The Oakland A’s latest call-up has more than just a cool name. 25-year-old outfielder Skye Bolt was called up from Triple-A Las Vegas by the team Wednesday, prompting a wave of stories about him. It’s also interesting that his first game could come this weekend against the Pirates, as his father was raised in Pittsburgh and attended games at the old Three Rivers Stadium; Will Graves of The Associated Press spoke to Bolt’s family about their Pittsburgh connections. But the most unusual thing about Bolt may be what MLB researcher David Adler tweeted Friday; at age seven in 2001, Bolt appeared in a supermarket commercial with Greg Maddux.
This is a 7-year-old Skye Bolt getting tips from Greg Maddux in a 2001 Ingles supermarket commercial.
"At Ingles," Maddux says, "one quick stop is all you need to feed a whole roster of future big leaguers."
Bolt got called up by the A's today. pic.twitter.com/5KijIR8STZ
— David Adler (@_dadler) May 3, 2019
Here’s more on that from MLB.com’s Adrian Garro:
You see, as a child, young Skye was a bit of a child model, appearing in some productions as an actor. He did that as a fresh-faced youngster impressed by the mere presence of eventual Hall of Fame right-hander Greg Maddux, as evidenced with this delightful still image dug up by MLB.com’s David Adler:
No shame there for Bolt, enraptured by whatever pitching lesson Maddux may have been giving him in the ad for a local supermarket chain in the North Carolina area. Anybody who watched Maddux pitch on a regular basis was similarly awed all the time.
“I guess I was a cute kid,” Bolt joked with Adler in 2013 when reflecting on his acting career. “But I got to the age of about 10, and my buddies at school were giving me heck about it. And I decided I was gonna be an athlete, and I told my mom, ‘I’ve got to stop doing this.’”
That’s a great story, and it’s pretty fun to see a child actor go on to MLB success. Especially when the commercial in question mentioned “future big leaguers.” Who knew it would actually come true?
[MLB.com]
