By Bill Doolittle
Louisville Bats star Levi Jordan isn’t a star at all — he says.
“In high school we had eight or nine Division One recruits on our team my senior year, and I was not one of them,” says Jordan. “In college at the University of Washington we had X-amount of draft picks, and I was not one of them – until super-late my senior year.”
But for the Louisville Bats, and the Cincinnati Reds organization, who picked Jordan up as a ballplayer, rather than a red-hot prospect, things have worked out very well. Louisville doesn’t have much hitting, but Jordan is batting .300. The club does have good fielders, and Jordan excels at fielding. So he IS kind of a star, for a team that doesn’t have a roster full of stars.
“I wouldn’t say I have a tool that particularly stands out,” says Jordan, “but I think I learned a long time ago that being consistent and showing up, being the same player every day translates to career-long success.”
And that Steady Eddie style helps the Bats click. After cruising along eight or nine games above .500 for the first two months of the season, Louisville went on its longest road trip of the season in June and suddenly found itself mired in a nine-game losing streak.
But then Jordan cracked key doubles two nights in a row at Omaha. Others hit, too, and the fever broke. The Bats return home to Slugger Field on July 1 for 12 home games in a three-week stretch, including three days off for the Major League All-Star break, as the second half of the International League season begins.
A year ago, Louisville’s roster was stacked with major-league prospects, headed by the one-of-a-kind Elly De La Cruz. But those hot prospects are all in Cincinnati now, and a next round of phenoms seems to be stuck farther down in the minors. What’s left for the Bats is to simply play good baseball. Put on a good show. Win games they can with a roster of dependable, everyday players.
“We’re playing good,” says manager Pat Kelly. “In a little rut right now. Ran into some good pitching, and we weren’t getting the big hit. But we’ve played well.”
The Bats starting pitching has been decent, and Kelly is very happy with his relief pitching – led by Alan Busenitz and Tony Santillan. Meaning that if the hitters can score a few runs, the bullpen can close it out. The Reds have kind of platooned slugger Nick Martini, up to the Reds and back to the Bats, as situations demand. When he’s here, Martini gives the Bats home run power. Edwin Rios can loft the ball over the wall, too, with a classic left-handed sluggers’ swing. Fun to see Rios connect.
But the top hitter remains Jordan, at 5-8, 180 lbs. – and a guy who always brings his glove to the ballpark.
The Reds grabbed Jordan in the Rule 5 Minor League Draft, when the Chicago Cubs were, frankly, not paying much attention to him. Kelly had good reports from scouts, including his nephew Jason Kelly, who was an assistant coach at the University of Washington when Jordan was there. Now Jason is the Huskies head man.
Minor league players move around. A lot. Looking for places to catch on, maybe make the big leagues. Mostly not making much money. Mostly never seeing “The Show.” Jordan, now 28, says he contemplated dropping baseball. He makes, he says, about $30-35,000 a year, and knows he could do a whole letter better in business. Or coaching in college. In fact, he’d just gotten a college job offer. But he agreed with his agent to give baseball a little more chance to perk. And it’s going well.
“He’s hitting .300, and he hasn’t had those kind of stats before,” says Pat Kelly, who sees Jordan as a man making the most of his chances.
“I don’t know that he’s really had the opportunity, always been a kind of backup guy,” the Bats skipper says. “But he’s a good piece who can help, not only here, but maybe at the major league level, too. He can play all three outfield positions. He can play all four infield positions. And he even started catching a little this spring. So he is extremely valuable.”
And a find for the Bats at second base, where he makes all the plays.
Growing up, Jordan played in summer leagues in his hometown of Puyallup, Washington, with his dad as a volunteer coach.
“I played on a team with my best friends for about 10 years, and that was important to (my dad), keeping the team together and all of us growing up together,” says Jordan. “He coached us in summer ball until we were about 15 or 16, then turned us over to coaches who could get us in front of college scouts.
“I think he identified in me that I was never going to be the biggest, strongest kid, but what I could do is play my position well in a position of leadership.”
For Jordan, that means not only trying to keep his head in the game, but ahead of the game.
“Where I believe I have an edge is in the IQ part of baseball,” Jordan says. “In fact, it’s my favorite part of it. Anticipating where guys are going to hit the ball. Or on what counts a hitter might be out in front a beat. What to do with runners on is really important. Holding runners on at second base, making our pitchers aware of, hey, this guy can run, let’s be quicker to the plate. Or mix in a pickoff to try to control their running game. I think there’s a lost art of that in the game of baseball these days.”
And paying attention to the routine.
“I think we as baseball players should make the routine play 10 times out of 10, with a few web gems sprinkled in there.”
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