In the Tracy home, baseball isn’t just a job, it’s a family adventure.
Debra Tracy made sure of that.
“Being in a baseball family can be really tough on a wife and kids,” she said. “I decided early on that we had to have fun, explore things, make it interesting.”
Debra has been married to Rockies manager Jim Tracy for 27 years. They have raised three sons. All of them fell in love with the baseball life.
Brian, 25, is a scout for the Pittsburgh Pirates. Chad, 23, plays first base and outfield for the Rangers’ Double-A farm team in Frisco, Texas. Mark, 21, just finished his junior season at Duquesne University. He was recently selected by the Rockies in the 47th round of the draft.
“We were surrounded by baseball our whole life, so I guess you could say we had no choice,” Chad said. “But the thing is, all of us fell in love with the game. We loved being around the players, we loved being around the big-league clubhouse or even the minor-league locker room. I know that without baseball there would be something missing in our lives.”
Debra said she and Jim never pressured their sons to pursue careers in baseball.
“Actually, we kind of pushed for them to be doctors or lawyers or something more normal like that,” she said with a laugh. “But they loved being around the game.”
The Tracy children spent most of their formative years in Sarasota, Fla., moving to Los Angeles in 2001 when their dad got his dream job managing the Dodgers.
But through the years, they spent their summers traveling with their baseball gypsy of a father. Jim Tracy managed in Peoria, Ill.; Chattanooga, Tenn.; Harrisburg, Pa.; and Ottawa, Canada.
Brian’s favorite summer was 1993, when his dad led the Harrisburg Senators to a 94-44 record and the Double-A Eastern League championship. That star-packed team included Cliff Floyd, Rondell White, Joey Eischen, Kirk Rueter, Gabe White and Miguel Batista.
“I was just old enough to really appreciate being around baseball for the first time,” Brian said. “It was a blast.”
The Tracy boys credit their dad for their love of the game. They credit their mom for family stability and dad’s sanity.
“My mom had to take a lot of the responsibility with us,” Brian said. “And she was always my dad’s sounding board. He’s gotten better about it, but when I was a kid, he would take tough losses really hard. She would listen to him and let him talk it out. I think my dad would go nuts without her.”
