(WSVN) - We have always heard the saying, “Like father, like son,” and there’s one Marlins player who has heard that from the time he started playing baseball, considering what his dad once did in the majors.
Griffin Conine is determined to create his own path to the majors.
“People ask me, ‘Do you wanna be Mr. Marlin Jr?’ type deal,” he said. “That’s a little, you know, I don’t need to be hearing that. Like, obviously, dad was a great player.”
If his last name sounds familiar, it’s because his father is Mr. Marlin Jeff Conine.
The current Florida International University associate baseball coach is a two-time world series champ.
“I always wanted him to carve out his own path in this game,” Jeff said. “It might be a little more difficult in this market knowing what I did in my career here, and the name is gonna have some meaning more here in South Florida than it will in other places, but he’s got his own game, his own style and he’s doing really well at that.”
Last season, in the Marlins minor system, Griffin hit 36 home runs — the second most by anyone in the minor league last year.
“I have more to prove at the double A level, and I think it humbled me a little bit last year,” Griffin said. “It was a big jump from high. Definitely some things I took away from that and learned as the year went along, so I imagine starting the double and, hopefully, moving on up as soon as I can.”
The Marlins are being patient with the 24-year-old outfielder.
“You look at Griffin, he’s obviously got incredible power,” said Marlins Director of Player Development Geoffrey DeGroot. “He’s worked hard at cutting down on his strike outs in order to let his power play more. The more he puts the barrel on the ball, the better success he’s gonna have. He’s a baseball nut. He loves hitting.”
“What’s really important for me is just getting comfortable with an approach and then I can just, you know, repeat, repeat, repeat,” Griffin said. “I think that’s gonna simplify a lot of things for me.”
When Griffin is in the slump, he’ll get that call or text from his father.
“I’ll be slumping bad, like, for a few weeks and, you know, he’ll never be like, ‘You don’t look too good up there.'” He’ll be like, ‘What are you thinking?'” Griffin said. “I’m thinking like 20 different things when I get in the box. Then he’ll be like, ‘Alright, let’s start there. Maybe we can eliminate some of those things. Just think about seeing the ball and hitting the ball.”
“The first thing I ask is ‘How do you feel? How did you feel?'” Jeff said. “Not, ‘Was your bat at a certain angle,’ because I think mental plan can affect mechanics.”
“Over the course of my life, there was no one that could do it better, just ’cause, being around that long and having that much of an influence as I got from high school to college to the minors,” Griffin said. “He’s always been there and helped through it all.”
Griffin said he reaches out to his father during the FIU baseball season no matter how the panthers do.
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