The Sunnyvale Sun
Cover Story
Photograph by John Medina
Turning Two: Colorado Rockies shortstop Troy Tulowitzki leaps over a sliding player to complete a double play during a 6-1 victory over the San Francisco Giants on May 26 at AT&T Park.
The Rookie
Troy Tulowitzki lights up Major League Baseball
By tephen Baxter
On an overcast afternoon in May, deep inside San Francisco's AT&T Park, the Colorado Rockies' starting shortstop is sitting against a wall, panting.
Troy Tulowitzki, the Rockies' 22-year-old shortstop and native of Sunnyvale, sits just outside the batting cage behind the visiting team's dugout. It's three hours before the Rockies' first game in a series against the Giants, and Tulowitzki has taken enough swings to flush his face red and stream sweat down his neck.
Down the hall, his teammates are sprawled on leather sofas in the carpeted locker room, chatting and watching ESPN on a pair of flat-screen TVs. Outside the batting cage, Tulowitzki watches balls crack off a teammate's bat.
Thwack. Thwack.
"One more, Tulo?" asks a voice in the cage.
"OK, one more," he says, taking his feet.
Watching baseball on TV, it's easy to forget that players actually work out--and work hard--outside of games.
"Coming to the field every day as a major league baseball player is kind of mind-boggling," Tulowitzki says. "If people actually knew how badly I wanted this--it's all I wanted to be my entire life. I don't know what I would do if I didn't achieve being a major league baseball player. ... It wasn't easy getting here. I work hard, harder than anybody I played with--harder than a lot of people," he says.
Tulowitzki played Little League in Sunnyvale and graduated from Fremont High School in 2002. This season, he is a candidate for Rookie of the Year. At the All-Star break, he was batting .286 with nine home runs and 38 RBI.
Even if he can't nail down the award, he has definitely made an impression. How many 22-year-olds can say their jersey will be in the Hall of Fame? Tulowitzki earned it on April 29 by turning an unassisted triple play, only the 13th in major league history.
Crouching at shortstop with Atlanta Braves runners at first and second, Chipper Jones lined a ball to Tulowitzki. He caught it, stepped on second and tagged Edgar Renteria running from first. Just to make sure he had three outs, he tagged second again and flipped the ball to first baseman Todd Helton, who inadvertently tossed it into the stands.
His teammates later teased him for trying to be the first player ever to record five outs, but he said he just wanted to make sure he covered all the bases. He was able to retrieve the historic ball, and his cap and jersey are headed to Cooperstown.
The play got him noticed. Standing on first base during games, some opposing players have offered him congratulations. Others have offered him ribbings.
In June, while the Rockies were playing the New York Yankees in Colorado, word spread among the other Rockies that shortstop Derek Jeter was his hero. Tulowitzki wears No. 2 because of his admiration for Jeter, and reporters kept asking him about his respect. Tired of hearing it, his teammates bought him bottles of Derek Jeter Driven, a line of cologne and fragrances by Avon.
When Tulowitzki finally met Jeter in a game, Tulowitzki's father, Ken, said they kept it low-key.
"It's one of those things where you can't just say, 'Hey, I'm Troy!' " Ken Tulowitzki said. "I think he kept to himself."
On being a rookie, Troy said, "Respect-wise, you go through guys getting on you once in a while, but it's all part of it."
Home games
Troy Trevor Tulowitzki was born Oct. 10, 1984, and grew up in a rented house on Waite Avenue in Sunnyvale. His father delivers computer equipment for Simco Electronics and his stepmother, Susan, works in human relations in Palo Alto. Ken, who graduated from Milpitas High School in 1981, played shortstop. When Ken was 21, Troy was born.
As a 4-year-old, Troy went to Oakland A's games with his family, playing catch in the parking lot. Every time, it was a nightmare trying to peel him away from the game.
"Whenever you stopped it was always a big deal, whether it was 20 minutes or two hours," said Susan Tulowitzki. "It was never enough."
Before A's games, they would watch batting practice and fielding drills, and Troy would study shortstop Walt Weiss taking ground balls.
Troy attended Bishop Elementary and Columbia Middle School, playing for Little League teams coached by his father. Because "Tulowitzki" is too long to call out on the field, his friends called him "Tulo," and it stuck. His new teammates Todd Helton and Matt Holliday now call him Tulo.
His major league draft day was a big one for him and his family--Aug. 30, 2006--but there have been many other memorable summer days for the Tulowitzkis.
In August 1997, 12-year-old Troy Tulowitzki helped the Sunnyvale National major division all-star team reach the finals of the Western Regional tournament. The game was televised on ESPN, and Tulowitzki was the team's star slugger and pitcher. They lost to Mission Viejo--just missing a chance to represent the West in the Little League World Series in Williamsport, Pa.
"It was 2-1," Tulowitzki recalled recently in the visitors dugout at AT&T Park. "It was shocking because we didn't think we could be beat. That year I don't think we lost except for that game."
His father remembers the game as if it were last weekend. Looking through old pictures in the garage of his new house in Santa Clara this summer, he lamented the loss.
"We were one game away from going to Williamsport. One game!" he exclaimed.
