Like Father, Like Son

Like most Georgia boys born in the late 1990s, Trey Hasty grew up a big fan of Chipper Jones of the Atlanta Braves.

Thanks to his dad, Rick Hasty of the Whitfield County Public Works department, Trey has enjoyed a behind-the-scenes look at the big-league baseball scene.

Back in the early ’90s, Rick started a hobby of collecting autographs from his sports heroes. When Trey came along in 1997,  it was only natural that his dad started taking him along on the visits to Turner Field.

Today, the father-son duo has amassed a collection of 500 to 600 autographs and other sports memorabilia, including an autographed photo of a baby-faced Pete Rose snapped as he was just getting ready to leave the Reds’ dugout to take the field for the first time as a major leaguer.

But for Rick, it’s about much more than just a collection of signatures and photos.

“I tell my wife that this was a conduit for Trey and I to have a connection, a conversation,” Rick says.
As the two frequently traveled to Atlanta or other cities to track down autographs, it gave them time to bond.

“You can talk about a lot of crazy things on that hour -and-a-half drive to Atlanta,” Rick points out.

“We could sit down for ‘x’ number of minutes or hours at a time and talk – we could be talking baseball, we could be talking school, we could be talking anything. I think it really opened the doors for us to bond; it became more than just a hobby. It was something that we could bond with. I wouldn’t trade it for anything … for anything!”

While there have been many special memories for the two during their autograph safaris, Rick says two stories stand out in his mind.

“One was at a Braves Fan Fest, and Mike Devereaux, a utility outfielder for the Braves, had a table set up,” Rick recalls. “Mike and I were talking baseball, and Trey was admiring his World Series ring, so he said, ‘Hey, little man, you like that?’ Trey said, ‘Yes sir.’ Mike said, ‘Well, here, try it on!’ So Trey got to wear a World Series champion ring. He held that ring up, and it was like, ‘Wow, dad, check that out!’ He was probably 7 or 8 years old, something to where it was a big deal for him at that point.”
At another autograph session, the father and son met up with Roger McDowell, the Braves’ pitching coach.

“By this point, Trey was pitching on a travel team, so he walked up to Roger and asked him, ‘What’s the out pitch?’ He told Trey, ‘Fastball.’ Trey was a little disappointed; he wanted a big explanation. But Roger told him the fastball, that Tom Glavine can take a thimble and put it on a bat and let somebody hold it and he can knock the thimble off the bat. ‘When you can control your fastball like that,’ Roger said, ‘that’s your out pitch.’ So that has stuck with Trey.”

Trey is more than just a sports autograph collector, though. He enjoyed playing football and baseball at Northwest, but his career on the field has come to an end after three shoulder surgeries.
“He’s bummed out,” Rick says, “but I told him just because he can’t play it doesn’t mean he can’t teach it. So he’s helping coach a travel team.”

Rick knows all about coaching first-hand. He has worked in all capacities at the Whitfield County Parks & Recreation Department since the early 1990s, from electrical to facilities to interim director, and has also coached his share of youth teams. When the Public Works department took over field maintenance from the recreation department about 18 months ago, Rick transferred there and still helps take care of the facilities.

During those years with the recreation department, Rick came in contact with children whose parents didn’t spend quality time with them. That’s one reason he’s so thankful for being able to share this hobby with his son.

“I would recommend it to anybody,” he says, “who has children because there’s not enough time these days between everything … such a fast-paced life … where you get to spend quality time with them, where it’s just  you and your son, or you and your daughter.

“You know, being in recreation for 23 years, I saw a lot of bad situations,” Rick continues. “I really feel like the generation coming up that’s going to be our leaders got a bum rap. They were almost the throw-away generation. There’s a lot of times us coaches in youth ball would have to wait until stepmom or stepdad got there – and it could be 10:30 or 11 o’clock. They forgot they were supposed to pick little Johnny up so you’re sitting there with little Johnny on the curb until somebody shows up. So more people could use this hobby as a way to bond, connect.”

But not only is it a way to connect with your child, it’s also just a whole lot of fun, though Rick says  the hobby has changed over the years..

