Alex Dickerson (bleacherreport.com)
He began his journey on a baseball field, and his name was Alexander. No one knew it then, but his destiny was already written.
Alex Dickerson, son and grandson of Naval Officers, was drafted by the Pittsburgh Pirates in the first pick of the third round of this year’s Major League Baseball draft. According to Indystar.com, “He’s one of the most highly decorated players in Hoosiers baseball history, having won the 2010 Big Ten triple crown with a .419 batting average, 24 home runs and 75 RBIs. He’s tied for first in IU history with 47 career home runs. Dickerson was the Big Ten Freshman of the Year in 2009, the Player of the Year in 2010, earning first-team All-American honors; and was first team All-Big Ten this season.”
Oh, and he was just a junior.
He comes from good stock. His father, an award-winning football and track star during his high school and college years, was a Naval Flight Officer who flew several combat missions over Iraq. His grandfather, a PBY pilot, saw combat during the battle of Midway.
Alex was destined to play baseball, and I suppose, to swing a mighty bat. After all, his father was at the plate, bat in hand, when Alex’s mother, nine months pregnant, announced “it was time.”
I played some ball with young Alex, and even when he was a boy anyone could tell he had special skills. Over the last couple of decades, Alex has grown into a fine young man – not to mention a ferocious hitter – and although it is no walk in the park to make it all the way to the big leagues, we’re all pulling for him.
And if he does make it, Alex Dickerson, the son of a son of a Sailor, will have earned the descriptor he has probably heard his whole life.
Alexander the Great.
