Detroit Tigers player Will Rhymes is hosting a hitting clinic at the West U Little League on Saturday.
Detroit Tigers baseball player Will Rhymes will step back onto the West U Little League field this weekend where his career first started.
Rhymes, the first WULL player to make it to the major leagues, is hosting a baseball hitting clinic for players 12 years and under at the WULL field on Saturday.
Baseball players from throughout the Houston area are invited to participate in the two hour clinic with Rhymes and several other college and professional ball players. Each camp member will have one-on-one time with Rhymes as he teaches them the fundamentals of a Major League swing.
“You never think that you’ll be in a position to do something like this,” he said about going back and helping the little league he was once a part of. “It’s pretty special.”
Rhymes, a former West U resident, grew up in West U Little League and played in the league between the ages of 7 and 12.
He said he got into baseball because his mom happened to sign him and his twin brother up for WULL.
“From a very young age it’s what I loved to do,” said Rhymes, who hopes that the ball players will know how much he loves baseball after Saturday’s clinic.
“As a kid, I hated going to camp,” he said. “I never felt like I ever got anything out of it.”
Rhymes said Saturday’s ball hitting clinic is an “exception for camps” and hopes kids will participate because they want to learn from professional ball players, not because their coach made them go.
This is the first clinic that Rhymes has ever run for just little leaguers and said he is excited about it because “you can mold them,” whereas with college or high school students “you’re breaking old habits.”
Ball players don’t have to have any prior baseball experience to come to the camp and it could be the best introduction to baseball they can get, he said.
“You’re going to have a first coach, or the first time you pick up a bat or the first time you pick up a ball,” Rhymes said.
Rhymes started his career on the little league fields in West U at the age of 7. He graduated from Lamar High School, where he was a member of the baseball team. He played college ball at the College of William and Mary and graduated with a Biology degree in 2005. He played 655 minor league games before making it to the major leagues.
Will Rhymes is the first WULL player to make it to the major leagues.
One of Rhymes obstacles on his way to the big league was his height.
Standing at 5 ft. 7 inches, he said “it’s been a constant uphill battle.”
If someone had looked just at his scores and not his size, he probably would have been drafter earlier, he said.
Rhymes was drafted by the Detroit Tigers as the 27th round draft pick and made his debut on July 25, 2010 against the Toronto Blue Jays.
“At every level I’ve had to out hit, out play every guy,” he said.
Rhymes was the Tigers number two hitter in 54 games and hit a .304 during his rookie year. He was the first Tigers rookie to hit over .300 since Harvey Kuenn in 1952.
He was having dinner with his mom, his fiancé and his twin brother in Toledo, Ohio when he got the call that he had been drafted to the Tigers.
“That moment was pretty awesome,” he said, but “the weight of it doesn’t really hit you in the moment.”
Rhymes said the big league is everything he dreamed of and there are moments when we walks onto the field that it hits him.
“I really enjoy almost every minute of it,” he said.
Rhymes never hit a homerun at the West U Little League, but said he “might be convinced” to do so during Saturday’s clinic.
There are two clinic sessions at the WULL on Saturday. The first session is from 10 a.m. to 12 p.m. with the second session following from 12:30 p.m. to 2:30 p.m.
Players will learn about bat selection, grip, stance, stride and everything that goes into hitting a home run. There will be an opportunity to ask Rhymes questions and an autograph session with the whole staff to follow.
Registration is currently open. To register for the hitting camp, visit www.willrhymes.com.
January 6th, 2011 at 10:28 am
Great story….this kid in a great story; too small to make it but did. Went to a great college (William and Mary) and THEN made it as a Major League Baseball player.