WORCESTER – To the outside world, the emergence and convergence of center fielder Roman Anthony, shortstop Marcelo Mayer and catcher Kyle Teel seems more like a fairy tale – or a cheesy Disney Channel movie from the early 2000s – than real life.
But listening to the trio of Red Sox top talents talk about their journey, it’s equal parts sitcom, buddy comedy and high adventure. After all, they may be three supremely talented athletes trying to make their dreams come true in one of the most competitive sports markets in the world, but they’re also three young men coming of age and having the time of their lives figuring out what they’re doing together.
Teel, 22, played three years of college basketball at Virginia, but Anthony, who just turned 20 in May, and Mayer, 21, were drafted out of high school. As with any new adult moving away from home for the first time, there were some learning curves.
“Last year, halfway through, it was my first full year (in professional sports), I was so exhausted and I was skipping practice three to four times a day,” Anthony told the Herald. “And my mom works in the medical field, so once she got a handle on it, she was like, ‘You should never do that again.’ She was like, ‘You’re so stupid, what are you doing?'”
As roommates in Double-A this year, he and Mayer decided to cook for themselves. That goal quickly went up in flames, literally.
“The first week in Portland, it snowed the first two days, so we didn’t have much to do,” Anthony said. “So we went to Whole Foods and bought a ton of stuff. We were like, ‘Okay, we’ll cook in the morning.’ We had this whole plan of how good we were going to be.
“The first night he said, ‘I’m just going to fry eggs and bacon, we’re having breakfast for dinner.’ I was just sitting there and suddenly everything was burnt. There was smoke everywhere. He had completely burned the bacon, overcooked the eggs, the toast was burnt and everything was just a mess. We thought, ‘We’re never cooking again, this is awful.'”
Then, like a scene straight out of “I Think I’m Kicking a Horse,” they left the inedible feast to fester in the sink until another teammate offered to take care of it.
“I seriously should have filmed that, we could have gotten hits from (Marcelo’s) cooking. The bacon was literally so burnt, it was as black as could be. It wasn’t even food at that point, it was just awful,” Anthony said. “(Our teammate) was so disgusted he was like, ‘I have to clean this up, if you pay me to do it, I’ll clean it up,’ so we paid him.”
“We actually keep our rooms really clean, it was just the kitchen. Our rooms were great, except we both messed up our beds,” he added with a chuckle. “We were wrestling with some of our teammates and it got a little out of hand.”
These days, the fridge stays bare, save for the Brita water filter. Instead, they eat out, get takeout or eat in the field. Anything but cooking. Anthony says he eats healthy in the offseason, but Mayer, who he jokingly referred to as a “bad influence,” got him addicted to Crumbl cookies and ice cream.
The Red Sox selected Teel 14th overall in last summer’s draft, and he joined Anthony and Mayer in Portland late in the season. Anthony describes the catcher as a “baseball expert who is always studying the game.”
Sometimes to the detriment and astonishment of sleeping teammates.
“I remember my first impression of Kyle. I played with his younger brother in travel ball, and when Kyle got drafted, we were roommates on the road in Double-A,” Anthony said. “I wake up in the middle of the night and I hear this noise, I hear his chain hitting against his neck, and he’s standing in the mirror, shirtless, dry-blow job. And I’m like, oh my God, this is hilarious. It was like one, two in the morning, he was drinking a Red Bull, and then he was hitting in the mirror. And I was like, OK, this guy. That’s Kyle.
“That’s just the way he is. He’s always learning, he’s always feeling something, he’s always asking me to film something. And that’s great because he goes into the game and he’s really never overwhelmed. He knows what to do. He’s super prepared every day, but he’s fun to play with, fun to be around in the clubhouse. Extremely loud and hyper 24/7. He’s great. He definitely plays with his hair on fire.”
Anthony was too. In his first nine games since the trio was promoted together to Triple-A Worcester, he has a .333 batting average with a .900 OPS, 12 hits, three doubles and a home run.
The life of the Big Three is chaotic, messy and funny.
A dream comes true.
