The Tribune

By BRENT STUBBS

Senior Sports Reporter

bstubbs@tribunemedia.net

Jasrado “Jazz” Chisholm clearly remembers the days he spent with the late Franklyn Simmons at Freedom Farm.

Simmons, the first coach to work with Chisholm, passed away on Friday, January 20. He used to teach young players the game in the Archdeacon William Thompson Softball Park at Southern Recreation Grounds.

Chisholm, home to celebrate his 25th birthday on Wednesday, said it was one of the hardest losses he experienced in his life.

“You guys know, he literally begged my grandmother (Patricia Coakley) for me to play on his team,” Chisholm recalled in an interview with the media during his birthday celebrations at Fusion Superplex.

“He begged my grandmother to come from her softball camp to come and play on his team. That was the first time I ever played at Freedom Farm. That’s who Frankie Simmons was. He picked me every Sunday, Saturday, Friday to come to practice, to games. I didn’t miss a game at Freedom Farm because of one person.”

What’s even more interesting is that Chisholm, who is now the face of The Show video game for Major [League Baseball, said the first time he actually played the game, it was at Simmons’ house.

“That’s so crazy to me,” said Chisholm, who remembers playing the game with Simmons’ son. I was holding back to show him I was on the cover and then I heard what happened to him. It really hurt me.”

After he was introduced to baseball at Freedom Farm by Simmons, Chisholm said he met coach Geron Sands about 6-7 years ago.

As one of the smallest players around the park, Chisholm said Sands invited him to try out a drill. “So I started doing it and it just happened more and more when I was out there hitting,” Chisholm said. “He would come over and tell me that I’m so small, I shouldn’t be trying to hit home runs. He was small too, so I guess that was why he was telling me that.

“But from day one, I just wanted to hit home runs. I don’t care how small I was, I wanted to hit home runs like A-Rod and (Ken) Griffey Jr. So he just kept on coming and coming at me with more and more drills. The next year, I was on his team and we just developed a father-son bond from there. Every day I was with him.”

When he left for school, Chisholm said Sands was relentless in contacting him to find out how everything was going and whenever he returned home, he was the first person who got him on the field working out.

“These two guys right here (Geron Sands and Albert Cartwright) took me in when I was about 15-16 years old. We worked for about nine months straight, no days off. We did gym at 7, school at 8 and practice at 12:30 every day for nine months straight. Nine months later, I was with the Arizona Diamondbacks.”

Sands, who along with Albert has formed the International Elite Baseball Academy that assists young men getting off to high school and college or into the professional ranks, said Chisholm was also the spectacular “small guy” on the field swinging the “big bat.”

“He always wanted to hit the home runs. He always thought he would win,” Sands said.

“But something that stuck with me when he talked about being the MVP. I believe him because every single thing he said he was going to do, he’s done so far in the sport of baseball. This is the only thing kind of left for him to achieve at this point. He signed yes. MVP in minor league – yes. Player of the Year – yes. 30 home runs – yes. All-Star game in the big league – yes. Cover of the game – yes. There’s only two things left for him, MVP and Hall of Fame and I’m looking forward to that.”

Sands said it has been a long journey and he will continue to love and support Chisholm just as he does his own son, Storm. Chisholm, however, advised Sands that Storm was his second son because he was the first. “He’s grown up to be a man now, so I’m comfortable with him doing his thing out there,” Sands said. “I’m just happy for him and his family and the support that they give him. The same guys who were with him when he was 10-11 years old are still with him today. We’re like a family, who try to stay together.”

For Cartwright, he’s tried to be the coach of reasoning.

“After Marlins game that we went to with Jazz, he said tomorrow I’m going to hit a home run or a slider. I said come on Jazz,” Sands said.

“The next game, first at bat, he hits a home run and gets a slider. He points up in the stands. So I guess I have to believe everything he says now.”

As a leading figure for the younger guys following in his footsteps, Sands said he’s confident that Chisholm will make an impact on the future of baseball in the Bahamas and hopefully he will get a chance to display that pride when he teams up with them to play in the next professional baseball tournament at the new Andre Rodgers Stadium.

Bahamas Baseball Association president Sam Rodgers commended Chisholm, whom he has watched through his progress from the minor league to the major league.

He said he had a chance to sit down with Chisholm and his grandmother about the future of baseball in the Bahamas.

“I told him then that I was looking for a bright future for baseball,” Rodgers said. “I told him that I hope that him and the other young men in baseball would be a part of it. So the journey started. We have a great relationship now. I have something in mind, but I’m not ready to announce it yet. I can tell you that the position that Jazz holds in baseball, there’s coming a day when he will be the ambassador for baseball in the Bahamas.”

BBA secretary general Teddy Sweeting said they will be right there in the Marlins’ stadium supporting Chisholm during the upcoming season.