George Curtis taught his son Jermaine what he knew ““ baseball.
Growing up in Fontana, as soon as Jermaine Curtis was old enough to pick up a baseball, his dad was teaching him to play and respect the game he played back in Louisiana.
“Jermaine was a quiet kid, until you said “˜play baseball,'” George Curtis said. “He has a passion for the game.”
After Jermaine Curtis started Little League at age 4 1/2, the father and son would come home from games and dissect what had happened. Curtis would go in the front yard and take wiffle ball batting practice with his younger brother. He was raised on baseball, all the while being taught to respect the game.
“I was playing on a travel ball team and one of my teammates disrespected the game by not running to a base, yelling at the umpires, and stuff like that,” Curtis said. “And my dad told me, “˜You can’t disrespect the game. You won’t get anywhere.'”
When Curtis was deciding where to go to college, it was an easy decision. Citing the school’s history, specifically alumnus Jackie Robinson, whom he commemorates with the number 42 on his wristband, UCLA was the only choice.
Despite the Bruins’ disappointing 2005 season, Curtis was not deterred. He cited the strength of his recruiting class as being enough to keep him Westwood-bound.
When he made it onto the field in a Bruin uniform, he already had a cheering section. George Curtis is a fixture at the ballpark for the second season in a row, sitting in the home-team bleachers at every game and watching his son give his everything to the team.
“I just feel more comfortable (with him there),” Jermaine Curtis said. “He’s always been at my games from a young age. Someone always in your corner.”
The sophomore third baseman has been everything to this year’s Bruins. A vocal and emotional leader on the team, Curtis’ impact goes beyond his statistics, which stand alone in their own right. At the hot corner he owns a .961 fielding percentage, and at the plate he is sitting at .331 going into the final series of the season.
His passion makes him another player altogether.
“I might know someone from ASU or Berkeley,” Curtis said. “Off the field we know each other, but on the field I hate you. I want to beat you. I’ll do whatever it takes.”
It is this passion for the game that made the start of the season so frustrating for him. After a promising freshman year, Curtis was forced to sit out the start of his sophomore season due to academic ineligibility.
“I was in a lower-division English class that I was supposed to take last year,” Curtis said. “Since I didn’t take it last year it affected me this year and made me ineligible.”
Sitting on the sideline with his team struggling and not being able to help was a tough task for Curtis. Helping him through it was his biggest supporter: his dad.
“My dad told me, “˜Time is gonna pass and you’ll be out there as soon as possible. You won’t even know it,'” Curtis said.
When he did finally come back, the Bruins knew it. The team responded to the return of its third baseman by winning 12 of its next 14 games and sitting atop the Pac-10 standings for much of the season.
“He’s been the energy that we needed and were missing,” coach John Savage told the Daily Bruin earlier this month. “He is the guy that has brought the team together. We are a different team with Jermaine in the lineup.”
In the lineup, Curtis has done literally everything possible to help the team. Besides helping out with the glove and at bat, he has also turned DJ, mixing his own walk-up song.
Every UCLA batter picks their own song to play over the PA while they walk up to the plate. Curtis took it a step further, taking a copy of “O Fortuna” and remixing it on his friend’s beat machine. After finishing his own song, Curtis helped out his teammates as well.
“I actually did a walk-up song for Jason Novak, with the theme from the movie “˜SAW,'” Curtis said. “I did Eddie Murray’s, a Shakira song (as) a little joke, but it’s pretty nice.”
From the start of the walk-up song to when he enters the batter’s box, Curtis is dialed in and looking to help the team.
“I’m just pumped,” Curtis said. “Adrenaline. I have so much energy, I just want to get it going for the team.”
With his dad in the stands for support and his teammates alongside him, Curtis has got the team going and poised for a deep run into the postseason.