MCLAMB: Grooving Into The Pros

The metronomic clang of rawhide being smacked by an aluminum bat is both refreshing and renewing. It is the baseball equivalent of a rooster crowing in the morning.

It is a joyful routine, yet it is also laborious. Success one day means nothing the next. Practicing the art of hitting symbolizes a new beginning but it is also a continuation of life’s march. Some days the ball goes where it is supposed to and some days it does not.

The sun, while not at its peak, is beaming down on the baseball diamond with intensity, and sweat from the early morning ritual is dripping from the batter’s forehead. The key to finding greatness is embracing the journey to get there.

Baseball is the sport of failure. It cannot be mastered, but LuJames ‘Gino’ Groover III will try.

On game days, I usually get here around early for practice or four hours early on game day. We will eat and stuff like that, but I usually get here a little earlier so I can work on my hitting routine that I can just go into when it is time.” – LuJames ‘Gino’ Groover III

Gino was born to play.

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Coming from an athletic family can be a burden. The inclination to follow a path can often be easier than blazing a separate trail. With love and support, children can find their way in life, whether it is through sports or other activities.

Gino Groover III was always going to be athletic. His grandfather, Curtis Lee Price, played semipro baseball for the McDonough Sluggers in McDonough, Georgia. His father played college basketball and spent time with the Harlem Globetrotters. His mother ran track and played basketball in high school.

That did not mean Gino needed to play a particular sport or any athletic endeavor in general.

“We never really pushed him into sports,” his father, LuJames Groover II said. “That's just something that he wanted to do.

“He always wanted to play baseball ever since he was about three years old. He always wanted to play. We used to go see our other son, playing pee ball and stuff growing up, playing ball and things like that. With me being an umpire back in the day, he used to always grab my mask and put it on, and tell me to throw the ball. He called strikes and balls and stuff like that. I was like, ‘Hmm, this kid might want to do something.’

According to his parents, Gino was a good kid who immediately took to playing ball while never causing problems. The young boy quickly chose baseball as his lifelong passion.

“He is a great kid,” Gino II said. “We never had any problems with him. He is very particular about who he chooses as friends and stuff like that. I just think that he's an awesome kid. He's an awesome kid. He loves the game of baseball, and I'm proud of him.”

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Because of his skill and will, playing against children his age was not a viable option well into his adolescence. The youngest Groover also maintained a level of diligence beyond his years.

At the age of eight years old, Gino started working with baseball trainer Stantrel Smith, a former minor leaguer in the Angels system. It was then that Gino started to develop a routine and the pair ultimately would link up throughout Groover’s childhood.

“You can just kind of look at kids and see that they have it,” Smith said. “We worked outside, usually three, four days a week. He put in the work. He loved it. He loved the game and was a good kid.

“One time I was hitting fly balls to him in the outfield. I was really hitting them up there, like the way the pros do. He went right out there and showed no fear. One ball popped him in his eye. He stopped for a bit and had to get it together, but then he was right back out there wanting some more, and I hit him some more. Nothing would stop him.”

It would be Gino’s systematic approach to honing his game that would serve him well as he matriculated through high school and readied for the next phase of his life.

On game days, it's usually soft toss. I have a little round-the-world thing that I do when I go through soft toss that I pretty much start with. – Gino III

Gino branches out.

Playing travel ball primarily in North Carolina, with a smidge of South Carolina, Tennessee, Virginia, and Maryland, meant that those areas were where the college offers were most likely to come from.

For the Georgia native, that suited his preferences.

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“I'm all for being at home and having my parents close,” Groover III said. “I can go home a lot easier. Georgia Tech is just on the other side of Atlanta. A 30-minute ride max. I could honestly probably live at home if I wanted to. There are a bunch of different facts that probably would've been very beneficial, just from a financial standpoint and seeing my family a lot. I could see my grandparents and stuff like that, see my siblings and stuff like that, but I just didn't want to go there. I wanted to branch out.”

