The way Kansas coach Dan Fitzgerald and his KU teammates saw it, Brady Ballinger was meant to be the first Jayhawk left fielder to play in front of the brand-new Backyard fence at Hoglund Ballpark.
“They made that wall for him,” KU shortstop Tyson LeBlanc joked after the Jayhawks’ 13-10 regional-clinching win over Arkansas on Sunday night.
Added Fitzgerald: “Isn’t it perfect for him?”
While his teammates were ribbing him, Ballinger was shaking his head and smiling, even going as far as to sarcastically say, “I don’t interact with them at all.”
The scenes from the game — heck, all three games — told a completely different story.
Yes, Ballinger was locked in and focused every time the action required him to be. But when it didn’t, be it at the end of an inning or the start of another, during a pitching change or a mound visit or any other delay that might arise, the junior from Las Vegas always seemed to have one eye or ear toward the fans behind the chain-link fence.
“They had me start a few of the claps a few times,” Ballinger admitted. “It was so awesome.”
And, yeah, like LeBlanc said, it was made for him.
Throughout his 2-year KU career, Ballinger has always played the game with the type of youthful exuberance that reminds you what’s special about baseball.
Kids play it. Kids love it. Kids grow up dreaming about being in Ballinger’s shoes one day, sleeping with their gloves under their pillows and putting on eye black when they go to watch their favorite players do their thing.
So, for Ballinger to be on the giving side of that seemed incredibly well suited for him. And it wasn’t really even about him.
Although Ballinger always plays the game with that kind of passion, this weekend's games were particularly meaningful for him. You might remember that he missed the Big 12 tournament because of a hand injury. So, he took nothing for granted this time around about even being able to be out there.
"It was definitely a grind," he said of getting back to action. "A few days ago, I was questioning whether I could hold a bat correctly, and then being able to come in on Friday and come up big for my team, start a rally to get some insurance runs, it was just awesome. Coming back from that was tough."
At times during KU's 3-0 weekend that advanced the Jayhawks to their first ever Super Regional, it was almost as if Ballinger was one of those fans behind the fence, jumping up and down or throwing his arms in the air to celebrate what another Jayhawk had just done.
Bringing the fans along for the ride with him was merely the cherry on top of a regional-sized ice cream sundae.
“It was awesome,” he said. “Getting to see fans up close and personal, especially in left field, it was just so cool getting to see them and being able to hear them.”
Ballinger, who has a big time pro future, is not likely to be back out there in left field for the Jayhawks next year. And who even knows what’s going to become of The Backyard, though one would have to think that it’s here to stay.
But if Kansas (45-16) can get a little help from Oklahoma on Monday, and the Sooners knock off Georgia Tech in the Atlanta Regional, Ballinger will have at least two more games in front of the fence and the fans in the place that seems like the exact spot that he’s meant to be.
That OU-Georgia Tech game is slated for a 2 p.m. first pitch on Monday on ESPN+.
— For tickets to all KU athletic events, visit kuathletics.com
