Cody Bellinger received his first style of Main League Baseball within the Bronx. However not like most of his Yankees teammates, his introduction to the massive leagues got here a long time earlier than he really performed the game for a dwelling.
The outfielder’s first recollections of being on the previous Yankee Stadium convey him again to when he was 4 years previous, and his father, Clay Bellinger, was realizing his personal dream of sporting the pinstripes after spending 10 years within the Minors.
1 / 4 century later, the youthful Bellinger — who established himself as one of many sport’s brightest stars over eight seasons with the Dodgers and Cubs — has adopted in his father’s footsteps, becoming a member of the Yankees in December and making his debut with the staff on Opening Day this yr. For each Bellingers, the previous few months have been a full-circle expertise.
“I had a fairly good feeling that I used to be going to get traded by the Cubs, however I didn’t know the place I used to be headed,” Cody stated throughout Spring Coaching. “I knew that the Yankees had curiosity, and I actually needed that to occur. After I discovered that it was official and I used to be going to the Yanks, it felt considerably surreal.
“My dad doesn’t actually present that a lot emotion; he’s a fairly mellow man. However after I informed him the information, I may inform that he was excited. The factor I used to be trying ahead to telling him greater than something was that I might be sporting his No. 35 once more. He rocked that quantity with the Yankees, and I wore it after I got here up with the Dodgers. To put on the identical quantity for a similar staff he performed for, that’s much more particular.”
When Cody took the sphere on Opening Day, he and Clay grew to become the fourth father-son duo to play for the Yankees, becoming a member of Yogi and Dale Berra, Ron and Ike Davis, and Mark Leiter and Mark Leiter Jr., who earned the excellence in 2024.
Past that noteworthy little bit of trivia, Opening Day was an expertise that the Bellinger household will always remember. Not solely have been Cody’s mother and father on the Stadium for his pinstriped debut, however so have been his spouse and two younger youngsters.
“That positively was a cool day,” Clay stated from his house in Arizona. “I hadn’t been again shortly, and earlier than I even received to my seats, I noticed a number of individuals sporting Bellinger jerseys. I knew that they weren’t for me. Sitting within the stands and watching Cody run out for the introductions was one thing I’ll all the time keep in mind.”
Within the weeks main as much as Opening Day, Clay — who had already imparted a lifetime of baseball knowledge to his son — realized that there was a minimum of one query Cody had by no means requested him.
“He requested me what I assumed he ought to do for roll name,” Clay stated. “I simply informed him to make it one thing from the guts. He actually needed everybody out within the bleachers to know the way excited he was to be on the market.”
Cody, who performed all three outfield positions through the Yankees’ first homestand of the season, adopted his father’s recommendation to the letter, turning towards the followers in proper discipline and tapping his chest thrice. Later, he gave the Stadium’s Bleacher Creatures one thing else to cheer about within the 4-2 Opening Day victory when he collected his first Yankees hit within the fourth inning and his first RBI on a sacrifice fly within the seventh.
The primary Bellinger to put on No. 35 for the Yankees was a second-round Draft alternative of the San Francisco Giants in 1989. After seven seasons within the Giants’ Minor League system and one with Baltimore’s Triple-A staff, Clay signed with the Yankees in November 1996, and after spending two seasons at Triple-A Columbus, his perseverance paid off. He was lastly promoted to The Present in April 1999, when he was 30 years previous.
“I dreamed about making it to the massive leagues,” Clay stated. “Placing the Yankees uniform on for my first sport and working out onto the sphere at Yankee Stadium, that made all the pieces I had completed price it. After I received my first at-bat, made my first play on protection and hit my first house run, it fully validated the ten years down there and the grind.”
For as a lot as Clay’s work ethic and talent paved his technique to the Majors, his willingness to suppose otherwise and be open to new concepts additionally helped him attain the aim that so many Minor Leaguers hand over on.
“I had a number of actually good seasons within the Minors, however I noticed someplace alongside the best way that if I used to be ever going to make it to the Majors, it will be as a utility man,” stated Clay, who was drafted as a shortstop out of Florida’s Rollins School. “I realized the right way to play second base and first base and all the outfield positions. I had a teammate within the Minors who instructed that I even begin taking part in catcher. He was completely proper, and I listened to him. If I may very well be a staff’s third catcher whereas additionally giving them innings at different positions, that will assist my probabilities of attending to the Majors. I knew that for me to succeed in my aim, I needed to do one thing completely different. Simply having one mind-set wasn’t going to work out.”
