NEW YORK – When Champ Pederson was born 25 years ago and found to have Down syndrome, his father, Stu, thought about that.

Stu was a ballplayer, a good one, who went to USC, was drafted by the Los Angeles Dodgers and got four glorious big league at-bats in 1985. He'd spent his life in and around the game. One day he would build a batting cage in his backyard up in Palo Alto, Calif., and coach the boys in the neighborhood, and then buy a pitching machine so they could swing until their arms gave out. His wife, Shelly, was an athletic trainer in college and knew plenty about the game herself.

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Stu held his first child, a son he'd named Champ, and considered the life Champ would have ahead of him, and what his own place would be in it, and how this might have happened and then what he could do about it.

Finally, he said to Shelly, "That's all right. He'll just be a shortstop on his own team."

On Sunday afternoon, Champ sat in section 12, field level at Citi Field. Shelly sat behind him with a camera in her lap. Stu sat nearby catching up with John Franco, the retired closer.

They were in New York for the Futures Game, baseball's annual event for its premier prospects. Stu and Shelly had three children after Champ. Tyger was a Dodgers draft pick last month after playing at University of Pacific. Jacui, a sister, is an elite national soccer player. And Joc, he played left field and batted sixth for the U.S. team Sunday. He's a Double-A outfielder for the Dodgers and a good one.

Just in case, the Pedersons built a pretty good ballclub around Champ.

"You gotta have heart to play baseball," Champ was saying. "The passion they play with. Every day, playing baseball, do your best every day. You can never give up."

He was asked for a scouting report on Joc.

"What he does best, he's got a cannon," Champ said. "What he needs to work on, maybe he should wear sunglasses in the outfield."

He smiled. And Shelly smiled at him. With him. See, Champ has seen more baseball than most, and charmed more than most, and the two seem to go together for Champ. When Tyger's Pacific team was struggling midseason, Champ sent Tyger a text message. Play hard, it said. Play with energy. There were more like that. Tyger read it to the team on the bus, and the team loved it, and head coach Ed Sprague – the former big-leaguer – invited Champ to sit in the dugout and wear the uniform, and pretty soon Champ had a job.

"I was their motivational coach," Champ said. "I wrote speeches."

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