BILOXI, Miss. (WLOX) – Former Major League baseball players Fred Lewis and Matt Lawton shared some tips with kids at the Gulfport Sportsplex Saturday.
The players helped teach kids the fundamentals of baseball.
“As a kid, I wanted to play professionally, just like these kids; I know they want to play professionally. That’s just something we all grow and try to play the game,” Lewis said. “As a kid, I idolized Ken Griffith Jr. and Matt Lawton. He took me under his wing when I was playing pro ball. I idolized Matt too.”
Lawton, originally from Gulfport, played professional baseball for major league teams including the Pittsburgh Pirates and New York Yankees.
“As a kid, teachers and staff used to ask me, ‘what do you want to be when you grow up?’ I always wanted to be a major league baseball player. That’s all I wanted to be. My dad used to take me to Atlanta to see the Braves play. I always had that dream that I wanted to play on these fields. It came true,” Lawton said.
Lewis was born and raised in Wiggins before he went pro and made his debut with the San Francisco Giants. He remembers starting off like the kids that attended the event.
“I started when I was five. It was just something about my mother and father that they wouldn’t allow me to miss a year. They didn’t want me to play football, so they allowed me to play baseball,” Lewis said.
Both players said their success would not be possible without the support of their families. They advised parents to support their kids’ dreams.
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