By Andy Furman
NKyTribune reporter
He is a teacher now. And his classroom is the batting cages at D-BAT.
What’s D-BAT? The baseball instructional center located at 1952 North Bend Road, Hebron.
Hunter Jones is their newest instructor. In fact, he started this week.
And, yes before you ask – he is the son of former major leaguer Tracy Jones, who played for the Cincinnati Reds as well as the Montreal Expos, San Francisco Giants, Detroit Tigers, and Seattle Mariners during his career which spanned from 1988 to 1991. In fact, in January 1983, Jones was selected as the first overall pick of the secondary phase of the amateur draft by the Reds.
As for son Hunter, yes, he had those baseball genes as well. The Bellevue High School grad was drafted by the then Cleveland Indians (now Guardians) in 2010 – but his career ended when he was released by the Washington Nationals during the 2020 COVID year.
He never got to taste the “Big Show.” But what he did do, was team-up with Jackson Laumann – the Boone County High School grad — who is a co-owner of D-BAT.
“I played with Jackson for the White Sox and their Roookie League team in Great Falls, Mont., in 2017,” the 33-year-old Jones told the Northern Kentucky Tribune. “We were roommates when we played ball in Arizona.”
So, when Laumann learned Jones was available as an instructor for his D-BAT, he jumped at the chance.
“I’m just glad to be back in baseball in some way,” Jones said. “I made it to Triple-A Fresno (Calif.) in 2019. In the third game of the season, I stepped on a baseball in batting practice; got a bad sprain, and that basically did me in.”
Jones said making it to the big leagues is, of course, based on talent, skill, and “a lot of luck.”
When baseball stopped, he said, he hooked-up with a private contractor and started doing construction.
“It was a good feeling to be able to do your own repairs,” he said. “I was building decks and doing dry wall.”
He does have regrets in not making it to the major leagues.
“All I really wanted to do was make my dad proud,” he said.
The father of two young girls, Jones will serve as an instructor, give private lessons, and handle camps and clinics for D-BAT, according to Doug Laumann, Jackson’s dad, and business partner with D-BAT.
“He’ll work about 30 hours a week for us,” Doug Laumann, a former scout for the Chicago White Sox said.
Jones did not waste any time in his new position. He got right in the batting cage with his first pupil – six-year-old Simon Parry.
“Simon plays Northern Kentucky Youth baseball,” his mom Megan told the Tribune, “And one of his teammates attended D-BAT camp here last week.”
If you are wondering, D-BAT is an acronym for Developing Beliefs, Attitudes, and Traditions.
The 22,500-square-foot structure has 15 batting cages, three pitching machines that throw fast pitch – and under-hand for women’s softball.
“We have more girls than guys here at D-BAT,” Laumann says. “There’s just as many kids playing baseball and softball; but less places for the girls to go to train.”
If needed, they have a good one in Prof. Hunter Jones.