling said. “I thought it would be good for him.
“I never believed in the spare the rod and spoil the child idea. Every now and then a boy needs a good old fashion ass whooping, as long as it’s on the behind of course.”
Scurry was High Desert Pitcher of the Year his senior year of college under coach Gary McNamara.
“He was a great kid, just like he is now,” McNamara, who now coaches outfielders at Nevada, said. “He’s always been a high energy kind of guy.”
Scurry displays his high energy before every game with an unorthodox pre-game ritual called the crazy dance.
The dance was induced after he and Nevada catcher Travis Simas were chucker hunting in Northern Nevada. They had walked 10-miles while hunting and were exhausted—so Scurry started dancing.
Scurry’s crazy dance involves a wild flailing of limp limbs, demonstrating the senior’s fun-loving personality.
Scurry performed the dance again before the second game of last weekend’s Fresno State series. The Wolf Pack won the next three games of the series.
“We needed to loosen up after the first game (of the Fresno State series) and Rod did the crazy dance,” Simas said. “It’s turning into a pre-game ritual.”
Hunting has always been an important part of Scurry’s life. When he was younger he would go hunting with his father and grandfather.
“My dad loved hunting and baseball,” Scurry said. “I have a lot of memories that me and my grandfather talk about still.”
Scurry’s grandfather said he remembers his stepson as being a fun guy to be with, to hunt with and to play sports with.
“He was a hell of a guy,” Gerling said.
Scurry is graduating with a degree in Criminal Justice next week.
“He is very smart and very talented,” Gerling said. “He’s always been a step better than other kids. I think he has a chance to be a good professional pitcher.”
Scurry has been pursued by three different Major League Baseball teams:
- Colorado Rockies—2005, drafted in 39th round
- Cincinnati Reds—2006, pursued through free agency
- Seattle Mariners—2007, drafted in 31st round
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