Dante Nori chose not to follow in the footsteps of his father and grandfather. They both played baseball at Indiana. He chose Mississippi State.
But as it turned out, Nori will be skipping college altogether, and there’s a good chance he’ll be reunited with an IU baseball legend in the near future.
And it’s someone he knows well.
Nori was chosen in the first round of the Major League Baseball Draft on Sunday. With the 27th overall pick, the Philadelphia Phillies chose the Northville, Mich. product.
Soon thereafter, Nori received a text message from Phillies slugger Kyle Schwarber, Todd Zolicki reported for mlb.com.
That Schwarber ever played baseball at IU had a lot to do with Nori’s grandfather.
Dante’s grandfather Fred Nori suited up for the Hoosiers from 1963-65 and produced a .284 batting average with five home runs and 55 RBI before playing in the New York Mets organization.
Fred’s son, and Dante’s father Micah Nori played for the Hoosiers from 1994 to 1997, and closed his IU career with a .305 batting average, 20 home runs, 127 RBI, 116 runs, 35 doubles and 18 stolen bases.
Micah grew up in Middletown, Ohio, the same place Schwarber was raised. Fred played a key role in influencing Schwarber’s decision to attend IU.
Micah also coached baseball at IU when Schwarber was playing in Bloomington, and Dante grew up idolizing the Hoosiers slugger, who would go on to become a first round draft choice himself in 2013. Here’s Dante and Schwarber, via the MLB story:
A relationship between Schwarber and Dante has remained through the years. Zolicki reports Dante spent about a week this winter hitting with Schwarber at his home.
And now Schwarber and Dante are reunited in the Phillies organization. Will they ever share the field as teammates in the MLB?
It almost seems like fate at this point.
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