His freshman season at Charlotte went well. Groover batted .351 with four home runs and 38 RBIs, which earned him a spot on the Conference USA All-Freshman Team. The 49ers won 40 games in 2021 and reached the NCAA Baseball Championship as a two-seed. Gino drove in two runs as Charlotte downed Maryland in the postseason opener.

The Niners then dropped close contests to East Carolina and the Terrapins to end the campaign. Groover had hits in each of the three games and drove in four runs during the regional.

But something was missing. Gino was not content and needed something different. He entered the transfer portal.

“I played every game, but I never felt wanted, if that makes sense,” Gino III said. “I didn't feel like I was being treated properly. I think that's what also made the decision hard, because I feel this type of way about how the situation's going down, but I'm also playing.

“What if I go somewhere and I don't perform the same way? There were a bunch of different factors that go into that decision, but at the end of the day, I bet on myself, and I believed in my ability. I knew I was able to play wherever.”

Enter NC State.

Most casual college baseball followers know about how NCSU’s trip to the College World Series ended. The chaos that occurred in Omaha had most of Wolfpack Nation flustered and confused.

When the Pack returned home there was a celebration to honor the team, but NC State’s coaching staff made a point to set aside time for an important phone call.

“NC State reached out to me after the College World Series incident,” Groover III said. “I always tell people that moved me right there. If you're one game away from the championship and you come home that next day, personally, I don't think I would've been calling people. I thought that was something different about Coach [Chris] Hart. He called me the next day. I was like, ‘Okay, they really want me here.’ It did for me.”

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Once Gino arrived at NC State, he was smitten, and it became easy to see himself in the red and white.

“I remember my parents and I drove right up here. We parked and Coach Avent was up there with his dog. I still remember the exact moment. We talked to Coach Avent. I got to pet around with his dog a little bit. He was doing something with some trees.

“I remember I got here; he handed me a key to get in the locker room. That right there was already different. Then I got here, and just seeing the field, bat cage, just the whole stadium in general. I was just like, ‘This is a jump up right here.’”

It was time for Groover to take his routine to Raleigh.

I hit five, six balls just straight off the L-screen all the way. Then the next one is straight up the middle, so a back-of-the-batting cage-type of a deal. – Gino III

Gino shows versatility.

The position changes that Groover was asked to make at NC State was not a new experience. While at Charlotte, Gino would often drift from second base to right field but with the Pack, he was moved to first base in 2022 in what was an effort to get one of the batter bats in the lineup regularly.

Groover, who batted cleanup at Charlotte, drastically improved his numbers at the plate despite the higher level of competition in conference play. His .364 batting average was tops on the team. In 57 games, Gino smashed 10 homers and drove in 47 runs en route to finishing Second Team All-ACC.

Remarkably, Groover had hitting streaks of 24 and 27 games in his first season at the P5 level.

Gino held his own in the field. While primarily playing a new position at first base, he also played four other positions in the field during his sophomore campaign, giving NC State much-needed flexibility both in the beginning and late in contests.

This came as no surprise to those who knew him well before he arrived at NC State.

“He is a big guy, but he can play anywhere,” Smith said. “They had him at first base and he moved in. He could play shortstop if they needed him to. There is no doubt in my mind. People hear things and then they run with it. He can play shortstop and he’d have range. There have been bigger shortstops out there before.”

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This past season his role in the field was more consistent, as he became the regular third baseman for the Pack, and his power numbers improved. He finished what will almost certainly be his final year of college with 13 homers and 50 RBIs while batting second in the lineup.

If NC State, which is in the process of investing money to upgrade its facilities over the coming years, is to return to Omaha within the next few seasons and finish the job, the program will likely have great gratitude for Groover’s performance for the Wolfpack after the turbulence of 2021.

“He just goes about his business the same every day,” NC State head coach Elliott Avent said. “He is very consistent with his workout routine.”

The routines that Groover has consistently drilled over the years have served him well.

