What Dante Bichette's life as a baseball dad has taught him

This story was excerpted from Thomas Harding’s Rockies Beat newsletter, written this week by Manny Randhawa. To read the full newsletter, click here. And subscribe to get it regularly in your inbox.

GREELEY, Colo. -- Dante Bichette decided he wanted to play in the Major Leagues when he was 9 years old. He was walking through the living room of his home in West Palm Beach, Fla., when his eyes were riveted to the television screen. It was tuned to NBC’s telecast of Game 7 of the 1973 World Series.

Reggie Jackson was circling the bases after launching a two-run homer against the Mets in what became a championship-clinching victory to make it back-to-back World Series titles for the A’s.

“I didn’t know what was going on, except that everybody in the stands had to watch him run the bases,” Bichette said. “I asked my mom what was happening. She said it was baseball, and that those guys got paid to play. And that was pretty much the goal after that -- to hit home runs for a living.”

Bichette accomplished his goal -- over a 14-year Major League career, he launched 274 of them and was a four-time All-Star. His most prolific years came from 1993-99 with the Rockies. Colorado is where he became a star slugger, and last Saturday morning, he stood on a stage about 50 miles north of Coors Field, where his exploits became the stuff of franchise legend.

He was addressing the annual Friends of Baseball youth fundraiser in Greeley, and as you might expect, he was asked for his expertise on how to coach kids -- something Bichette knows about firsthand from when he was a young player himself and as the father of two boys who also reached the professional level.

A man in the audience was given a microphone after raising his hand to ask Bichette a question.

“First of all,” the man said, “congratulations on a great career and all your success with your sons. There’s a ton of dads out here and there’s a ton of kids, which I think is awesome. What advice would you have as a dad who’s made mistakes with his young players? What’s your advice to all these dads who are working with their sons?”

Bichette smiled.

“So, I have a lot of experience with this one,” he said. “And this one’s tough, especially for me because when I stepped out of the game, my older son [Dante Bichette Jr.] was just starting baseball at 7 years old. And I stepped out of a situation where everything was like end-of-the-world preparation -- professional, do it right, don’t screw it up.

“And I tried to teach a 7-year-old to play like that, to prepare like that. And I think a lot of dads mess this one up. The first thing you have to do if you’ve got a young one, the first and most important thing you have to do if you see talent in your son or daughter in something, is you need to nurture their love for that.”

Bichette said he made “a little bit of an adjustment” with his younger son, Bo, who is now a star shortstop with the Blue Jays and led the American League in hits from 2021-23 (555).

“I let him fail quite a bit,” Bichette said of Bo. “And that’s when you can teach the lessons. And you’ve got to let them fail because baseball is such a game of failure.”

April 26 will mark the 30th anniversary of the biggest moment of Bichette’s career -- hitting a walk-off home run to win the first game played at Coors Field, beating the Mets in the bottom of the 14th inning in freezing conditions. He went on to finish runner-up in National League MVP voting that year and helped lead the Rockies to the postseason for the first time. Three years later, he produced the first cycle in franchise history.

Those moments would never have happened had it not been for the passion that was sparked when he was 9.

Bichette told parents and kids at Saturday’s fundraiser that in the end, that’s what it comes down to.

“Your number one priority with whatever your kid does or whatever talent he has is to get him to where he just falls in love with it and enjoys playing,” he said. “Because after that, you do not have to coach it, I promise you.

“Once I fell in love with this game, that’s all I wanted to do.”