Jon Teig and his father, Bob, were at Veterans Memorial Stadium to meet and greet the Cedar Rapids Kernels as they arrived from spring training in Florida this past April.
You really didn’t think “Jon-Jon,” as he’s belovedly called, would miss a chance to shake hands with his favorite baseball team, did you?
“Hey, Jon, come here a second,” Bob Teig told his son, at one point. “What was the temperature of the season-opening game last year?”
“It was 47 degrees,” Jon-Jon responded. “We beat Clinton, 4-3.”
That was 100 percent correct. Then, again, you shouldn’t have doubted a guy who is 100 percent behind the Kernels at all times.
This is the 15th season Teig has been a bat boy for the Midwest League club. He never misses a game, unless it’s to be a bat boy for his other favorite team, the Iowa Hawkeyes.
Earlier this season, the Kernels played the Burlington Bees at Memorial Stadium. Before the game, Burlington shortstop Jake Yacinich met Jon-Jon behind the plate and gave him a big old bear hug.
Yacinich played at Iowa. Teig went through a special undergrad program at the university and received his degree.
“That was Jake Yacinich,” Jon-Jon would tell you after the game. “He got drafted by the Angels. He used to play for the Hawkeyes.”
What makes Teig’s story so heartwarming is that he is autistic. His parents thought being a bat boy would help him get out of the social “shell” so many autistic kids are trapped in, and, boy, has it.
Jon-Jon, now 28, is always chatting up players and coaches, who give him full respect. He’s the first one out of the dugout after a Kernels win to exchange high fives with the pitcher and catcher.
Whenever the “Peanut Butter-Jelly Time” clip from the TV show “Family Guy” is shown on the stadium’s jumbotron, he’ll immediately stop whatever he’s doing and perform a hip-shaking dance in the dugout, to the bemusement of everyone. He’s cat quick whenever there is a foul ball hit off the screen and toward the dugout, customarily tipping his batting helmet to the crowd when he catches a carom.
Teig made a visit to California in 2012 for an Anaheim Angels game and was greeted warmly by former Kernels like Mike Trout, perhaps the best player in Major League Baseball. It’s been a little difficult for him with the Minnesota Twins being the Kernels’ parent team these past three years, but Jon-Jon has adjusted, making spring-training trips to Fort Myers, Florida, instead of Mesa, Arizona.
“Jon-Jon is a fixture at the ballpark,” said Kernels CEO Doug Nelson. “He loves the Kernels.”
The Kernels have a special Autism Awareness Night each season, with special jerseys auctioned to raise funds for the Autism Society. This season, there is a Jon Teig Bobblehead Night.
That proves the love in this case is very much reciprocal.
“A night like (Autism Awareness Night) makes me think about it more,” said Bob Teig. “It makes me feel so grateful to the Kernels and so many others for what they’ve done for autism awareness. The Kernels do such a great job with so many good causes.”
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Jeff Johnson is a sportswriter for Source Media Group in Cedar Rapids who loves baseball and hockey. You can follow him on Twitter at @jeje66.
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The Hall of Very Good™ Class of 2015 is presented by Out of the Park Developments, the creators of the wildly popular baseball simulation game Out of the Park Baseball. Out of the Park Developments has made a generous donation to The Hall.
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