As Adam Lind’s towering two-run homer headed toward the deepest part of center field Friday night at Cincinnati’s Great American Ballpark, his father, Al, flashed back to his son’s freshman year at Highland High School.
“It reminded me of one he hit at Richmond,” Al said during a cell phone interview the following afternoon. “The lighting is better here so I could track it (from his seat above the visiting dugout). I just hoped he hit it hard enough.”
Everything seems to be falling Adam Lind’s way these days. So, of course, the baseball landed about halfway up the berm behind the center field wall. It proved to be the game-winner in the Toronto Blue Jays’ 3-2 victory against the Cincinnati Reds, the second time in a four-game stretch that the former Scot’s bat had directly won a game.
And it couldn’t have come at a better time.
This weekend, Lind played closer to his Anderson home than at any other time during his rapidly rising major league career. And his hometown responded in force.
Al Lind led a contingent of six guests down to the visitors’ clubhouse following Friday’s game. A Reds’ attendant remarked on the size of the party and asked how many more passes the hometown hero could use.
“About 10,000,” Al replied.
He was joking, but not by much.
“(The fan demand) is as large as I’ve ever seen it,” Al said. “It felt like the whole city was there.”
Al estimates there were some 200 fans specifically supporting Adam at Friday night’s game.
That number was expected to grow Saturday when the group was joined by former Brooklyn and Los Angeles Dodger Carl Erskine and his family.
It was planned as a surprise visit by one of Adam’s most respected mentors.
“I think (Adam’s) kind of following in (Erskine’s) path,” Al said. “They both have traveled everywhere (in baseball), but they’re still proud to come back home to Anderson.”
The pride goes both ways. It seemed nearly everyone connected to baseball in Madison County was planning to attend at least one contest during the three-game series.
They can all rest assured their presence was felt, and appreciated.
“If Adam was a politician, he probably could have gotten a lot of votes (Friday) night,” Al said. “Well, maybe not from the Reds fans.”
The Linds are well aware of Adam’s impact on the community.
In a city increasingly fractured by hard financial decisions, Adam’s success remains one of the few things capable of uniting sports fans.
It’s not a responsibility he takes lightly, and lately he’s been delivering on a near nightly basis.
“Everything seems to be going right,” Al said. “He’s playing well defensively. He’s popping the ball. He looks forward to every at-bat. We just hope he continues to have the opportunity to keep showing the talent he has.”
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Contact George Bremer: 640-4886, george.bremer@heraldbulletin.com.
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George Bremer: Homecoming success for Lind
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