Jazz not only a natural on the diamond

SECAUCUS, N.J. -- It's getting close to showtime on MLB Tonight and Jazz Chisholm Jr. lets me know he has to get to makeup.

We cruise down the hallway, past the rows of screens and more screens that make up the MLB Network studios. Jazz stops to look at a photo on one of the walls.

"Satchel Paige!" he grins, before spinning and heading back in the direction we were going. We turn another corner and duck into a room with a few mirrors and chairs.

Jazz knows the routine from the night before and jumps up on one of the seats, ready for what's next. Co-host Yonder Alonso can't help but look on from the corner, seeing what his guest host for the week might do.

Before the makeup artist works her magic, Jazz reminds everyone in the room what this really is.

"This is anti-shine," Chisholm says, smiling and rubbing his face. "Make sure to make a note of that."

Over the last couple years, Jazz Chisholm has become one of the biggest stars in MLB.

He has a home run swing and bat flip that not many can rival. Or maybe they're afraid to.

He makes sparkling plays on the infield that would make acrobats jealous.

The Bahamian native has an aura, a flair, a personality more akin to a Hollywood actor than someone you'd find on a baseball field. He has his own stylist -- Whitney Etoroma -- who has helped him along the way at events like his MLB Network appearance or the ESPYs. (Although she says he pretty much already knows what he's doing).

So, there was no question that the 2022 All-Star should've been a guest host on MLB Tonight for three days during pre- and postgame postseason coverage.

It was a new venture for the 24-year-old Marlins second baseman, but when they asked, he was ready to go. And he seemed pretty cool and collected before his second night on the job.

"Easy for me," Chisholm told me in the break room. "Harold [Reynolds] and Greg [Amsinger] and Sean [Casey], they're easy to work with. They just told me to be me. That's all I need to hear."

Like on a baseball diamond, Jazz did seem like a natural on TV.

He broke down his own at-bats against that night's Phillies starter Zack Wheeler. (Going over highlights beforehand, he laughed about the fact that he was wearing the same four chains in-studio that day that he wore in his at-bats.)

He dove into how Guardians batters could've taken after Steven Kwan and hit better against Gerrit Cole.

Before going on air, the NL East player even got into analyst mode by making predictions about the Division Series matchup between his familiar NL East foes.

"Braves," Chisholm said confidently. "I know Bryce and Nick and everybody is doing what they're supposed to be doing, but when you got a team like the Braves with the pitching and the sticks that come behind, it's just tough."

And the World Series?

"I feel like whoever comes out of the NL will win the World Series," he said. "Dodgers or Braves are my guess."

But away from the bright lights of the TV cameras and field is where Jazz's personality, it seems, really comes through.

He jokes about his "Twitter haters" who probably think he flips his bat too much, he treats his publicists and people he just met at the Network like some of his best friends, he finds a few moments to record a birthday message for a young fan off his phone, he has his girlfriend, Olivia -- back home in Florida -- set up on FaceTime almost the entire time before he goes on set. Probably so he can feel like she's there with him. She's Bahamian, but they met stateside about a year or so ago.

Speaking of the Bahamas, it's a place that means a lot to him. It's where Jazz first picked up a bat and ball -- mostly thanks to his softball-playing grandmother. Patricia Coakley starred as a shortstop for the national team.

“She took me to that field every weekend. It didn’t matter,” Chisholm recalled a few years ago. “She would just throw balls at me and tell me to hit it. And that’s what I did.”

His eyes light up at the fact that baseball is growing in a place that some people may have never thought possible.

"A lot more people in the Bahamas are baseball fans," he told me. "I'm meeting people who just started watching baseball this year. They're messaging me. And with kids, it's a lot more baseball in the Bahamas, for sure. When I was coming up, it was such a small group. We're all still friends today. Everybody I played baseball against or with in the Bahamas, we're still tight because there weren't many of us."

There are 24 pro players from the island and a couple top prospects -- a huge jump from just a couple decades ago.

There's now even an annual winter event on Paradise Island: The Don't Blink Home Run Derby in Paradise. It's gotten bigger every year with more big-name players and fans, and, well, just looking at it, you can see why that might be.

That event, the game's growth in the Bahamas and even the game's growth among younger generations in the U.S. has a lot to do with Jazz and the way he seems to have fun in everything he's doing. His bat, his glove and his shine -- undeterred by anyone or anything (even a little bit of makeup) -- will hopefully be a force for years to come.