{"id":4735,"date":"2018-06-01T08:00:22","date_gmt":"2018-06-01T12:00:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/magazine.alumni.ncsu.edu\/?p=3695"},"modified":"2024-02-01T16:30:33","modified_gmt":"2024-02-01T21:30:33","slug":"stealing-the-show","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/magazine.ncsu.edu\/2018\/stealing-the-show\/","title":{"rendered":"Stealing the Show"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

To pull off a steal in baseball, a player has to have both instinct and speed. A player has to keep his focus on the base ahead and not where the ball is as he plows through the dirt and dust. It\u2019s unpredictable. That\u2019s the true beauty of a steal. At its essence, it\u2019s a gamble. A player has to know when the right time is to go. He has to know\u2009\u2014\u2009cue the Kenny Rogers here\u2009\u2014\u2009when to hold \u2019em and when to fold \u2019em.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Washington Nationals shortstop Trea Turner knows everything about when to run.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When Turner reaches first base, either on a single or walk, he removes his batting gloves and hands them off to his first base coach. He pulls out what he calls his \u201coven mitt,\u201d a black slipper-like padded covering that fits over his left hand to protect it on a slide, takes several steps off first base and sets up to run. Then he starts processing data.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Turner is studying. He\u2019s looking for the first sign that will indicate the pitcher is going to follow through and go to home with his pitch: picking up his leg, a faint move of the arm or even a simple breath the pitcher draws. Maybe he\u2019s still an engineer at heart. \u201cThe chain of the processes that you are dealing with, whether it\u2019s mechanical, chemical equations, you want to be efficient,\u201d says Turner, who studied chemical engineering at NC State. \u201cI think I try to be that as a ballplayer. Try to be smart, take risks when I feel like they\u2019re calculated.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe chain of the processes that you are dealing with, whether it\u2019s mechanical, chemical equations, you want to be efficient. I think I try to be that as a ballplayer. Try to be smart, take risks when I feel like they\u2019re calculated.\u201d
\u2013 Trea Turner\u00ad<\/p><\/div><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

Turner, 25, played three seasons with the Wolfpack, helping propel the team to the 2013 College World Series. Today, he\u2019s one of the most feared baserunners in Major League Baseball. In the four years since he left college, he got drafted, traded and rose through the minors to cement his place as MLB\u2019s fastest shortstop. Patience. Caution. And once ready for takeoff\u2009. . .\u2009speed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cHe looks like Flash out there, to tell you the truth,\u201d says Nationals teammate and 2015 National League MVP Bryce Harper. \u201cHe\u2019s a special player.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Turning Into Trea Turner<\/h4>\n\n\n\n

Turner\u2019s baseball life began not far from where he now opens every season with the Nationals for spring training\u2009\u2014\u2009FITTEAM Ballpark of the Palm Beaches. Twenty minutes south of FITTEAM, in Lake Worth, Fla., Turner grew up loving baseball and looking up to heroes Ken Griffey Jr. (Turner once caught his foul ball as a fan at a Florida Marlins game) and Derek Jeter, the benchmark for every aspiring shortstop growing up in the 1990s and 2000s. Turner says he knew he wanted to be a ballplayer from the time he was four or five. \u201cYou could play baseball year round,\u2019\u2019 he says, \u201cso that\u2019s all I ever wanted to do.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But he was a bit of a late bloomer. It wasn\u2019t until one of Turner\u2019s bursts as a high school junior that it became obvious that playing baseball at a high level would be possible. He had come to Park Vista Community High School\u2019s junior varsity team as a high school freshman, probably \u201c5 foot nothing and 100 pounds soaking wet,\u201d says Park Vista head coach Larry Greenstein. But by Turner\u2019s junior year, he started to grow. By the end of his spurt, he was six feet tall and had put on weight. He was in control of his athleticism. And he went on a tear which led to a senior campaign in high school where he \u201cwas the guy,\u201d as Greenstein says, for the Cobras, having success off talented pitchers like future Miami Marlins All- Star Jose Fernandez.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

His competitive nature showed up off the field, too. Turner\u2019s mother, Donna, kids that he gets that edge from her. (Her Twitter profile also shows a mother\u2019s pride: \u201cHe gets his speed from me.\u201d) As a kid, Turner wanted to win all the time. Ping pong, card games and even scavenger hunts around the house on Christmas Day when the kids were too old for Santa. Those family scavenger hunts have more recently grown into contests around Lake Worth that mirror challenges seen on The Amazing Race<\/em>. Turner wanted to win so badly two years ago that he took to Twitter to call upon a stranger to eat a sardine with him. Someone obliged, which gave Turner and his team the win.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Turner\u2019s speed started to take form his senior year. Chris Hart, the NC State associate head baseball coach who recruited Turner, came to see Turner play  and noticed a difference\u2009\u2014\u2009even from the previous summer when he\u2019d offered Turner a scholarship. \u201cHe was already turning into Trea Turner,\u201d Hart says. \u201cYou could tell he was a lot faster.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So fast, in fact, Turner was making an impression on major league scouts. The Pittsburgh Pirates drafted him in the 20th round of the 2011 MLB Draft. But Turner passed, opting for two things he desired in a college experience\u2009\u2014\u2009to play for an ACC school and to study engineering. He went with NC State, one of only two Division I schools that offered him a scholarship (Florida Atlantic was the other).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Turner arrived at NC State in 2011 as a lightly recruited infielder who could hit and run. But about halfway through Turner\u2019s freshman year, it became apparent Turner could do more\u2009\u2014\u2009and do it faster\u2009\u2014than anyone had anticipated. NC State was playing a series at Clemson, and Turner stole seven bases, five in one game. Turner says that\u2019s when he started to understand that stealing a base wasn\u2019t simply taking off and going all-in on a bet. \u201cI wanted to be aggressive, but I didn\u2019t want to make an easy out,\u201d he says. \u201cI knew it could be good because it wasn\u2019t just dumb decisions or running to run.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n