Perhaps it was the baseball gods rewarding him for sticking with it for thus lengthy or just a product of being in the proper place on the proper time, however Clay’s three-year tenure in pinstripes got here throughout a golden age in Yankees historical past. Along with taking part in 181 video games for the Yankees between 1999 and 2001, Clay additionally contributed to World Sequence championships in 1999 and 2000, and in his final yr with the staff, he went to a 3rd Fall Basic that was simply as memorable as the primary two.
Brian Cashman, now in his twenty eighth season as Yankees normal supervisor, has the excellence of working with each Bellingers from his put up within the staff’s entrance workplace a long time aside, and he nonetheless remembers the impression that Clay had on these championship groups.
“When you have got a hungry, rookie-type standing participant who will do something and all the pieces simply to be a part of The Present, that rubs off on individuals,” Cashman stated from Yankee Stadium. “Clay’s work ethic and dedication and dedication, his combat to by no means hand over, that reminded the established, high-priced stars about why they received concerned within the sport within the first place. It reminds them of their love for the sport. The much less skilled guys and fewer well-known gamers, additionally they play a task in constructing the tradition of a staff, and Clay did that.”
After the Yankees swept the Braves within the 1999 Fall Basic, Clay recorded profession highs the next season, taking part in in 98 video games and batting .207 with six house runs and 21 RBIs. His regular play within the common season earned him taking part in time in 11 postseason video games in 2000, together with all 4 victories over the Mets within the World Sequence.
“I used to be entering into these video games for defensive functions, so I couldn’t drive in runs,” Clay stated. “However I may nonetheless save a number of runs in some way. That was my mentality. I needed to make an incredible play in each sport.”
Clay’s alternative within the discipline got here in an enormous spot within the 2000 Subway Sequence. Not lengthy after Corridor of Fame supervisor Joe Torre put him in left discipline for the ninth inning of Sport 2, Clay raced towards the wall and caught a possible house run off the bat of Mets first baseman Todd Zeile for the primary out. Though the Yankees have been forward by 4 runs when Clay snagged the baseball on the high of the wall, his defensive prowess finally proved to be the distinction in a sport that the Yankees held on to win, 6-5.
“I assume I gained the World Sequence for us in 2000!” Clay joked. “I don’t know the place that ball would have landed if I didn’t get to it. I don’t actually know if it was going to land over the wall or on high of it. However as quickly as Todd hit it, I considered robbing him of a house run. I hoped it was going to be someplace the place I may rob it. I received again there and was capable of attain up and seize it.”
“Each second provides as much as a victory or a loss,” Cashman stated. “If Clay doesn’t make that play, that would have been the tide that turned that World Sequence. We’ve seen moments like that go our means over time, and we’ve seen them swing issues the opposite means, as properly.”
Making it to the Majors was a bucket-list accomplishment in and of itself for the lifelong Yankees fan from Oneonta, N.Y., however experiencing three consecutive World Sequence and celebrating the 1999 and 2000 championships on a parade float have been virtually unimaginable.
“You dream of constructing it to the massive leagues, however you actually dream of taking part in within the postseason and profitable the World Sequence,” Clay stated. “I keep in mind seeing individuals hanging out of home windows and confetti flying from 20 tales up through the parades. It appeared like there have been 100 rows of individuals on either side of us. I’ve by no means seen such a large quantity of individuals.”
Whereas Clay was having fun with his baseball heyday, he and his spouse, Jennifer, have been elevating a household that included a woman and two youthful boys. For the couple’s center little one, getting the possibility to be round his father at Yankee Stadium and in different ballparks all through a number of ranks {of professional} baseball stays part of him in the present day, even when he was too younger on the time to recollect particular particulars.
“I’ve recollections of being within the household room at Yankee Stadium,” Cody stated. “I additionally keep in mind going out to the outfield with my dad to play catch. Though it didn’t appear very distinctive on the time, after I take into consideration getting to try this now, it’s fairly unimaginable.”
Cody’s recollections of the parades are a bit fuzzy, however due to his mom, he can nonetheless relive these particular October events.
“We watched the movies,” Cody stated. “Seeing your self on the float was wild. I used to be solely 4 and 5 years previous, however I used to be at each parades and at a whole lot of World Sequence video games. I’m grateful that my mother had that camcorder.”
After the Yankees’ 2001 World Sequence loss to the Arizona Diamondbacks, Clay signed with the Angels, making his remaining Main League look the next April. Clay performed in simply two video games with the Angels throughout their championship season of 2002, then spent every of the subsequent two years within the Minors earlier than hanging up his spikes at age 35.
