Quebecer Édouard Julien’s season is one for the annals.
After becoming the 33e player from the province of Quebec to set foot on an MLB field on April 12, and the second from the Capitale-Nationale (the first being catcher Max St-Pierre), the second baseman did not stopped there, even establishing himself as one of the best players on the Minnesota Twins.
Nothing less.
And if all this is possible, it is partly due to the influence of his father. This is what emerges from the interview that the 24-year-old man gave to The Score.
I think it’s just because of my dad that I play baseball. He loved playing baseball. He loved playing softball. He put a glove on my hand when I was 3 or 4, and I loved it from the start. He was just playing for fun. He was an Expos fan. He loved them.
Julien’s father not only passed on his passion to him, but he also helped him perfect his art as a ball player.
We were knocking in the garage. In high school, my dad started me using an app that calculates stick exit velocity. I was trying to compare myself to Mike Trout and all those guys in the major leagues. I hit as hard as I could on a tee.
Monsieur Julien was a little avant-garde regarding the exit speed of the stick since it only came into fashion a little later. But for the latter, it is not new.
His favorite players had a lot of exit velocity at bat, like Vladimir Guerrero, Gary Carter. Growing up, my dad always said, “Hit hard. That’s how you hit the ball.” Because I wasn’t a big guy, I focused on that.
Behind every great baseball player, there is an important man or woman who made a difference and the Julien family is further proof.
