By Pete Pichaske
Baltimore Orioles’ catcher Matt Wieters is busy learning all the bases of fatherhood these days.
Wieters was a high school baseball phenom in South Carolina, a two-time All-America at Georgia Tech, and he’s already been an all-star twice in his brief Major League career. But nothing, he says, matches the thrill of being a new father.
Wieters and his wife, Maria, had their first child, Maverick Luther Wieters, on Sept. 28, 2012. Since then, the O’s catcher has developed a new outlook on the sport he loves so much and plays so well.
“At the beginning, it was a little bit of an adjustment,” says Wieters, 27. “You realize, It’s not all about me, it’s about my family, my son. Once you get that, everything else gets a little bit easier.
“You realize that your priorities have shifted,” he adds. “You still want to be the best baseball player you can be, but you come home and you look at him, and you realize that raising him, seeing him grow, it’s more important than anything you can do in baseball.”
