HOUSTON (CNS) — At 17, Matthew Blake was living the dream of most young baseball players.
A stroke of luck got him in Minute Maid Park prepping dugouts as a
teenage batboy for the Houston Astros and their visiting teams.
Matthew Blake is seen in this family portrait with wife Grace and their two sons. Blake, a former parishioner of St. Laurence Catholic Church in Sugar Land, Texas, was a batboy with the Houston Astros for four seasons, from 2007 to 2010. He and his family now live in Pennsylvania. (CNS photo/courtesy Blake family)
For four seasons, 2007 to 2010, Blake would arrange baseballs, bats and drinks inside the visiting team’s dugout, assist at batting practice, and after the games, clean player cleats, clean the clubhouse and lockers and more.
Then a parishioner at St. Laurence Catholic Church in Sugar Land, Texas, Blake said being a batboy “was a ton of fun despite the Astros being really bad during those years.”
Coming off the team’s first World Series showing in 2005 against the
Chicago White Sox, the Astros started a stretch of season losses. While
most of Blake’s seasons with the Astros were marked with more losses
than wins, Blake got to work with some of baseball’s “biggest names,”
like Albert Pujols, Derek Jeter and Ken Griffey Jr.
Though a “tad bit jealous,” Blake is happy for the batboys now
working the 2019 World Series between the Astros and the Washington
Nationals. The Astros won their first World Series in 2017 in seven
games over the Los Angeles Dodgers.
“It’s every batboy’s dream to get to work a World Series,” he told the Texas Catholic Herald, newspaper of the Archdiocese of Galveston-Houston. “That was my dream being down there but unfortunately missed (the World Series) by a few years. Growing up and being a huge fan, you dream of seeing your team in the World Series.”
Now more than a decade later, seeing the Astros make the World Series a second time “almost feels a bit unreal,” he said. “We have a really great team and organization overall; they deserve to be there.”
After his dugout days, Blake became a youth minister at two parishes
in the Archdiocese of Galveston-Houston for underserved teens, then
again at a church in the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis.
Among his favorite memories are the camaraderie and relationships he
built with the players. Blake became good friends with Jeff Suppan, who
in his 17 years in Major League Baseball played on seven teams,
including the St. Louis Cardinals and Milwaukee Brewers. He retired in
2014.
A devout Catholic, Suppan bonded with Blake, who holds a theology
degree from the University of St. Thomas in Houston, over their shared
Catholic faith.
When Suppan was in Houston for games, Blake would pick him up at his hotel and they’d head to Sunday Mass together before the afternoon game. The two still keep in touch today.
While now a Texas transplant living in Pennsylvania, Blake’s still
rooting for his hometown team alongside his wife, Grace, and two
children.
“My faith really allows me to enjoy (baseball) more,” Blake said.
When Blake was younger, he’d get “so worked up and so mad” when the Astros lost big games, so much so that “it wasn’t even enjoyable.”
Meet another faithful Houston Astros fan who makes sure the game is enjoyable via this 2007 file video.
But today, Blake said age, a maturing faith and a growing family help him keep baseball in perspective.
“The players want to win more than I want them to win,” he said. “If
they lose, it’s because it’s a hard game, they’re playing a good team.
From a spiritual perspective, the word I would use to describe this is
detachment. The games and playoffs are much more enjoyable this way.”
But on Oct. 19 at 1 a.m. Eastern time, Blake was 100% attached when Jose Altuve hit a walk-off home run to beat the New York Yankees and send the Astros to the World Series.
Jose Altuve made his MLB debut on July 20, 2011, and collected his first hit in that game. His historic, pennant-clinching blast tonight sends the #Astros to the World Series to face that same team… the Washington Nationals.pic.twitter.com/IuBsCrscVX
Watching the game with his father-in-law, the two experienced the
“depths of despair” and “heights of euphoria” that come with baseball
and the mania that can happen in seconds.
“I absolutely couldn’t believe it,” he said. “I still can’t believe it.”
When Altuve swung, Blake jumped off his couch yelling and cheering.
Then as the hit became a home run, he stopped screaming and wildly
jumped up and down so he didn’t wake his wife or two sleeping children.
Looking toward the rest of the World Series, Blake looks to his 2-year-old son Hosea, who has a “knack for knowing who’s going to win these big games.”
Baseball fans headed to the World Series walk by Annunciation Catholic Church across the street from Minute Maid Park where the Houston Astros played Game 1 and Game 2 of the 2019 World Series against the Washington Nationals Oct. 22 and 23. The parish recently celebrated its 150th anniversary. (CNS photo/James Ramos, Texas Catholic Herald)
His son said the Astros would lose Game 1 and he was right when the Astros lost to the Nationals, 5-4, Oct. 22.
Hosea “wants to assure everyone that although hesitant, he is a
‘Yeah!’ for the Astros still winning the World Series,” Blake remarked.
In Game 2 on Oct. 23, the Nationals routed the Astros 12-3 for 2-0 series lead as the team returned home to Washington for Game 3 on Oct. 25.