For Cody, attending to be round Clay and his Minor League groups offered him with experiences that he cherishes essentially the most.
“When he was within the Minors, I used to be a batboy,” Cody stated. “That was superior. I received to be within the dugout, and I might retrieve the bats and get the baseballs prepared by rubbing filth on them. It’s humorous typically what issues stand out, however I’ve a random reminiscence of shagging pitchers’ batting observe. I keep in mind pondering, ‘These guys can hit, though they’re pitchers.’ I used to be in proper discipline, and I keep in mind it so vividly. That’s after I realized simply how good of an athlete you need to be simply to get signed.”
When Clay’s taking part in days concluded after 183 Main League video games and one other 1,414 within the Minors, the Bellinger household moved to Chandler, Ariz. It was there that Cody and his youthful brother, Cole — who went on to play two seasons within the Minors — started to chase down their very own baseball destinies.
From the time he was in Little League, Cody was intent on succeeding within the sport he grew up round.
“He practiced on a regular basis,” stated Clay, who has served as a firefighter in Gilbert, Ariz., for greater than twenty years. “I by no means needed to push him; he was all the time asking me and his brother to play catch or have us pitch to him. He was prepared to outwork all people.”
Cody’s first style of baseball fame got here a decade earlier than he broke into the Majors, when he performed for his father on the 2007 Chandler Nationwide Little League staff that earned a spot within the Little League World Sequence in Williamsport, Pa. The Chandler staff superior to the ultimate sport of the US bracket, and Cody launched a house run within the staff’s first sport in Williamsport.
“That was most likely essentially the most enjoyable I ever had taking part in baseball,” Cody stated. “That was the second the place I felt like I may really play baseball for a dwelling. That turned the swap a bit bit and received me to give attention to what I needed to do.”
That focus alongside along with his pure abilities led Cody to a stellar highschool profession, garnering consideration from lots of of scouts.
“He grew into his physique throughout his junior yr in highschool,” Clay stated. “He was hitting line drives all around the discipline at that time and taking part in nice protection at first base and within the outfield. I knew he was a great participant from the time he was 7 or 8 years previous, however as soon as he began hitting the ball with energy, I knew that he had an opportunity to play after highschool.”
The Dodgers chosen Cody within the fourth spherical of the 2013 Draft, and his highway to the massive leagues didn’t have almost as many bumps as his father’s. In lower than 4 years, the 21-year-old was on the sphere at Dodger Stadium, quickly rising as a star.
“He had a number of years within the Minors the place he was simply tearing it up,” Clay stated. “You simply hope that when he will get known as up, he’ll have the ability to produce on the very best degree. I used to be simply hoping that he was going to compete and assist the Dodgers win.”
Cody did way more than that in his first massive league season, batting .267 with 39 house runs and 97 RBIs, incomes 2017 Nationwide League Rookie of the Yr honors.
“I used to be feeling actually good in Triple-A originally of that season,” Cody stated. “After I received the decision in late April, I used to be actually nervous, however I knew what I used to be able to. I simply needed to showcase it. That yr, I used to be simply capable of attain my potential on the baseball discipline, though I used to be going through the very best degree of competitors for the primary time.”
As Cody continued to work on his craft with Dodgers coaches through the season and with Clay within the winter, he put all of it collectively in 2019, profitable the Nationwide League MVP and a Gold Glove Award. In some of the prolific seasons in Dodgers historical past, he batted .305 with 47 house runs, a .406 on-base proportion and a league-leading 351 whole bases.
“My swing was on level that yr,” Cody stated. “I used to be getting base hits and hitting for energy. I made a bit adjustment going into that season, and it labored properly. Trying again on these years, I used to be simply locked in. It was simply me versus the pitcher. After I received out, I knew why it occurred. I used to be capable of make fast changes. I used to be simply in a special zone.”
Beneath very completely different circumstances than when his father reached baseball’s pinnacle with the Yankees, Cody helped the 2020 Dodgers overcome the challenges of COVID-19 to grow to be champions of that abbreviated season. He took the sphere for 56 of his staff’s 60 regular-season video games, batting .239 with 12 house runs after which swatting 4 extra lengthy balls throughout his staff’s postseason run. However the Dodgers had performed many of the postseason in a bubble, with all of their NLDS by means of World Sequence video games at Texas’ Globe Life Area.
“I felt achieved once we gained,” Cody stated. “It was so much completely different, however on the finish of the day, when that remaining out was made, you continue to have the feelings of profitable and shedding within the postseason. Identical to every other postseason, it was a curler coaster. I felt so good when that remaining out was made.”
