Ahead of Akil Baddoo’s first big-league at-bat, his parents made a bet. Not that he might get a hit. Not that he might hit a homer.
“We had a bet about where it would go,” said his dad.
The Tigers placed a bet on Baddoo back in December. Despite the fact he hadn’t played baseball in almost two years, despite the fact he hadn’t taken a swing beyond Single-A, they picked him third overall in the Rule 5 draft. They liked his athleticism. They loved his verve. So when Baddoo tore up spring training, the Tigers doubled down and took him to Detroit.
His mom, Akilah, came with him. “Just to help him organize himself,” she said. “Just being there whatever he needed me for.” His dad, John, and his two younger brothers arrived a few days later. It’s been a family effort to get Baddoo to the big leagues, beginning, perhaps, with Akilah’s father, a former cricket player. He must have passed down his swing.
Five-year-old Akil was hitting homers the first day his dad pitched to him in the backyard.
“I brought my wife out to witness it and we said, ‘OK. Baseball over soccer,’” said John.
Last November, the Twins chose other prospects over Baddoo. They left their former second-round pick unprotected in the Rule 5 draft after an elbow injury cost him most of the 2019 season and the duration of 2020. It was all pretty confusing to Akilah, who admits she wasn’t sure how to react when Baddoo went from the Twins to the Tigers.
“I was like, ‘Oh my gosh, what happened! Why did they get rid of you!?’” she said with a laugh. “Then my husband came in and was like, ‘No, that’s not what it means.’”
What it meant was that Baddoo was about to get a real shot to make it to the majors, to jump from Single-A to The Show. And his mom knew what to do from there.
“I got him a little cupcake and Bruster’s ice cream to congratulate him,” she said.
And then she told him to get to work. Baddoo listened. He came to big-league camp with the Tigers ready to win a big-league job, even if the odds were stacked against him. He turned them in his favor by hitting like a madman for the next month. The Tigers didn’t have to think twice about keeping him on the team.
On Sunday afternoon, beneath blue skies and sunshine, the 22-year-old made his MLB debut. His parents and brothers were in the stands to see it.
“Four months ago we can’t say that we knew we would be in this moment right here. We figured eventually we would, but not so soon,” said John. “But when God has a plan, all he had to do was continue to work and stay under what’s destined for him.”
They are a family whose faith runs deep. Akilah and John stood and joined hands when Baddoo stepped to the plate for his first at-bat in the bigs, trying to send him “all of our energy, all of our love,” she said. It wasn’t long ago that Baddoo’s dream was starting to fade. How fitting that on Easter it came back to life.
“A beautiful day, resurrection Sunday, I was like, it’s gotta be something great," said Akilah. "In my head I was like, it’s just gotta be something great.”
Moms know. They just know. Baddoo jumped on the first pitch he saw and sent it soaring over the left field fence, an opposite field bomb. He flipped the bat with a flourish, skipped around the bases and pointed to his family as he crossed home plate. Mom and Dad were jumping for joy.
“Been next to me every step of the way, so I was just happy I was able to do something in front of them,” Baddoo said.
Akilah wants to be clear; she and John weren’t assuming their son would do the unthinkable in the first at-bat of his MLB career. That would be unfair to ask. But in the event that he did, they wagered how it would look.
Would he pull it? Would he go the other way? Maybe send one out to center?
“He’s been spraying the ball,” said Akilah, “so I just felt like he was going to do something different.”
Moms know. They just know.
“My wife won,” said John. “She said to left.”