Nate's Nation

NORSENOW

NATE'S NATION We hold a bullpen session with MLB superstar and gold medalist Nate Jones.

Another hot summer day is

drawing to a close, and the barn’s shadow stretches long over an open field. Young Nate Jones of Pendleton County, Kentucky, and his siblings spent the day playing baseball on this small piece of land, and he’s not ready to head in for the evening—he’s always ready for another pitch, another swing. Another game.

It’s been years since these pickup games on the family farm, but Jones’ love for both his family and the game hasn’t faded. Now a pitcher for the Chicago White Sox with a World Baseball Classic gold medal on his shelf (as well as father to three of his own kids), he still thinks of these early games when he reaches for a baseball.

“It all started with my family,” says Jones. “I have two brothers and a sister, with me being the youngest. There was always someone who wanted to play.”

When high school ended and it was time to leave the family farm for college, proximity to home was important—Jones wanted a chance to play baseball for a university team, but he also needed his family to see him pitch as often as possible. Northern Kentucky University, just a short drive from home, offered an ideal scenario, so Jones brought his arm up the road to become a Norse.

The power right-hander arrived on campus in 2005, and he spent years honing his

craft. Every morning at 7 a.m., before classes began, Jones would practice with Coach Dizzy Peyton as the pair worked toward making Jones the best pitcher he could be.

It worked. After three seasons of leading the NKU baseball team under Coach Dizzy’s constant reinforcement, Jones could hold batters to a .185 batting average and had become a popular name among Major League Baseball’s (MLB) Midwest scouts. Then, in the fifth round of the 2007 MLB draft, Jones received a life-altering call from Mike Shirley of the Chicago White Sox, who told him he was the team’s newest pitcher.

“As a kid you’re dreaming and working for that, but you never know because you don’t think you have the stuff. Everyone wanted to pitch the World Series with bases loaded, two outs, and strike the guy out,” he says. “When that call came around, it made it real for me.”

He’d made it, but for Jones the grind was just beginning. Two seasons into his professional career in the White Sox’s farm system, his earned run average (ERA) was a lackluster 5.73, and he considered throwing in the rosin bag. He’d spent countless hours on eight- to 12-hour bus rides away from his family, and his slow start was deflating.

But his coaches understood Jones’ potential; they also knew he needed to develop an attack mentality. So after a tough outing in Jacksonville, Florida, the pitching

coach called him in for a meeting.

“Coach Purdue sat me down and told me, ‘Jones, you’re a power pitcher. Stop trying to change who you are. You keep throwing that slider and don’t back down,’” explains Jones. “That changed my mentality. I settled down for the rest of the season, and it carried over into my next big-league camp.”

Jones hasn’t backed down since that conversation with Purdue. He was called up to the major league team in 2012 and pitched a perfect record of 8-0 with a 2.39 ERA. In recent years he’s continued to be a strong arm for the White Sox organization, owning a career 3.07 ERA over seven seasons and earning a reputation as one batters don’t want to face late in games.

“You have to not be scared of who’s in the box, because there are a lot of big names out here,” he says. “My first career strikeout was a big turning point for me. It reminded me to be confident in myself and believe in my pitches.”

In 2017, MLB’s Joe Torre contacted Jones about playing in the World Baseball Classic on the United States national baseball team, which Torre manages. Modeled after FIFA’s World Cup, the World Baseball Classic was created in 2006 after baseball was removed from the summer Olympics and features the best players in the world competing for their home countries and territories.

Ecstatic, Jones said yes, and on March 22, 2017, he helped Team USA bring home its first gold medal after a win against Puerto Rico.

“To do that was special. It’s not every day you get a chance to represent your country in something, and this was the first time I ever had a chance to,” he says. “That last game, when they started chanting ‘USA! USA!’ I had cold chills, and my hair was sticking up. I never thought I’d be doing that. It was something I’ll never forget.”

Even as a gold medalist and premier pitcher in the MLB, Jones still looks back on his time at NKU as formative to the player he’s become.

“Training staff, coaches, all the teachers—they all played a part in who I am as a person, on and off the field,” he says. “I owe a lot to NKU. I cherish my time there, and it’s a place that will always be near and dear to my heart.” —J. Atley Smedley ('18)

FALL/WINTER 2018-19 35