Issues didn’t really feel fairly so good within the seasons that adopted. For the primary time in his profession, Cody was besieged with accidents in 2021, struggling fractured ribs and a damaged fibula together with a dislocated shoulder that required surgical procedure. Amid the accidents, he managed to play in 95 video games, batting a career-low .165.
“That was so much,” he stated. “I got here again shortly from these accidents. That call got here from me, nobody else. I needed to come back again, and I didn’t actually know the impact coming again as shortly as I did would have.”
Though Cody was capable of play 144 video games in 2022, the trauma to his physique had taken a toll, preserving him from returning to the extent he had performed at throughout his first few seasons. That November, the Dodgers determined to non-tender the previous MVP, making him a free agent.
Trying again on that point, Cody now appreciates the attitude it gave him.
“It was about taking a step again and remembering who you’re,” he stated. “I’m grateful for it. In a lifetime of no battle, you possibly can’t relate to anybody. Now, I can relate to everybody. I by no means struggled earlier than that. Regardless that the struggles of baseball gamers will not be as life-changing as those who different individuals encounter in life, I nonetheless realized what it felt wish to fail.”
Cody didn’t waste any time attempting to mount a comeback. He signed a contract with the Chicago Cubs previous to the 2023 season and labored tirelessly to regain the shape that made him an All-Star and MVP. His arduous work led to a career-high .307 batting common with 26 house runs in 2023, and he was named the Nationwide League’s Comeback Participant of the Yr.
“Each individual on this sport will get humbled in some unspecified time in the future,” he stated. “I actually do really feel like I’m a greater individual, a greater teammate and a greater participant now due to that adversity I needed to face. I perceive how arduous it’s to come back out on high. I understand how a lot perseverance and arduous work it takes.”
The success additionally offered Cody with a newfound sense of accomplishment.
“It’s a great feeling to come back again and show to your self that you are able to do it,” he stated. “Understanding that you may proceed to get up and combat for what you need to be on the sphere, that’s what I used to be capable of do with the Cubs. Baseball isn’t straightforward, even whenever you’re feeling good. Nevertheless it was good to have some success throughout that point and to get my confidence again.”
As a dad or mum, Clay relished his son’s resurgence, particularly contemplating how irritating his remaining chapters with the Dodgers have been.
“These previous couple of years in Los Angeles have been tough for him, particularly as a result of the primary few years have been so wonderful,” Clay stated. “When he broke his leg, it occurred as a result of he was making an incredible play. Then he simply received unfortunate, getting hit with a fastball after which injuring his shoulder. He was getting a whole lot of unfavorable consideration from the followers and the media immediately. When he was going by means of it, he was actually low on himself. He was upset that the Dodgers let him go. He wasn’t blissful. However the Cubs gave him an opportunity, and he needed to show that [the Dodgers] made a mistake. To undergo the failures after having a lot success, it makes you need to get again to that degree.”
Though not fairly as spectacular as his first yr within the Windy Metropolis, Cody put collectively one other productive season with the Cubs in 2024. That led the Yankees to convey him to the identical New York Metropolis borough the place his father impressed so many individuals along with his personal perseverance and unwillingness to surrender on a dream.
The youthful Bellinger’s tenure with the Yankees began slowly, however he discovered his swing in Might. Buoyed by a career-long 15-game hitting streak, Cody had elevated his batting common from .204 originally of the month to .264 by means of Might 21. Like his dad, he additionally authored a signature second towards the Mets. Within the rubber match of the newest Subway Sequence at Yankee Stadium, Cody had six RBIs, driving within the sport’s first two runs with a double, then giving his staff an insurmountable 8-2 lead with an eighth-inning grand slam.
Cody Bellinger was some of the prolific gamers within the sport with the Dodgers, and he authored an inspirational story in Chicago. Now, nearing 30 years previous and taking part in for the staff he grew up round, the two-time All-Star believes he can attain these heights once more.
“I’ve completed it earlier than,” he stated. “That’s what I’m striving for. Though I don’t essentially wish to set objectives, I understand how good I might be, and I try for that each day.”
Properly, he might need one aim that he’s prepared to share.
“Finally, I need to assist this staff win all of it, like my dad did,” he stated. “That’s the true aim.”
Alfred Santasiere III is the editor-in-chief of Yankees Journal. This story seems within the June 2025 version. Get extra articles like this delivered to the doorstep by buying a subscription to Yankees Journal at www.yankees.com/publications.
