Sat almost directly behind homeplate, in the second row. Maybe 45-50 feet away from the plate. Heyward’s K was 1son his 1st AB and ended the 1st inning. It was a very good 8 Pitch AB, with called 3rd strike being a couple of inches outside. The umpire clearly missed the call. Heyward let him know it, dropping hit bat and then his helmet on the plate and then standing there slowly removing his gloves, jawboning the entire time without looking back to show the ump up. The ump whipped off his mask like he was about to get upset. So, naturally, I had to get our young hero’s back, bellowing: “I didn’t like it either. It was 3 or 4 inches outside.” He turned around and glared at me. LOL.

Heyward looked really good. What a physical specimen! I was particularly impressed with his confident demeanor on the field, his quickness and foot speed on the bases and in the field, and exceptional defense.

His single was shot that whistled past pitchers knee almost before he reacted at all. His excellent defense included a plus catch reacting quickly and taking a straight route to go into the right center gap to flag down a deep line shot; and also made a great diviing, full lay out catch down the line. He did look overmatched by a lefty reliever in his last AB – waved at 2 off-speed away breaking balls, then nubbed the 3rd similar pitch 45 feet out toward the mound for an easy out, 1-3.