Javy Baez Is Adding Exuberance…. And Culture To The NLCS
The Chicago Cubs are headed to the National League Championship Series in large part due to the play of their sensational, super-utility star Javier Baez. A player who was once viewed as a trade-chip has been dazzling the Wrigley faithful this postseason with defensive gems and timely base knocks.
Baez, 23, is a fan favorite in Chicago. Not only is he a walking web gem at whatever position he plays, but he also provides a level of excitement, which isn’t seen often in the game of baseball anymore. If a friend were to argue with you about baseball being too boring to watch, show him a highlight reel of Javy Baez and he might change his mind.
But excitement isn’t the only thing Baez brings to the table when it comes to the game. He introduces us to another side of the culture of tattoos that he explained in a sit down interview with ESPN’s Marly Rivera. Baez, who is Puerto Rican, received his first tattoo by a high school classmate’s father in his native country, according to Rivera. He was 16 when he decided to ink the official MLB logo on the back of his neck — the first piece of art etched on his body. If at 16, Baez was so confident that he would make the big leagues, he tatted the logo on himself, then it makes sense he’s turned into the player he is today.
“As a child I grew up playing baseball, baseball and more baseball. This tattoo shows how important it is to me — ‘Welcome to my world.”
Since then, Baez has been tatted more than a dozen times including tattoos of his mother’s name and a portrait of his sister, who died last year after losing her battle to spina bifida, which is an internal birth defect.
“[The artist] used my favorite picture of my sister. She had spina bifida. She lived 21 years, even though she was never supposed to. She was like the “engine” of our family, our reason to be”
In a sport that hasn’t done well to keep up with other professional sport leagues in terms of creativity and originality, Baez is showing baseball fans that you can be viewed as a franchise asset and not lose the personality that fans have come to love and adore.
Terrance Peacock is the Managing Editor at Culture. Follow him on Twitter @PeacockSoDope
