Vahe Gregorian: Royals' Vinnie Pasquantino once played role of a hobbit and he wants you to know it

KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Vinnie Pasquantino, aka “The Pasquatch,” stands 6-foot-3, weighs around 250 pounds and heading into the weekend led the Royals in home runs (15) and runs batted in (56). A year ago, he had 97 RBIs before he suffered a broken thumb at the end of August and missed the rest of the regular season.

So maybe it seems like he always was on this trajectory because of his size and power.

Not quite.

“Not growing up in this area, nobody knows what I was like in high school,” he said Thursday at Grandview High during the Vinnie Pasquantino Baseball ProCamp sponsored by Community America Credit Union. “I wasn’t the biggest, the best or really anything.”

Well, he sure was one thing, as he told some parents of the 120-plus boys and girls attending the camp.

During a middle school play, he was small enough for the role of hobbit Bilbo Baggins in a “Lord of the Rings” play.

The reference was part of a broader theme from Pasquantino, who grew up in Richmond, Va., and played three years of college baseball at Old Dominion before inauspiciously being selected by the Royals in the 11th round of the 2019 MLB draft.

At the time, he was a few months from turning 22, the same age rookie teammate Jac Caglianone is now, and for a good while he didn’t feel he was really on the Royals’ radar.

So put this all together, and here’s what Pasquantino hoped the campers, and young athletes in general, might take from his example:

“The biggest piece of advice I’d have is don’t worry about doing it for a living,” he said. “Because the minute you put that stress on yourself when you’re not actually doing it for a living, it makes it way harder for almost no reason. In my opinion, at least.”

And in his experience.

“I didn’t know I was going to be a professional athlete until I was …” he said. “So it’s pretty cool to be able to share that. Because I think a lot of people assume just because you’re in the major leagues that it was always meant to be and you were always better.”

The point wasn’t so much that anyone might be able to do this as it was to enjoy the game for the game’s sake.

That’s something you can see embraced day-in and day-out by the ever-animated Pasquantino, from that Simba Cam/Lion King bit he did with Nicky Lopez in his rookie season of 2022 to the double-cheek kiss with Caglianone to celebrate his home runs earlier this week.

“Just Italians being Italians,” Caglianone said, smiling, on Wednesday night.

Along the same playful lines, Pasquantino apparently also coaxed Caglianone to make a nonsensical reference Monday night.

“Just trying to put sweat in a bathtub this time of year,” Caglianone said, unsuccessfully trying to keep a straight face as Pasquantino looked on.

Asked to clarify the term on Thursday, Pasquantino more or less made it through without laughing as he said it means “just just trying to fill the bathtub full of sweat. You’re just working really hard.”

Don’t be surprised to see the made-up term catch on with some T-shirts or memes as another sign of Pasquantino’s influence.

No wonder the first- through eighth-grade kids were taken with his considerable presence — which included roving through different fundamental drills, engaging kids at every turn and pitching some Wiffle ball batting practice.

Meanwhile, their wide-eyed energy surely was refreshing to Pasquantino — who remembered being their age and attending similar camps but never met a major league player before he became a pro himself.

Now, of course, he happens to have met a lot of them. And he was pleased to reassure the kids when they asked if he knew a couple in particular: teammates Bobby Witt Jr. and Salvador Perez.

“I do know Bobby, yes,” he deadpanned. “Very well.”

A moment later to another question, he casually added, “I do know Salvy as well.”

Such questions turned out to be another way he related to the kids and their sense of wonder.

“I think getting asked about my teammates is probably the most meaningful, just because I think about what I would want to ask if I was in their shoes,” he said. “And it would probably be the same thing, like, ‘What’s this guy like?’ ”

Beyond appreciating the uplifting innocence, Pasquantino reckoned he could get a few hitting tips from one youngster just crushing the ball. And he also allowed as how he gained more sympathy for his batting practice pitchers after he threw a few stray Wiffle balls.

Noah Farrow, a 13-year-old from south Kansas City who batted from a wheelchair because of a broken leg, had no complaints after Pasquantino kneeled and underhanded him one he gave a good crack.

“I got a ball, and I got to take a picture of him and he remembers my name,” Noah said. “So it’s awesome.”

Part of a great day for Pasquantino, too, who said he ordinarily would have spent what was the team’s first off-day since June 23 on a couch.

“They always say on off-days (to) get outside and so stuff, and I never really listen to that,” he said, later adding that he considered it “a little mini-reset.”

One from which maybe he got as good as he gave.

“I just hope they take away that the way that I try to preach about baseball is to go have a good time and be a good teammate and just have fun …,” he said. “Even though these kids range from, you know, six to 13, whatever it is, like, it is the same game.”

———

Tammy Ljungblad contributed reporting.