Next, I work a couple of pitches inside. I usually like to go two rounds inside just to make sure I'm staying through the ball positive. After that, I go around anywhere, so it's kind of like a real game, ‘at bat.’ I'm looking for a certain pitch and I'm kind of reacting to other pitches. I'm usually sitting away and I'm adjusting to the inside pitch. – Gino III

Gino represents something bigger.

Baseball is the nation’s pastime, but it took the character of resolve of one of the greatest Americans of all time, Jackie Robinson, to help create a playing field that was open to people based on skill and not ethnic background.

Robinson is honored annually on the anniversary of his Major League debut, April 15th, in what is one of the more important events in North American sports.

Statistically, the number of African-American players in professional baseball – especially at the Major League level -- is dwindling rapidly. According to one website, it has fallen to almost seven percent of the total within MLB.

As a sophomore, Gino scored the game-winning run on April 15th, 2022, to help NC State defeat Boston College. Exactly one year later, he smashed two homers, including the game-winner, to lead the Wolfpack past Florida State. Groover’s birthday falls on April 16th, one day after the anniversary.

There is a duality to what Gino is achieving. He is successfully navigating in a sport where most players do not look like him but that is also an opportunity. The young players who do can have a positive role model in Groover, and it is a responsibility he willingly accepts.

“If you only see five, six people out the whole league who are African-American playing, I feel that there are people who are good enough still, but sometimes they just don't have that opportunity, or they may have the opportunity and they have something happen in their life I feel like there's just a bunch of different,” Gino III said. “You don't see a lot of people who are African-American in the league.

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“Maybe I'm inspiring a kid. Maybe I'm the reason this kid might want to play baseball or maybe even give the sport an opportunity. He may not be playing, but if he sees somebody who's looking like him, he may want to give it a try and see if he may like it.

“Right or not, you never know until you try it. At the end of the day, all I can do is just provide inspiration or maybe make one think they would like the opportunity to play the game. I can't control whether they want to play or not, but I could hopefully just give them some indicator that it can be done.”

The routine is not a color, but an action. It rewards those who show consistency while embracing the process.

I like to end my soft touch routine with like three or four pitches down and away because that's probably the hardest pitch to hit. No one usually likes those pitches. It just helps me stay on the ball and just finish with my direction going well. That's usually my soft toss routine before batting practice. – Gino III

Gino is a full-fledged man and now he moves on.

The 2023 MLB Draft is Sunday. The likelihood is Gino will be picked in the early rounds, easily soon enough to merit a decent contract offer, and it will mean calling time on his college career to pursue the biggest baseball goals of all.

While he wished he ran with the Pack for three seasons instead of two and would have liked to help his team go further in the postseason, Gino has nothing bad to say about his time at NC State.

“I wouldn't trade the experience for anything,” Gino III said. “My teammates, coaches, they all believe in me. That's all you can ask for -- teammates who care for one another. We go out there, we have fun. We sit in the locker room, we laugh, we joke, and listen to music. I could never complain about anything that ever goes on here.”

The feeling is mutual.

“Everybody knows what a great hitter he is,” Avent said. “And people know he is one of the best hitters in the country. What they did not know is how well he could play third base, which he proved this year. Gino is a team guy and the ultimate good person.”

The boy who has always acted like a professional is a short time away from becoming a pro. It will be a dream come true for Gino that has been earned, but it is also one that will be shared.

“I will be honest, I am probably going to shed a tear or two,” Stantrel Smith said when asked how he will react to Gino’s name being called in the MLB Draft. “I have known him so long. He worked hard and deserves it. He is going to be special.”

The routine is now his livelihood.

I am in game simulation in probably the third or fourth round. The first three rounds are just direction and attacking certain pitches. I'm locked in. I've done it so many times. I could probably go in there and do it almost like a zombie, not thinking. It's such a routine now that it's almost like breathing, almost sleepy. It'll be more surprising if I was messing up a lot. – Gino III