On April 12 at 8:53 a.m., the Rogers family increased in size by one.
Tyler Rogers, the Giants’ star reliever, and his wife Jennifer welcomed Jack Ryan Rogers — their first child — into the world this week.
“So proud to be a dad!!” Rogers, who will rejoin his team from the paternity list in Cleveland, said on Instagram.
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Rogers and his wife, Jennifer, got married in November of 2020. They’ve been together about nine years, since meeting during their senior years of college. They’ve known their first kid would be a boy since October, when Tyler hit a fake baseball on the Oracle Park field that exploded with blue dust, revealing Jack’s gender.
During spring training, Rogers kept his phone close, knowing the call could come at any time. His wife, Jennifer, stayed back home in Indiana with a due date of April 12 — “Induction Date,” Rogers said. He joked fatherhood had already begun, since he didn’t have room in his car to pack his golf clubs with all the baby stuff in tow.
Rogers, who led the National League in appearances the past two seasons and recorded an elite 2.22 ERA last year, knew before Jack’s birth that there will be sleepless nights, diapers and “Sesame Street” in his future.
“The biggest thing is everyone just says ‘your life is about to change,’” Rogers told KNBR on March 18. “Everyone says it’s going to change for the better.”
All sports teams foster special relationships. But a baseball team especially, with so much idle time and such a long season, tends to create unique bonds. And many members of the Giants fraternity are also fathers — a club the Bud Light-swigging Rogers is now joining. It’s a team of “baby-makers,” one staffer quipped.
So Rogers has plenty of teammates to lean on for guidance.
“It’s going to be the best thing in the world,” Anthony DeSclafani, father of 17-month-old Cru, said. “There’s nothing like coming home to your own kid. It’s definitely going to be very tiring, but he’s going to really find a purpose for why he goes through the daily grind of baseball.”
“Get your sleep now,” Mike Yastrzemski, whose daughter Quinley is three months old, said. “Because the first couple months are…interesting.”
Those first couple months, for Rogers, will come at the very start of the 2022 season. Similar timing happened last year for Rogers’ bullpen running mate Dominic Leone. Except for Leone, who had his son last February, the pandemic made things even tougher. Leone saw Joseph first when his first son was 10 days old, then next time when he was almost three months.
“Having that newborn, especially right at the beginning of the season, it’s going to be crazy for him,” Leone said. “It’s going to be a lot of fun.”
Leone and another bullpen arm, Zack Littell, have been Rogers’ go-tos for advice. They, like Yastrzemski, have both cautioned Rogers about a disrupted sleep schedule.
“Just knowing Tyler from last year, he’s going to have a blast with it. Knowing his wife, it’s just going to be something for them that is going to make every baseball moment better, sweeter, more meaningful. And honestly, at least for my situation, when we had our son, it made the game — i hate to say less important, but you stop stressing about certain things within the game. And you kind of bring things back to reality. For him, I hope it can almost help ease off some stressful situations and turn it into more fun. Just realize now what you’re doing it for.”
Littell, the newest father on the team — Wyatt James was born Jan. 20 — is still learning. But there’s one thing about being a dad he discovered immediately.
“It’s hard to explain,” Littell said. “You know you’re going to love your kid, but it’s just different than anything you’ve ever experienced. People tell you that, then it actually happens. It’s just true. Life-changing experience. I think it’s awesome, I wish that everybody got to experience that.”
Manager Gabe Kapler has much more experience as a dad. His sons, Chase and Dane, are 22 and 20. Kapler would tell Rogers to take things “easy and smooth” with Jack, and not to overreact to the bumps and bruises along the way.
Don’t get too high or too low? Kind of sounds like managerspeak to a reliever. But it applies.
Kapler, who was married for 14 years before getting a divorce in 2013, said relationship dynamics can change when a husband also becomes a father.
“You are no longer the central figure,” Kapler said. “I think, even in a relationship with a partner — a spouse — you can think about yourself quite a bit. That all just kind of goes out the window when you have a child. There’s this other being that needs your whole support and attention. I think that’s the biggest change that happens. Also, opportunities to connect with your spouse take a back seat to investing in your child.”
Some more common themes for Rogers to take note of: listen to the wife and appreciate every second.
“Learn as much as you can,” Leone said. “Don’t talk. Listen. Your wife’s going to be telling you exactly what you need to do. It’s more about just having fun. Learn something every day, be present every day with them, or as much as you can. It’s hard being in-season and having a newborn. Because you have to get your work done, too. You have to get your rest. But just being there to help whenever you can and be active in any moments you get with your child seems to be a good recipe for success.”
“I lean on my wife for everything as far as it has to do with raising a kid,” DeSclafani said. “Because I did not grow up around kids. So I just do a lot of listening, a lot of ‘yessing,’ any way I can help around the house. Just enjoy every moment. That’s what everyone tells you, it goes by super fast. But it really does. It’s the most cliché thing, but it’s the truest thing that people say. I can’t believe how fast it’s gone. My son’s almost like a little boy right now, we’re in shock every day how fast he’s growing and how much he’s learning daily.”
“I think there’s a different appreciation,” Yastrzemski said. “Especially for trying to create an environment that you want your child to be brought up in. So I think there’s some things you have to sit down and reflect on, decide what kind of parent you want to be. And it’ll develop over time, but I think in the first couple months, just enjoy every little moment. Because even these first three months have just flown by for me. The little moments are worth it.
I just think he’s going to be a great dad. He’ll enjoy it.”