In My Own Words - Chad Tracy Debuts Friday Night
August 10, 2007 | Baseball
Aug. 10, 2007
Chad Tracy is a different kind of professional athlete. At 27, he has endured the ups and downs most people wouldn't even dream of. Yet, Tracy has, and has done so with an incredible sense of self. There is much more to him than what meets the eye - he is a modest and sensitive individual who values family and cherishes every moment he possibly can.
FSN Arizona provides an inside look into the life and household of the Arizona Diamondbacks star when it debuts In My Own Words - Chad Tracy on Friday, Aug. 10, at 5:30 p.m. This latest installment was a viewer's choice winner from on-line voting that was conducted back in July when Tracy beat out the likes of Bob Melvin and Conor Jackson.
The North Carolina native sits down with FSN Arizona's Brad Steinke for this 30-minute revealing and emotional episode and opens up about the joy of being a new father, the death of his college baseball coach, the people who influenced him the most, lessons he has learned along his roller-coaster life and his unique friendship with Eric Byrnes. For the production of the show, Tracy and his wife, Katie, opened their home to FSN Arizona after the birth of their first child, Ella Claire, to show off the her nursery and showcase the excitement that goes with what they are experiencing as new parents.
In My Own Words - Chad Tracy is part of a big night of Arizona Diamondbacks programming on FSN Arizona this Friday. It follows another highly entertaining episode of The Eric Byrnes Show Presented by Alltel at 5 p.m. Then, after In My Own Words - Chad Tracy, FSN Arizona's extensive D-backs pre-game show, Arizona Ford Diamondbacks Live, begins at 6 p.m. and the D-backs game against the Washington Nationals starts at 6:40 p.m. And, afterwards, it's the Qwest Diamondbacks Live post-game show for the best D-backs post-game coverage and analysis live from Chase Field.
This is the 16th episode in FSN Arizona's highly-acclaimed In My Own Words series, following in the footsteps of programs about Randy Johnson, Brandon Webb, Eric Byrnes, Orlando Hudson, Steve Nash, Lute Olson, Anquan Boldin, Kurt Warner, Mike D'Antoni, Herb Sendek, Georges Laraque, Mike Stoops, Diana Taurasi, Luis Gonzalez and Dirk Koetter,.
Here are just some of the excerpts from In My Own Words - Chad Tracy:
His early baseball heroes: "Being from Charlotte, Atlanta has always been who we watched or who we went and saw play, on TV every night...Mark Lemke played second base, Terry Pendleton played third base and Chipper Jones was a big fan favorite of Atlanta. Mark Lemke and Terry Pendleton were always my favorites."
His childhood memories of playing baseball: "I loved everything about the game. I loved practicing... Growing up, I would ride around the neighborhood on my bicycle to 10 different houses and knock on the door and see who wanted to come out and we would have a game it seemed like every day out in the yard."
On growing up in North Carolina: "It was a little community called Oakdale and it's about 15 minutes from downtown Charlotte. Pretty rural. First 10 years of my life I grew up on nine acres, it was just me and my mother. My parents divorced when I was three, so it was me and my mother for a few years. And then my grandmother moved in with us. Stayed really close with my father, though. Every other weekend I was with him and he remarried when I was three or four and I inherited a step-sister and step-brother on that side. Step-brother is one of my best friends today and we are really, really close. He's probably the one who has had the most influence on my baseball career. You know, every other weekend when I would come down, he would have a baseball field cut out in the yard from the lawn mower and we would strap it up and start playing. My mother's side, she remarried when I was 10 to one of the best men you will ever meet, Roger Williams. Great guy; he was a friend, a parent, and I got the best of both worlds. A lot of kids, when their parents divorce feel like they are slighted a little bit, but definitely not for me."
On signing his new deal with the D-backs, but not having expensive goods to show for it: I want to make sure that my kids are taken care of and my family. You know, my family is hard workers and they weren't fortunate enough to make this kind of money, so to help them out and make sure that they are living comfortably gives me more gratification than anything. I mean, I don't want any recognition from it. I just want to make sure that my family lives a happy life the rest of the way out."
On his college baseball coach, Keith LeClair, who passed away due to Lou Gehrig's disease: "He taught me how to play the game. In high school I had a few tools, but when I got to school (East Carolina) he really taught me how to work to get what you want and how to actually play the game, how to get a guy in, etc. But off the field, he was a strong man, very Christian, made us want to do the right thing and what it took to win. And that's what he did, and not a lot of people know that about him."
If having a couple of bad months on the field last season right as LeClair was about to pass played a part in it: "I can't say that it was completely about that, but there had to be a little something in there. I was pretty emotional. Every day was supposed to be his last day and he fought and fought and fought and ended up staying alive a couple of months longer than anybody had thought. But when he passed, and is in Heaven, it almost took a weight off of me because I didn't have to worry if he was in pain anymore and it did seem that I picked it up after that. I do wear my emotions on my sleeve and it's hard for me not to think about things. When I get my mind set on something, then I think about it a lot. And he would say not to worry about him and to be strong, but that's the kind of guy he is and it was tough to do."
Any irony that a year to the day after LeClair passed, you're blessed with Ella Claire: You know, now that you bring it up, it is you lose someone one year and you gain someone else the next. That's the way life works. I lost my grandmother who was a big part of my life when I was in A ball and then I met Katie. You lose, then you gain something. You just have to ride the rollercoaster of life and that's what I have been doing and learn something everyday and take something out of it."
On the 111-loss season with the D-backs in 2004: "You know, we tried. It just goes to prove that veterans and leadership -- without those in the locker room -- it's tough. You're out there searching when you are young and that was a tough season."
FSN Arizona, which is celebrating its 10th year on the air, is the home of 78 Arizona Diamondbacks games this season, as well as the extensive D-backs coverage on the Arizona Ford Diamondbacks Live pre-game show, Qwest Diamondbacks Live post-game show, D-backs Insider and The Eric Byrnes Show, Presented by Alltel. Beginning next season, FSN Arizona becomes the exclusive television home of the D-backs, airing up to 150 games a season well into the next decade. The network televises the most regional sports action in the state and is the exclusive cable television home of the Arizona Diamondbacks, Phoenix Coyotes, Phoenix Suns, Arizona Cardinals, Arizona State University, University of Arizona, Arizona Rattlers and Phoenix Mercury. FSN Arizona is currently seen in 2.8 million households in Arizona & New Mexico and can also be seen across the country via home satellite services.
