No place like home for Ross, Walker

OAKLAND, Calif.

Tyson Ross ducked into the dugout for an interview and apologized. The Oakland Athletics pitcher was late, he said, because he had to drop off his brother's lunch at school.

Tyson Ross has a 5.49 ERA as a rookie with the A's.
 

Dilip Vishwanat

Such is the life of a 23-year-old Major League Baseball player who still lives at home with his mom and dad.

There are perks to that, of course. The Oakland native gets to eat home-cooked meals, sleep in his own bed and hang out with high-school buddies. He also saves on rent, meaning he can devote more of his league-minimum $400,000 salary to video games.

"This cuts out all the hard stuff, like setting up cable and getting furniture," he says.

Ross can enjoy the delights of living at home during the season because he is one of the few ballplayers playing for a hometown team. These days, the 30 MLB teams recruit and sign players from all over the world.

League officials say many players head home over the winter, but they believe that only Ross and Neil Walker, of the Pittsburgh Pirates, return to the nest during the season.

That gives Ross a unique understanding of what it's like to throw 95-mile-per-hour fastballs in front of 20,000 cheering fans and then go see the movie "Toy Story 3" with his mother, as he did last month.

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It also leaves him open to ribbing. Ross' teammates say they make a point of telling him after games that they are going home — to their own home.

"He's up in that elusive tax bracket, and he's still with mom and dad?" says fellow A's pitcher Dallas Braden, 26, who hails from nearby Stockton, Calif., but has his own house. "I would tell him to utilize these things we call banks," says Braden, who pitched a perfect game against the Tampa Bay Rays on May 9. Ross says he doesn't mind the infrequent teasing.

The hometown player was common until 1965, when baseball instituted a draft to let teams pick the best players nationwide, says sports historian Rick Obrand. Before, "most kids grew up liking the Yankees, or whoever it was, so unless they were offered a tremendous amount of money somewhere else, which no one was doing in those days, they signed with their hometown team," he says. Hometown heroes of yore include Lou Gehrig of the New York Yankees and Pete Rose of the Cincinnati Reds.

The historian says "it's great" Ross lives at home, and it's easy to understand why a fledgling ballplayer would want to.

Unproven youngsters like Ross, who has a poor earned run average of 5.49 this season, are routinely sent down to the minor leagues for seasoning — Ross himself was demoted to Triple-A last week — so it might not make sense for them invest in real estate. And players move around a lot anyway. Big-league teams play 81 away games, so the athletes are gone for three months a year. It's nice to have a home to go home to.

Then there's the bonus of having a mother who does laundry, says Walker, the 24-year-old Pittsburgh native whom the Pirates called up to the majors in May. His typical day involves waking up to a bacon, pepper and onion omelet cooked by mom, playing with his Australian Shepherd puppy, Brisby, and then driving off to the stadium to play second base.

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Walker insists he loves life at home. His mother, Carolyn, isn't so sure. "He's really not thrilled about that," she says. "We try to give him his space."

Some young players envy Ross and Walker. "It's kind of tough to live by yourself," says 24-year-old Gio Gonzalez, an A's pitcher from Florida who is a close friend of Ross.

Ross, who played Little League ball blocks from the A's stadium before starring at the nearby University of California at Berkeley, was drafted into Oakland's minor-league system in 2008. This past spring, he unexpectedly made the A's and had little time to find a place to live. He briefly eyed a suburban condo that was "close to the movie theater and close to Gamestop," the video-game store, but he is happy at home for now.

His mother, Jean, is glad her son is back. Not only do they see movies together, but Mrs. Ross appreciates that Tyson mentors his 17-year-old brother, Joe. One thing she doesn't appreciate: "I still have to clean his bathroom for him."

Ross' girlfriend, Ashley Hoffman, insists she's fine with the pitcher living at home because she appreciates how comfortable he is there. She says she's comfortable there, too — except when she sleeps over. "His dad's like, 'Good night! See you in the morning!'" says Hoffman, 23, a recent college graduate who lives with her folks, too. "I still think that's so weird."

On a recent Friday, Ross woke up in his boyhood room, where posters of athletes Muhammad Ali, Michael Jordan and Sammy Sosa obscure the floral wallpaper.

Home with mom — his dad and brother were traveling that day — Ross walked his pit bull, Maverick, and hung out with a high-school pal, Rashad Tucker. The two laughed as they watched a movie in which a man in a taco costume hits on two women in a bar.

Around 2 p.m., it was time to head to the office. Ross hugged his mother and kissed her on the forehead. "You coming to the game?" he asked. "Yes!" she replied.

The A's were playing the Pirates that day, so Ross and Walker warmed up by stretching, jogging and playing catch. During the game, Walker had three hits. Ross, a relief pitcher, didn't play. He spent the cool summer night on the bullpen bench as his mother and girlfriend cheered on the A's in a 14-4 victory.

After the final pitch, Ross showered and helped himself to a cup of soft-serve yogurt from the clubhouse kitchen. "You just kind of want to go home, recharge your batteries and come out again tomorrow," he said before he walked out of the stadium.