“Back in the early ’90s, we dealt with local card stores and maybe a card show every now and then,” Rick recalls, “and then as the hobby began picking up steam at that point, I think the Major League clubs decided that they had something that they could market as well so they would do a Fan Fest where they would have 10 or 12 of their players that would be at different stations throughout the stadium. You pay to get in and they kept it reasonable so you could bring kids and spend the day going from station to station getting those autographs. It made for a good day.

“We had a lot of good times,” Rick says. “In between the morning and afternoon shows, there was always some down time so we’d take the opportunity and do a tour of the stadium. So Trey got to go behind the scenes and see the locker room, he was in the bullpen and dugout. I’ve got some pictures of him making the call to the bullpen.”

Rick had always noticed on TV that Braves manager Bobby Cox would pick at something with his hands in the dugout while he watched the action on the field.

“You could never really tell what he was picking at,” Rick says. “But on the tour, once you see the dugout, you knew what he was picking at; he was actually picking out the concrete around the little protective rail there in front of him. There were small chunks out of it all the way around that thing; they said it was just a nervous habit.”

Back in the clubhouse, Rick and Trey heard stories about some of the unusual things pitchers come up with to occupy their time between starts. “There’s a place underneath the stadium at Turner Field where the pitchers can warm up, so they would bring in their remote control cars and jump the pitcher’s mound and see whose car could jump the furthest! Little stories like that …, Trey’s thinking, ‘Man, that’d be the life!’ But you don’t see the hard knocks till they get there!”

Rick says 98 out of 100 players are “super guys,” but there are a few who are arrogant and don’t want to take the time to talk to fans.

“I guess probably the best one I ever saw with the kids was Chipper,” Rick says. “He was excellent with the kids. Be at a table, he’d call ’em around and in Trey’s case, he’d say, ‘Come on around and talk with me.’ So he’s autographing and they’re chatting about whatever Trey had come up with – what’s your favorite ice cream or whatever, could be something off the wall for him to ask.”

Trey also got to meet the Big Three Braves pitchers of the ’90s – Tom Glavine, John Smoltz, and Greg Maddux.  “He met them, talked with them, talked with Chipper, Roger McDowell, Mike Devereaux, some of the lesser known ones,” Rick says. “Actually got a couple of Bobby Cox. He’s a super guy, too. He reminds you of everybody’s grandfather whenever you’re there with him. He’s got that air about him, confident air, comfortable in  his skin, can joke around.”

While Trey enjoyed being on the field and interacting with the players, Rick says it was “a kick for me just to take a picture or listen to him interact with the players.”

Memories like that are even more priceless now that Trey has just graduated from Northwest Whitfield High School and  is getting ready to embark on his life as a young adult, including college at perhaps Dalton State and Covenant.

Looking back on his own career, Rick hopes that his son can find such a fulfilling vocation, too.
“Public service for 25 years, I wouldn’t change it for anything,” he says, “because you can look back at the end of the day and you can see what you’ve done. Now the best compliment I could have is going to a ballgame at one of our parks and seeing some of the folks I coached years ago and they still call me coach. I tell Trey, you know you’ve touched somebody if they still recognize you as coach.”

As Rick heads into the final stage of his working days, he’s thinking ahead to a time when he would possibly like to open a small sports memorabilia shop here to pass the time. Of course, that would be whenever he and Trey are not expanding their travels to places like Pebble Beach to watch golf or the NCAA Final Four to see the national champion basketball team be crowned.

“I’d love to do that, good Lord willing and I have my health,” Rick says. “I would love to retire at 60 and tinker in a card shop and be able to go to Pebble Beach or just anywhere, call Trey up and say, ‘Son, what you doing next weekend?’ Then we would be off  on an adventure to here or there.”
It would just be another chapter in their already-packed book of adventures, a book that Rick hopes will eventually include a chapter for Trey and his own son or daughter.

“I hope sometime down the road that Trey will be able to take his son or his daughter, kinda use our experience as a template,” Rick says, “and say, ‘Hey, Dad and I got along together doing these things. I’ll do them, too.’ ”