Tradition and heritage are core ingredients of what makes the game of baseball so special to so many. Seldom does that ring more true than it did June 2 for the Broom family, when West Marion's Tre' Broom repeated a feat at the 3A/4A D.M. Howie All-Star Game that was once achieved by his father, Mark Broom, on the very same field.
Sometimes change is inevitable, even in a small town like Foxworth. West Marion alum Mark Broom pointed out several changes of the sort as he glanced across the Trojans' baseball field and painted a picture of what it looked like back in 1999 when he helped lead the team to a Class 3A South State title as a highly-touted High School All-American.
The infield used to be red clay, which was a lot harder to wash out of a uniform than the sand and silt that covers the area now. The chain link fence that he used to send home runs sailing over has been replaced with a beautiful, stained wooden fence that he proudly helped build to add more character to the ballpark. The black pants he and his teammates once dawned for the first time set the precedent for what has since become a secondary color in the scheme of a stadium that used to be red and white throughout.
But some things never do change. Twenty-three years later, Trojans fans still swelled with excitement when a young man, dawning a No. 4 jersey and introduced as Broom, stepped into the batter's box to take a swing at changing the game. This time around, however, that young man was Mark's son, Tre' Broom, who recently concluded his own special chapter in the history of West Marion baseball.
The younger Broom was almost destined to follow in the footsteps of his dad. As far back as he can remember, he's been told stories of how crafty his dad was on the diamond, both in Foxworth, where he led the state in strikeouts as a senior, and in Hattiesburg as a hot-handed pitcher throwing 95-96 miles per hour for the Southern Miss Golden Eagles.
"By the time I was 5 or 6 years old, I was hearing all of his war stories," Tre' said. "And when I reached high school, I'd always see his sleeveless, red No. 4 jersey hanging in a trophy case inside the gym."
Mark added with a chuckle, "He heard all the war stories, and my mama kept a tub just filled with all the articles that were written over the years that I played, so I could back up all my stories. I'd tell stories, and if anyone was like, 'Man, you must be lying,' I could say, 'Well no, here it is in the paper.' So he kind of looked up to his dad."
Even before Tre' reached high school, baseball had become a huge part of his life. He grew up watching his dad train other local standouts, such as Tampa Bay Rays pitcher Colby White and former Los Angeles Dodger Luke McKenzie, and he knew he wanted to follow that same path.
"I was there for probably 80 percent of his training sessions," Tre' said. "A lot of the drills that he would show them and just the baseball IQ you see from being around all those really talented guys, I was always around it. I was able to pick up on some of those things and use it to improve my own game."
Naturally, Tre' developed many of the same characteristics and skills that spurred his father on to great success in the 90s, and he used it to carve out quite the legacy of his own over the past six years. He capped it all off with a senior season to remember, batting .532 with four homers, seven doubles, one triple, 26 RBI, 32 runs scored, 20 stolen bases and an absurd 1.545 OPS (on-base plus slugging percentage). The remarkable campaign earned him the honor of being selected as Marion County's Most Valuable Player and a Class 3A First Team All-State infielder, as well as a spot on the 3A/4A South All-Stars team for one last game at William Carey University.
For Mark, who played in the same contest at WCU so many years ago, knowing his son received the same opportunity to play alongside the top athletes in the state would have been more than enough to make him proud.
"When we went, I was thinking, "OK. You know, you've got all of these big schools and programs represented here like Sumrall and other 4A teams, and there were some really big boys out there. So I'm just extremely proud to see my son on that same stage,'" Mark recalled.
No one could have anticipated what came next. Batting second in the lineup and starting at second base, Tre' stood above and beyond an elite group of players with yet another memorable performance, highlighted by the same exact defensive play that earned Mark the game's Most Valuable Player award 23 years earlier — an unassisted double play.
"So what happened was I was playing second. There was a kid on first trying to steal on the pitch, so I run to cover the bag on a throw from the catcher," Tre' recalled. "But it just so happened that the guy hit a ground ball right down the middle, so I backhanded it, touched second and made the throw to first for a double play."
"On mine, I was playing shortstop," Mark said. "The guy hit a ground ball that kind of moved me to the left, so I scooped it, came across to touch the bag and threw it to first to turn it into a double play.
"So when I saw Tre' do that, I just thought it was crazy. We were both in the same All-Star Game, and we both made the same exact play. I mean, what are the odds of that?"
Following a performance in which Tre' reached base three times and scored the first run of the ballgame, the story became even more improbable with the announcement that — just like his dad — he'd been selected as the MVP of the contest.
Mark and Tre' Broom show off the watches they were both awarded for playing in the 3A/4A All-Star Game.
Caught up in the moment and the excitement of receiving the award, Tre' said he didn't realize the significance of what had happened when it was first announced. But it didn't take long for his father to fill him in.
"He told me on the way back to the truck after the game," Tre' said. "That was when it kind of hit me how crazy it all was. Just being able to win the award was cool, but knowing it was something that he accomplished, too, made it just a little bit cooler."
Although his days of hitting dingers at West Marion have come to an end, Tre' isn't done with the game just yet. This fall he'll be attending Co-Lin Community College to play baseball, where he hopes to continue sharpening his skills and chasing his dream of reaching the pros. No one supports that goal more strongly than his dad, who believes his son is still making strides towards reaching his full athletic potential. His biggest hope, however, is that baseball will teach his son the same lessons it once taught him, which are still a crucial part of his day-to-day life.
"He just laid it all out here on the field his senior year. He put his heart and soul into it, and what a way to go out," Mark said. "But more than playing college ball or pro ball or anything else, my hope is that the competition, the discipline and the training translates to life after baseball and helps him become a successful adult.
"I'll always be 'the baseball guy.' I love it, and it's who I am through and through, but those are the things I want to see out of my son. I want to see him take all of those same things that I learned from the game of baseball, through all the successes and the failures, and for him to be successful in life. And I believe he will."
