This story was excerpted from Todd Zolecki¡¯s Phillies Beat newsletter. To read the full newsletter, click here. And subscribe to get it regularly in your inbox.

It was just last Wednesday when Trea Turner smashed a game-tying home run with two outs in the ninth inning in a comeback victory over Arizona.

Afterward, Turner relayed a text from his mom, Donna.

¡°Good game, except for your fourth at-bat,¡± it read. ¡°I was booing you.¡±

Fans and mom booed Turner following an ugly seventh-inning strikeout, but Turner said the boos did not bother him because his mom ¡°prepared me for anything in this game or in this world. She was tough on me from an early age, and not much fazes me.¡±

It got us wondering ¡­ was it just a throwaway line, like, ¡°Hey, my mom was tough on me?¡± Or did mom really push him?

¡°She grew up in a competitive family,¡± Turner said Saturday in Atlanta. ¡°She¡¯s super competitive. That¡¯s kind of where I get the competitiveness from. My dad [Mark] is super chill and calm. Nobody can read him. So I feel like I got a little bit of both of them. I try not to get too high or low, but then I¡¯m always competing. I don¡¯t really let much bother me because she¡¯s always made comments throughout my life, more like psychological warfare.¡±

Turner smiled.

¡°But it was my mom and my grandpa,¡± Turner said. ¡°They kind of like demanded perfection or wanted to be perfect, so I got that from them.¡±

Turner¡¯s grandfather, Dick Morick, died before the 2020 season. He proudly wore a Nationals cap that had ¡°Trea¡¯s Grandpa¡± stitched on the back. Turner said his grandfather was born without a knee and a tibia, so his foot was connected to his femur. Morick had a wooden leg his entire life, but he still played three sports in high school.

¡°He taught me how to golf,¡± Turner said. ¡°He did a lot. My grandpa, with one leg, would always say he was my running coach.¡±

Funny, because Turner¡¯s mom says in her Twitter bio that ¡°He gets his speed from me.¡±

¡°He¡± being Trea, of course.

¡°My mom¡¯s side of the family is really athletic, and that¡¯s their claim,¡± Turner said. ¡°I probably did get it from them. My dad said he was fast as well, though.¡±

Dad loved baseball growing up. He loved baseball so much that he wanted to name Trea ¡°Brett¡± after George Brett.

¡°He was a big Royals fan,¡± Turner said.

Mom, meanwhile, pushed her son into becoming an excellent baseball player.

¡°It was always like, 3-for-4, 'Good game, except for that strikeout,¡¯¡± Turner said. ¡°It was always stuff like that. But that¡¯s why I think I¡¯m where I¡¯m at. It¡¯s because of that. If I didn¡¯t have that, I don¡¯t know what I would be like. I¡¯m definitely thankful for it.¡±