Kris Bryant's Former Coach Shares A Story Further Proving He's A Living Legend

I was fortunate enough to get to cover the Cubs this weekend as they participated in an event called Big League Weekend which saw them play two games at beautiful Cashman Field in Las Vegas, Nevada. Obviously the hype was on another level due to the Cubs being the defending champions for the first time in over a century but the city was also buzzing because the NL MVP was returning to play in front of his home crowd.

I've always known that Cubs fans traveled very well but even I was shocked to see the amount of blue in the stands more than two hours before first pitch. I mean, Vegas isn't exactly known for being a hot-bed of Cubs fans.

I had the chance to hang out all weekend with Kris Bryant's high school coaches and of course, our conversations revolved around baseball and most of the folklore that is starting to turn Kris Bryant into a living legend. I've gotten to know Bryant's high school coaches pretty well over the last year through our interactions about their former player's incredible talent. Well enough, my friend OT and I stayed at the house of Derek Stafford (Bryant's old high school head coach) for the entire weekend excursion. We also spent a ton of time with Kevin Fiddler and Matt Estrada who were both assistant coaches at Bonanza during Bryant's time there from 2006-2010 and it was incredible to hear how proud they were of Kris' accomplishments. That was exemplified when we met up with them at Cashman Field on Saturday to watch the first of two games against the Cincinnati Reds. It was an absolutely perfect day for baseball and I couldn't have had a better seat to watch the game begin.

Even though the press box was a pretty damn nice setting, I wanted to go sit with the guys that I spent the previous night at the casino with where we may or may not have drank every beer in sight. I made my way down the first level of the field to meet up just in time to see the hometown kid treat the crowd to a huge two-run home run in the fifth inning.

It was after this home run that myself, OT, Stafford, Estrada, and Fiddler met up with the current head coach of Bryant's alma mater, Bonanza high school, Mike O'Rourke. Stafford has moved on to become the Assistant Principal at Las Vegas High School, Fiddler is coaching at Green Valley High School, and Estrada is still on O'Rourke's staff at Bonanza so all these guys are chock full of stories about Bryant's time playing in Vegas. We were standing watching the game when O'Rourke launched into a story that really put Bryant's "living legend" status into complete perspective. O'Rourke was laughing and telling us that the morning of the game (Saturday) he had to go to Bonanza to do some field prep and when he was out tending to the grass on the field, he saw about 5-10 people in blue shirts walking up to the gates of the field. He hopped off his cart and walked over to the people to see what they needed.

"Oh we don't need anything. We're Cubs fans and We just wanted to see where Kris Bryant played baseball at."

While it's not all that uncommon for fans to do that, O'Rourke said he was getting visitors at the field as early as Thursday of that week from fans that just wanted to LOOK at the field. When you have people showing up just to LOOK at your high school field, that makes you a damn legend in my book. A few fans flagged him down and just wanted to speak to him because he coached Bryant. It was hilarious listening to ALL of his former coaches talk about Kris because even though every Cubs fan sees him as a legend for what he's accomplished in his short career, his high school coaches still see Bryant as just a kid. So of course, the next day Stafford asked me if I wanted to take a look at the field Bryant played on and it was an offer I couldn't refuse. Because he was still employed by the district, Stafford was able to give me a tour of the field and the baseball facilities versus just standing outside the gate looking in like a complete creep show. Yes, I completely understand the irony of me laughing at Cubs fans going to Bonanza Field on Saturday and me ending up doing the exact same thing on Sunday. While we walked around, Stafford gave me an awesome history of the field, a few more stories about Kris, and explained the fact that Kris has overtaken porn star Jenna Jameson as the new "most famous alum" of Bonanza high school. Here's a few pictures from the field (without Jenna Jameson of course.) [caption id="attachment_85542" align="aligncenter" width="353"] The Bonanza 'B' on the left field fence.[/caption] [caption id="attachment_85543" align="aligncenter" width="353"] The tarp protecting the pitchers mound.[/caption] [caption id="attachment_85544" align="aligncenter" width="627"] The view from shortstop looking over right field. Stunning mountain view.[/caption] Irregardless of the fact that I slept about six hours in three days, the trip to Vegas opened my eyes up at just how normal of a guy Kris Bryant is. Yes, he's one of the top players in all of baseball but hearing time after time (after time) from his former coaches about how great of a kid he is, I feel like I have a different perspective of him versus the mega star perception that most fans in the Chicago market see him as. I can't wait to do it all again next year.