“I was born in Effingham, Illinois, then I moved to Indianapolis when I was about six months old.
“My parents divorced when I was five, so my mom had to get a job at Gringo’s, this fast-food Mexican restaurant near Speedway. We moved from our house into an apartment then. I started playing organized ball in the fourth grade. I started every year through the seventh grade. In the eighth grade I started one game, then we moved to Lafayette.
“It was a scary situation. My brothers and I didn’t go to school for two weeks when we first moved up here. We used to put it off and tell mom we’d do different things for her so we wouldn’t have to go to school. We’d put stuff away, organize the apartment and do stuff for her, because she had to work right away.
