You need to be 14 years old.’ But he worked on it. I’d have to remind him, ‘You don’t need to be a big leaguer today. Patrick would ask me every year, starting around 14, what I thought he needed to do to be a big-league catcher. I tell people all the time: it’s one of my most unique things in 25 years of coaching. “It’s been awesome to watch him go through his career step by step. “Just throw like you usually do - it’ll be fine,” Bankhead would say. But after that, it was OK.”īankhead would have to assuage the concerns of a visiting coach or player when they’d see this scrawny, junior high kid get behind the plate. I’m pretty sure I missed his first slider. “I remember catching him and thinking, ‘Damn, this guy’s pretty good.’ He was probably in the mid-90s. “It was a cool thing for me - first big leaguer I caught,” Bailey said. Bailey guesses he was 12, maybe 13, when Garcia stopped by the facility for a side session. Including big-league reliever Yimi Garcia. And he kept progressing to the point where he could catch anybody.” I would have him catching kids throwing over 80 mph when he was 12.

He played other positions but by 12 or 13, he was catching exclusively.

“Patrick’s wanted to be a major-league catcher his whole life. “He just had a knack for catching the baseball,” said Scott Bankhead, a former big-league pitcher who runs the North Carolina Baseball Academy that Bailey began attending as an 8-year-old. And his major-league success isn’t a surprise to the coaches from his youth who kept layering more and more responsibilities on him because he never met a challenge that he could not handle. Bailey began preparing for this role ever since he was a second grader growing up in Greensboro, N.C. Maybe it seems like it happened overnight. He has won universal acclaim from a seasoned pitching staff. He’s calling pitches with the cool assurance of a veteran who has spent years breaking down the swings and tendencies of big-league hitters. He has made an impact with his throwing, blocking and framing. He’s barely two months into his career as a major-league catcher yet he’s already carved out a lasting place at the position. But you walk by and he’s studying the scouting reports for the next series.”īailey is a quick study. You’re celebrating the fact you’re there.

“Everybody enjoys their first flight,” Cobb said.

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