Rowdy Tellez hits grand slam in front of biggest fan to fuel Mariners win

Tim Booth, The Seattle Times on Apr 19, 2025

Published in Baseball

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TORONTO — The night before making the two-hour drive from London, Ontario, up to Rogers Centre for Saturday’s game between the Mariners and Blue Jays, Xander Brown and his family hit the local mall.

If Xander, age 7, was going to see his favorite player on the field the next day, he needed at least one Mariners-related piece of clothing.

So there was Xander during pregame work on Saturday standing on the turf behind home plate holding his handmade “Let’s Go Rowdy” sign wearing a brand-new Mariners hat with a freshly imprinted autograph of his favorite player Rowdy Tellez on the teal brim.

“He’s never been able to answer the question why,” said Xander’s mom, Christina, of how Tellez became her son’s favorite player. “It just always has been. It doesn’t matter what team.”

Nearly six hours later, Tellez rounded the bases after hitting a grand slam in the 12th inning that helped give the Mariners an 8-4 win over the Blue Jays.

It was the fifth slam of Tellez’s career and made up for the 10th inning, when the struggling first baseman hit into a double play with the go-ahead run standing at third.

It seemed destined that Tellez would eventually homer in this game because Xander was in the stands. Two of the three previous times Xander came to see his favorite player play in person, Tellez came through with a homer.

While chatting with Tellez before Saturday’s game, Xander didn’t ask for a homer. He just wanted to see Tellez get on base. He thought it was unreasonable to ask for Tellez to homer in back-to-back games after going deep for Seattle’s only run on Friday night.

It took a while, but Tellez provided a shot Xander was sure to love.

How this young kid and a big burly professional baseball player created such a connection that’s now spanned several seasons is a testament to the power of how sometimes good things just happen.

In this case it goes both ways — for Xander, who is autistic and will turn 8 in June, and for Tellez.

“He’s a good kid. He cracks me up. His parents are good people. He wanted to meet me for his birthday one year. I don’t know why it was me but I just always look at the bigger picture,” Tellez said before Saturday’s game. “We’re normal, I think, on the inside. We’re normal people and you don’t realize who you impact or how far your impact goes. So I think in reality I’m just a normal person with a cool job and a bad haircut. I like to keep it honest. People are going to want to look up to you and you got to be a role model whether you want to or not. He keeps it funny, makes me laugh, keeps me young.”

The connection between Xander and his favorite player started when Tellez was still playing for the Blue Jays. Xander’s dad, Kevin, said his son would watch Blue Jays games and chant Rowdy’s name.

But they never met until after Tellez’s time in Toronto ended; he was traded to Milwaukee during the 2021 season.

Xander still followed and still cheered and had a request for his fifth birthday. He wanted to go see Tellez play in person.

So on June 26, 2022, Xander and his parents made the drive to Milwaukee to watch Tellez play. Kevin sent a message on social media to the Brewers that they were coming with Xander to see Tellez play, but expected nothing, only to have Rowdy come deliver an autographed jersey.

A year later, the family flew to New York to watch the Brewers play the Mets on Xander’s birthday. Last year, while Tellez was with the Pirates, it was a trip to Cincinnati. The hope is that they’ll be able to make the trip to Minnesota when the Mariners are there in June on Xander’s birthday — although it’s fair to question what Tellez’s role might be if he continues to struggle at the plate.

These aren’t cheap endeavors. It’s worth it to the Browns for the connection made.

“Rowdy has always made a point of making (Xander) feel special and talking with him and engaging with us,” Christina said. “Honestly for being a ‘famous person’ he’s the most down to earth.”

In the past, Xander made requests of Tellez to see a long ball for the games he was at and Tellez came through twice previously. Tellez homered on Friday night so Xander asked for something more manageable this time — just getting on base. Tellez accomplished that in his first at-bat, albeit via a fielder’s choice, and then managed to go deep anyway 10 innings later.

“I think it’s a reality check too, like no matter how you’re doing, you’re going to have someone that wants to be like you, or someone that looks up to you,” Tellez said. “Obviously, I’m not having the best start to the season for myself. But it doesn’t matter to some people. Xander is one of them that I’m just Rowdy, who is a baseball player, and he doesn’t see me for the numbers, doesn’t see me for anything. And I think that brings me comfort too. Just knowing like no matter what you do, you can impact people. It doesn’t matter what you do on the field.”