Their coach died 3 weeks ago. At season opener, word choice was intentional
HAMILTON — The cheery sights and sounds of Harris County baseball’s opening day were momentarily silenced Monday night as the community mourned a recent loss.
The Tigers’ head baseball coach, Tony Dimitri, died in a utility vehicle accident on Jan. 24.
“It was tough for the entire community because Tony was Harris County,” said interim head coach Brandon Jenkins, a longtime friend and former teammate of Dimitri. “He did a lot for Harris County. He was one of those guys, you say it all the time, but he was a great guy and he was loved by everybody.”
The bleachers overflowed at Tiger Stadium, turning the season opener into a standing-room-only event. Fans donned stickers, T-shirts and hoodies with the team’s slogan, “Because of TD.”
The phrase “because of” was an intentional choice.
Harris County didn’t just want to play for its former coach. The Tigers wanted to recognize that they wouldn’t be playing without Dimitri, who was a Columbus native and played at Jordan, where he also spent a decade as a teacher and coach.
“That actually came from his brother, John,” Jenkins said. “He told us that first night after all this happened. He said, ‘I don’t want you to do it for Tony. I want you to do it because of Tony.’”
The team honored the Dimitri family with several gestures before the game.
The crowd held a moment of silence before Dimitri’s twin brother and mother threw the game’s ceremonial first pitches. Dimitri’s wife and children took the team’s lineup card to the home plate umpire. Dimitri’s oldest son, Cayden, is a sophomore on the team.
Harris County and its opponent, Columbus, left the third base coach’s box — formerly Dimitri’s in-game position — empty for the first inning.
Third base was where Dimitri’s nephew, sophomore Will Dimitri, scored Harris County’s first run of the season. Will reached base on a double, quickly advanced to third base and scored on the next at-bat.
Harris County didn’t score again until the sixth inning, when senior shortstop Daejeon Elder mashed a home run well over the left field wall.
The homer was the Tigers’ last score in a 4-2 loss, but the hit meant much more to Elder. He said he homered because of coach Dimitri’s influence.
“Today was because of coach Dimitri for me, because my first year with him — my sophomore year — that probably wouldn’t have ever happened,” Elder said. “I wasn’t a home run guy. And hitting that, it just fired me up because it’s just God-given, really.”
Harris County is back in action at 6 p.m. Friday at Denmark. The Tigers won’t have a true home game again until their first region series against Mundy’s Mill on Feb. 26.
“We were playing because of coach Dimitri — because of how big of a mentor he was to all of us, because of how great of a coach he was, because of the things he taught us and because of how much we really miss him and how much we’d do anything to have him back on the field for one more game,” Elder said. “If you asked all the guys, they’d do anything just to even hear his voice one more time, and we play because of coach Dimitri because of how much he meant to us.”
About the Author
Jack Leo is a sports writer and reporter for the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. Jack worked for the AJC throughout his four years studying journalism and sports media at Georgia State University and the University of Georgia. He's now focused on telling stories in the grassroots: bringing comprehensive coverage of high school sports for AJC Varsity.
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