The first time Kumar Rocker threw a baseball was to his mother, Lalitha, as Kumar’s football-famous father, Tracy, stood nearby in the family’s front yard. So...
It’s all the more serendipitous, Tracy and Lalitha say, that of all franchises it was the Rangers who drafted and signed Kumar.
“I know that was my first MLB hat, a Texas Rangers hat,” he said. “That thing is torn to bits, man. It is dirty. It is worn down. So I know I wore it a lot.”, but as his parents and past coaches note, he’s confronted expectations all his life and almost always prevailed. “I don’t think anyone knows, except Lu and I, what he went through with the Mets, what he dealt with,” he said.
They settled in Maryland, where George finished his college education and embarked on a long career as Amtrak’s director of capital accounting; Evelyn worked 32 years for World Bank. As much as she enjoyed the thrill of competing, in a sports sense Meeting the Rockers was a culture shock for Lalitha and the Samuels. During his youth in India George high-jumped and pole-vaulted — once vaulting 12-feet-6 with a bamboo pole, landing on sawdust — but the Samuels knew nothing about football.
When Kumar entered the world on Nov. 22, 1999 in Birmingham, Ala., Tracy was in his third season at Troy State. Following Indian custom, Evelyn Samuel came to live with the Rockers for 14 months, helping to care for Kumar while Lu returned to work. George couldn’t believe how quiet and attentive Kumar was that day. After Tracy became an assistant at Arkansas in 2003, head coach Houston Nutt likewise remarked how quietly Kumar sat through practices and coaches’ meetings.
Tracy drew a target on a hickory tree. Other times, Tracy and Lu gathered hickory nuts and arranged them in piles for Kumar to hit. “Because of football, he’s a very intense person,” Tracy said. “And as you play the game, it all comes out.” And sports, Kumar came to realize, were his most seamless way of fitting in as he moved from school-to-school. Especially for a kid who immediately stood out because of his size and skin color.
Rocker so often asked Lasley for the fieldhouse key so that he could lift weights or get in batting practice swings at night that Lasley began leaving the key in his home mailbox. Lasley often teased Rocker that his menacing scowl on the mound reminded him of three-time World Series champion and former Ranger Dave Stewart. Off the field, though, “he was a big Teddy bear.” Younger kids were drawn to him.
Late in the recruiting process, Vanderbilt played a series against Tennessee in Knoxville. Corbin and his wife Maggie stayed behind to have dinner with the Rockers. Four years later, Corbin still marvels about that moment. Especially since Rocker made every word come true.
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