In 2001, Ken coached another Sunnyvale team that won the West regional and placed third in the Senior Little League World Series in Kissimmee, Fla. By that time, Troy decided to play for the Fremont High Firebirds instead of Saint Francis High School or Archbishop Mitty--schools better known for sports. And scouts started showing interest.
Ken often gets questions on what it takes to prepare young players for the majors.
"It's not like there's really a blueprint for it," he says. "I tried not to push it too much. He went to a small high school ... and I figured he could do it if he worked hard, and he did."
Ken emphasized the team effort from Troy's friends' fathers, including Dan Placencia, Ted Martinez, Leonard Perry and Bob Bonetti, among others.
Mike Smith, the Fremont High athletic director and Troy's infield coach, said he remembered Troy's arm at shortstop and pitcher.
"He was our No. 1 pitcher and he was absolutely throwing BBs," Smith said recently.
At short, Smith remembered a batter clubbed a ball to the left side of the infield. Troy lunged to backhand it into his glove, and from an awkward position, he launched a throw to first to beat the runner.
"Coaching him, I really saw the caliber of what a next-level player is. I played college ball myself, and in him you really see how rare it is... making that backhand play in the hole, you were like, 'OK, this kid is going to be big.' "
Smith said Troy was also the most competitive player he ever coached, "absolutely hating" to lose. Contrary to the Jeter story, Smith said Troy wrote the initials of then-Red Sox shortstop Nomar Garciaparra on his batting gloves.
Troy graduated from Fremont High School in 2002 with a GPA in the high 2s, and went to Long Beach State University to play short. He majored in kinesiology--the study of human movement--for three years. After the draft, his contract with the Rockies allowed him to finish his degree later. Now Troy's focus is on staying in Major League Baseball.
Sweat equity
On July 3, Ken Tulowitzki came home from a 10-hour workday. He grabbed a beer from the refrigerator in his garage and stepped over a worn A's doormat into his house. His eyes were glued to Fox Sports Net Rocky Mountain. His son was playing the New York Mets.
The Rockies swept the Yankees in interleague play earlier in the season, and people were buzzing about Troy's chances for rookie of the year.
Ken and Susan say not much has changed for Troy since his major league debut. When he is home to play the Giants, he still teases his 13-year-old sister, Tiffany, and plays college football on the XBOX 360 with his brother, Tyler.
The MLB 2007 video game has a version of Troy in it, but Tyler hasn't yet had the chance to command his virtual brother. The real Troy is now 6-3 and 210 pounds.
Troy also continues to date a girl he met in school in Sunnyvale.
After signing with the Rockies, Troy did splurge on one item: a black Cadillac Escalade with tinted windows. Ken was driving it on Borregas Avenue in Sunnyvale recently when some of Troy's friends pulled up next to him.
"They said 'Hey Tulo! Oh. Hi, Mr. Tulowitzki,' " Susan laughed.
The Tulowitzkis attend more Giants games to see Troy play, and Matt Holliday gave them three tickets to the All Star Game. Ken says his role has morphed into less of a coach and more of a fan of his son, and they often talk on the phone after games.
Back in the Bay
After sweating in the batting cage on May 25, Tulowitzki and the Rockies played the Giants in San Francisco. Fog blanketed the bay, and a cold breeze flapped the center field flags toward right. Game time temperature: 52 degrees.
With no outs in the bottom of the first, the Giants' Ryan Klesko was on first base when Barry Bonds stepped to the plate. Bonds slapped the ball to second baseman Kaz Matsui, who flipped it to Tulowitzki, snapping it in his glove. His foot tapped second and he hurtled over Klesko's slide to throw out Bonds at first. Two down.
In the second inning, Tulowitzki squatted at short with his eyes fixed on the Giants' Freddy Lewis up to bat. Lewis hit a shot to the left side, and Tulowitzki gloved it with his left foot on the outfield grass. He spun, whipped a one-hop throw to the outstretched arm of Todd Helton and beat Lewis by half a step. Another out.
That night Tulowitzki would get two hits off the Giants' Matt Cain, and score on a single by Willy Taveras. Rockies 5, Giants 3. Game 48 of 162 in the books.
In the locker room after the game, Tulowitzki shoveled clothes into a duffel bag as a group of Asian reporters trampled by him to swarm Kaz Matsui.
Did road game 25 have a home game feel?
"It's nice to know that your aunts and uncles and family are sitting in the stands," Tulowitzki said. "It's nice to win some games because we've been struggling."
At another point, he said he is not intimidated by facing pitchers he grew up watching and playing in video games--such as Randy Johnson and John Smoltz.
"There's a lot of things that could be intimidating -- going to the stadiums and with all the fans booing you and stuff like that. I like challenges, so I think I'm not really intimidated by a lot of things."
Sometimes Tulowitzki talks to his teammates about Sunnyvale.
"We all talk about where we grew up, and I make Sunnyvale out to be the greatest town in the world," he said. "You never really think that there's people looking at you because it's such a small little town for scouts and stuff. But if you work hard and be the best person you can be, people are going to realize. If I'm living proof, that's perfectly fine with me."
