Pam Gimenez wasn’t sure exactly how to discipline her son.
Little Chris was always a
”
good kid,
”
but in a memorable glitch his parents caught him playing with
matches in the street with one of the neighborhood kids.
Mark Powell Special to The Free Lance
Gilroy – Pam Gimenez wasn’t sure exactly how to discipline her son.
Little Chris was always a “good kid,” but in a memorable glitch his parents caught him playing with matches in the street with one of the neighborhood kids.
They couldn’t strike him – that wasn’t their style of teaching their children right from wrong.
They couldn’t simply ground him – a vague decision that can leave parents wondering if their child is really being disciplined.
“We had to take away from him the one thing he truly loved to show him what he did was wrong,” Pam said. “We told him he couldn’t play in his next little league game.”
And Chris definitely knew he was being punished.
“It was as if someone chopped his arms off,” Pam said. “He really threw a fit. But I really think it worked for him. He’s been nothing but a good kid and everyone likes him.”
Little Chris is now big Chris, and nothing is going to keep the 24-year-old former Gilroy High catcher from playing in today’s California-Carolina League All-Star Game at Banner Island Ballpark in Stockton.
“It’s definitely the opportunity of a lifetime,” said Gimenez, who will be representing the Kinston Indians of the Carolina League. “Family and friends are always asking me, ‘When are you going to play on the West Coast? When are you going to play on the West Coast?’ And I have to tell them that I’m not because the schedule doesn’t work out that way. But finally I’ll be able to play in front of some hometown people.”
Gimenez, who was hitting .288 with 15 home runs and 37 RBIs as of June 15, will be playing in front of roughly 35 close family and friends, who according to his mother, will “absolutely” be cheering loudly for him the entire night.
Clint Wheeler, current Gilroy High baseball coach who instructed Gimenez when he was a student at GHS, will be in Europe at the time of the All-Star Game but said he always knew Gimenez would be able to play professional baseball.
“We’re all real happy for him,” Wheeler said. “It couldn’t have happened to a better kid. He’s got a world of talent, that’s for sure. He was physically big as a kid, had all the tools. We had no doubt he’d make it to play minors and with a little luck, there’s a good chance to get to the show.”
After graduating from Gilroy, Gimenez began playing at University of Nevada-Reno, where he was drafted by the Cleveland Indians in the 19th round in the 2004 Major League Baseball amateur player draft – the sixth overall pick on day two of the draft.
Though he suffered some disappointment by not being drafted on day one, Gimenez said the Indians called him early the second day and were surprised that he hadn’t been picked by another club.
Gimenez was faced with a dilemma, however.
He still has a serious girlfriend, UNR volleyball player Kellie Burton, and a year of school left at Nevada. Gimenez, however, was wary of passing up the chance to get a fast start on a career in professional baseball.
“It’s something you dream about,” said Gimenez about going pro. “What happened if I stayed back and got hurt? I decided to go ahead and do it. It might be the only time in my life to play minor league ball and I can always finish up school later on life.”
Gimenez started in short-season A baseball for the Mahoning Valley Scrappers in 2004, located in Niles, Ohio, about an hour and fifteen minutes from Cleveland.
The Ohio weather greeted him rudely.
Severe tornado warnings held the area hostage and forced Gimenez and other new arrivals to huddle under the stairwell of their hotel.
“I was thinking, ‘Wow, this is my first day here and I’m already huddled in a basement,” he said.
Injury problems and a switch to full-time catcher kept Gimenez in low-A Lake County, Ohio for 2005 and 2006 before moving to Kinston, NC for this season.
“I really wasn’t expecting to get moved up,” Gimenez said. “I was injured, struggling, and had a rough time adjusting for some reason. I was really stuck in my ways.”
But now the only thing Gimenez is stuck in the extremely humid conditions of the Carolina League, where it’s “humid as heck, and hotter than hell.”
Gimenez expects the weather to be a little more tolerable in Stockton for the All-Star Game, where he also participate in a pre-game home run derby.
The game itself could be a different story, Gimenez said.
“You’re going up against the best of another league,” he said. “I’d even be happy with a strikeout, though it’s not what you want to do, but it happens. You just have to roll with the punches. I’m just going to try to have a couple good at-bats.”
For Gimenez’s sake, he’ll hopefully be as disciplined a hitter as he has been a son.
