Road to the Stros: Brice Matthews | The Hometown Kid’s Journey from Astros Fan to Astros #1 Prospect

You don’t really get to see this really often. Kid from a hometown play for his hometown team. The first ever graduate of the Astros Youth Academy to reach the major leagues. Just all the memories start playing back from when I was little. Everything is written. All my steps are numbered and this is the step I’m ready to take today. This is an historic callup for the Houston Astros. where it started out for my dad, his first love, and then him just putting the baseball in my hands at a really young age and kind of just flourish in the sport and just feel like myself out there on the field and just uh have a lot of fun. I wouldn’t be here without the academy. Getting to come here every day since I was 9 years old and be out here with early work with Coach Dwayne on the infield. A lot of hot days out here. Just learn like the small things about the game, the little details. All the the intricacies on the infield, my footwork and everything. I think being from the academy, it’s impacted me in every way possible. Taught me how to play the game the right way. It’s what you do outside of the field, how you act as a person in the community. I made lifelong friends and connections from that. And so I’m eternally grateful for them. I think that’s how the academy helped me be the person I am today. It was always a good day out there on the baseball field for me, just getting out there and just being able to play and just uh go out there and compete. [Music] taking this time to cherish these moments cuz uh you don’t really get to see this really often. Kid from a hometown play for his hometown team. So, I’m just so blessed to have these people in my life and uh get to share this experience with them. [Applause] getting to experience those moments, have my family there watching, supporting, being able to go do what I love to do each and every day. It’s it’s amazing. I was never the biggest guy, the strongest guy, or the fastest, but I just competed with what I had. and uh at what 16 years old on the football field um sold out stadiums and it was a lot of fun getting able to compete at a very high level and I think it’s helped me tremendously in my baseball career just know that I’ve been in such big stages so like I think that kind of helped me slow down the game for this ball. [Music] Kind of always knew that baseball was what I wanted to do. I think it was just the level of competition that Nebraska offered. Being 13 hours away from home, getting to see uh the history behind Nebraska baseball, being to play on the biggest stage. Oh, what a play. Bryce Williams, Coach Bold, they had a lot of infielders get drafted. So, it was great to see that lineage and then to see that build and grow from what it was to what it is and get to learn from all those guys that were there before me. The biggest night that shapes the future of all 30 Major League Baseball organizations were all about the MLB draft. I really didn’t know what to expect. It was kind of a a wide range from like 28 to 54. I had to talk to pretty much every team. I feel like I put myself in the best position uh to get picked in the first round and that’s what kind of happened. With the 28th pick of the 2023 MLB draft, the Houston Astros select Bryce Matthews. [Applause] [Music] How you doing? The hometown kid does it. Let’s go. Let’s do it. Congrats, big fella. We’re looking forward to having you here. Still unescribable feeling. And when my agent Joe told me that that was what was going to happen, it was just like, let’s do it. Like I mean to be able to be here and be home play for a team that’s what 25 minutes away from your house and you grow up watching seeing those guys win so much. Nothing better than that. It meant everything for me and my family. It was insane. Very good. Love the glove presentation right there. See that? I think the biggest thing in our form system is like just getting better every day cuz at the end of the day, you’re trying to help the big league team. So to be able to go out there and just work on that, work on the little things, that’s the most important thing. Matthews was the first ever draft pick by Astros general manager Dana Brown. He’s going back. It is out of here on a 459 ft home run. And he is hit for the cycle. Bryce Matthews. Matthews off the batter. Matthews. My goodness, this a long way. Matthews delivers. This is an historic callup for the Houston Astros. The first ever graduate of the Astros Youth Academy to reach the major leagues. He told me the news. I was in shock. Called my parents. They kind of just called the family and it was a great moment. Just all the memories started playing back from when I was little. All the tough moments, all the fun moments. Super blessed uh and excited. A lot of nerves. Greetings from Dyken Park where today the Houston Astros open up a three-game series against the Texas Rangers. He’s super excited. He walked in here today with a big smile on his face and he’s been ready for this opportunity. There he is. Big L. Congratulations, man. I’ve never been that nervous in my life. I couldn’t eat nothing. I couldn’t sleep the night before. Like I was just like a kid, eyes wide. How you doing? Thank you. My god. All my steps are numbered and this is a step I’m ready to take today. [Applause] [Music] The hard work and the things that Mickey, Sudi, Joe, and all the coaches and and staff and my teammates, we work really hard just every day trying to be better and better. And to see that uh come to fruition, I’m really appreciative for for those people helping me out every day. ground ball to the right side and why not give Rice Matthews an opportunity right away. Bryce Matthews gets his first major league assist. Man, that was a a whirlwind, man. It happened so fast. through sight. I was trying to take it all in. Um, understanding the moment and just being being present. Um, you only debut once, so understanding like what’s going on, just cherishing these moments, looking at all the fans, looking everywhere in the stadium. It’s pretty cool seeing it from a different point of view, practice and everything. It doesn’t do it justice when the stadium’s sold out. And it’s different looking at from watching those games and to to being on the other side. It’s it was amazing. You’re not going to get a hit every game. Not what I wanted. Just got to move on to the next day, next game, next pitch, next bat. And it’s baseball. Love you. Love you. My family, my friends, my coaches. I think the support and uh the love that you have around you really uh builds you as a person. It helps you achieve things that you might not think you achieved in life. So just to be able to have these people around me each and every day supporting me speaking life into me it it’s made all the difference in the world. This is day one. I couldn’t have asked for anything more than the future. I don’t know. Guess we got to find out. [Music] I tend to listen to like slower music like Siza and and that slow R&B. Probably my favorite song to listen to. It’s called You by Lil Wayne and Lloyd and then um another song called Slow Down. It’s with uh Future and then like Mariah the Scientist. I play a lot of video games. I play a lot of video games. I play a lot of Call of Duty, a lot of War Zone. Madden, NCAA, and then uh FIFA. Golfing’s like allowed me to just go out there, just get in the sun more, just decompress, just have fun. [Music] Not really. I’m not really like a superstitious person. Probably just listen to the same couple songs. Some days I don’t listen to the music, but when I used to play football, I used to like watch a movie before every football game. I probably just try to like watch a funny movie like I probably watch Rush Hour or something before the game.

The hometown kid makes it big.

For Brice Matthews, it all started at the Astros Youth Academy. Tune in to see his Road to the Stros. Presented by @DaikinComfort.

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Baseball Commissioner Allan H. (Bud) Selig announced on January 19, 2000, that the 30 Major League Club owners voted unanimously to centralize all of Baseball’s Internet operations into an independent technology company. Major League Baseball Advanced Media (MLBAM) was formed and charged with developing, building and managing the most comprehensive baseball experience available on the Internet. In August 2002, MLB.com streamed the first-ever live full length MLB game over the Internet when the Texas Rangers and New York Yankees faced off at Yankee Stadium. Since that time, millions of baseball fans around the world have subscribed to MLB.TV, the live video streaming product that airs every game in HD to nearly 400 different devices. MLB.com also provides an array of mobile apps for fans to choose from, including At Bat, the highest-grossing iOS sports app of all-time. MLB.com also provides fans with a stable of Club beat reporters and award-winning national columnists, the largest contingent of baseball reporters under one roof, that deliver over 100 original articles every day. MLB.com also offers extensive historical information and footage, online ticket sales, official baseball merchandise, authenticated memorabilia and collectibles and fantasy games.

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