Meet the Fan-ily: Mama Dipper Kristy Colyer

I hope that other people get to feel the sense of pride and just sheer joy in watching their family members, their kids, their grandkids, their nieces, their nephews, whatever, get to experience something as amazing as the Ballers.

The next in our series getting to better know the Ballers’ fan-ily, those people sitting in the seats next to you. Today, we talk to the real Ballers’ family, the family of the Ballers! Nine questions for nine innings, edited slightly for clarity. Relief pitcher James “Big Dipper” Colyer was signed from the open tryout at the beginning of the season. Kristy is his mother, which makes her…the Mama Dipper?

Kristy holding her son’s baseball cards, courtesy of Last Dive Bar

1) How did James get into baseball, and/or what’s one of your first memories of James and baseball?

James was pretty much born with a ball in his hand. Those were his toys. He liked to throw them at us and catch them, and that was his thing. And he just found a love. We're definitely a baseball family. We're lifelong A’s fans, my dad and all of us. I remember my favorite memory of him was at four years old; I came home and I said, hey, get your shoes on, buddy, we're going to go sign you up for soccer. And he looked at me and he goes, I'm not playing soccer. I'm a baseball player. He knew at a very young age what he wanted to do, and he stuck with it. He knew that he was going to be a baseball player.

2) When did you know that James had a particular skill for baseball?

I think early on a lot of kids in organized sports or extracurricular activities, you'll get that, “oh, I don't want to go to practice today.” He never did. He would get home and he would have his glove and his backpack and he was ready to go. His cleats were on. And I'm like, you don't even have to put those on yet, but he was ready to go. So I think just the passion he had for it, I knew that he was going to do something special with it. Growing up, that's every little kid's dream to be a professional sports athlete, and I'd always be like, okay, well, let's let's pick backup too, you know? And for him there was no such thing.

3) What kind of baseball parent are you? Yeller, stewer, nervous hand-wringer, jump-out-of-your-seat-and-suit-up? (Or something even better not listed here?) 

All of the above. It's funny because I had this conversation with Gabe Tanner's mom, and the other day we had a little pitchers’ moms’ meeting. It was me, Gabe Tanner's mom, Nancy Butz and Connor Sullivan's mom. And four of us sat there talking about that. And I shared that I…you can't shut me up. I'm a yeller. I'm a screamer. I always apologize to people around. I'm like, I'm sorry, I'm going to be yelling and screaming because that's my son coming in. Hand wringer. I can't sit still. Last night or the other night when he was pitching I was pacing the top of the stands. I remember one time he turned around to me, I was in the score box or the press box, and he went like [classic hand across the throat be-quiet signal]. Mom, be quiet. You're not supposed to cheer in the score box or the press box. And I can't help it.

4) From the outside, we hear a lot about the sacrifices that families make for players to “pursue their dreams.” Can you tell us if that rings true to you, and if so, how?

Like I said, my husband always says we're a baseball family. Baseball is what we do. And I don't think that I would really consider anything that we've done a sacrifice because we're fortunate enough to love the game as much as James does. Sure, there's a financial aspect to it that could be considered a sacrifice. With travel ball, there's a huge expense that comes with travel ball, traveling every other weekend to different locations. It's not just the $400 bats that they need. I don't remember the last family vacation we took in the last ten years that wasn't surrounding James and his baseball career. This year we went to Colorado, we did Yuba City, which isn't very far, but it's still, there's an expense tacked onto that. And we've been to 32…Tuesday night was our 32nd ballers game that we’ve gone to.

5) Best moments/worst moments on the baseball journey?

I think the best is getting that phone call. One day I was sitting here in my office and James called and I answered and he said, “Mom, your boy's a Baller.” He was actually interviewed on KPIX right before the season, and he was like, “I called my mom and she started crying.” Because I know how much work he put into this. And how much this is his literal dream come true. That had to have been the best one. I'll never forget, Your boy's a Baller.

The worst, probably on the flip side of that was, “I just got offered to go to a school in Georgia and play D2 baseball.” And I'm like, wait a minute. I didn't hear anything else but Georgia, and to have your kid on the whole other side of the country is very difficult. And that's not the only time he's been away from home. Which also is funny that he finished up his college career at Cal State East Bay, which is literally a half-a-mile from our house. So we got to go to every single game—home game at least—being able to be there. So that, I think, is the best part now: just having him home.

6) Best baseball mascot, theme, promotion, ballpark snack you’ve encountered?  

I mean, you can't beat Scrappy with mascots. I had been going to the A's stadium since the aluminum bleacher seats, and I was a huge Bash Brothers fan, Jose Canseco and Mark McGuire, you know, and to see the downfall of the Oakland Coliseum…I think that people don't understand if you're not an A's fan what Scrappy represents. I think the Ballers have done a great job with Scrappy because he embodies Oakland. He's out there doing the dances and getting the crowd wild. We are appreciative of what we have.

Opening Day for me this year was just an awesome experience. It was so cool. We had a huge crowd with us. The Oakland 68s there doing the drums, and you have the Let's Go Oakland chant. I never thought I would do that again.

Let’s see, what else do I have? The pineapple whip every game is amazing. But I have to say, and my husband asked me to make sure I said this in my interview: how do we get the corn dog fryer from [High Wheelers’ Marysville] Bryant Field? And the funnel fries are amazing.

7) Anything different or notable in supporting James on the Ballers compared to other teams?

Yeah, for sure. Just being home, you know, being able to be at all the games. Because when he was playing in Georgia and he played in Wyoming and he's played in other place…thank God for FloSports because we've always been able to watch him on that. And also I wanted to mention with the Ballers is Kara [Tsoboi], our in-game host. It's been so nice having her. I actually found a picture of Kara interviewing James from 2010 shortly before his 11th birthday. I can't wait to show her to be like, look at what you did. The first day we went to the preseason game that the Ballers had, and I walked up and the first person I saw was Kara. And I'm just like, oh my gosh, Kara, I've known you for 15 years. We have this conversation, and then I was like, oh my God, I'm so sorry, let me introduce who I am. I forget that you don't know me. So we sat there and we talked and my brother was laughing at me. He was like, you are so ridiculous. You just think that everybody wants to be your friend. And I was like, well, they do. They should!

8) What’s one thing you wish non-family fans knew or better appreciated about being in a player’s family?

We're so fortunate, and I can't say that enough. I just wish that other people…I hope that other people get to feel the sense of pride and just sheer joy in watching their family members, their kids, their grandkids, their nieces, their nephews, whatever, get to experience something as amazing as the Ballers. These kids—and I say kids, because, you know, my kid’s on the team—but these young men, they're having so much fun, so much fun. And we're having fun, and I would wish this for anybody, for everybody: I hope that you get to see something like this through a parent's eyes and be able to see your child have that sheer joy.

9) If YOU could have a walk-up song, what would it be? 

So I have to give a shout out to my daughters; they're huge Swifties. I asked them this. And I had in my head the Taylor Swift song that I wanted, and both of them picked different ones, but I'm going to go with mine. And it would be “Ready for It.”

I told James today that I was doing this and he sent me an eyeroll emoji. I said, hey, calm down. I'm a bit of a celebrity over there. And he goes, Mom, you're killing me.