Announcement
The Meaning Behind the "Steve McGinnis" Peppers Classic
Tigers slugger keeps father�fs dreams alive.
When she was 10 years old, they walked onto the field together. Coach to player, he confided in her, one day she would play college softball there. As any 10-year-old would, she shrugged her shoulders and nodded at her father�fs dreams.
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| Mark Schiefelbein photo |
| Rachael McGinnis�f father, Steve, who died last year, always dreamed his daughter would play at Hall of Fame Stadium in Oklahoma City. She did just that last year, and today, McGinnis and her Missouri Tigers will take the field there again as they open Big 12 tourney play against Iowa State. |
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MU sophomore third baseman Rachael McGinnis remembers how her father, Steve, and mother, Jane, used to play in all-day softball tournaments in the small park in Overland Park, Kan., just a few blocks from the McGinnis house. Rachael loved the outdoors and would spend hours on the playground equipment while her mother and father played.
Soon, Rachael was on the field, and her parents watched their little girl mature from an unruly tee-ball player into a powerful softball player. Rachael was convinced from an early age that she was going to play in the Olympics, although softball wasn�ft even an Olympic sport at the time. Her talent for the sport was not easily overlooked, and Steve jumped at the opportunity to coach his daughter. Steve formed a softball team and, as the coach�fs daughter, Rachael picked the name - the KC Magic.
Because of her strong arm, 8-year-old Rachael began as the Magic�fs pitcher, but her love of the outdoors and her reckless nature forced a position change. Rachael doesn�ft remember if it was the time she fell off the truck or the time she wiped out while roller skating, but a broken arm when she was 12 kept her from playing softball for the better part of a season. When she returned, she moved from pitcher to first base, before finally finding a permanent home at third.
At about the same time, Rachael�fs father had his first stroke. Steve had a history of high blood pressure - both his father and his grandfather died of heart attacks before they were 50. Steve�fs attack wasn�ft completely unexpected. It was a wake-up call.
"You really have to try extra hard to take care of yourself when something�fs wrong," Rachael said. "He needed to eat better, and he did for a year, and he lost weight. But I think he got tired of it. He loved to eat, and he piled salt on stuff. He just wasn�ft taking good care of himself. I don�ft want to say he gave up, but he said, �eFor however long I am here, I want to be happy.�f "
But his stroke didn�ft stop him from loving the game. Steve continued to enjoy life the best way he knew how - watching his daughter play softball.
Rachael was one of seven freshmen to earn a starting position on the Blue Valley Northwest High School team. She got a phone call from Dan Eakin, a Kansas City softball coach who was looking for a third baseman for his nationally recognized team - the Kansas City Peppers. She joined the team, and Steve dissolved the Magic.
Rachael earned all-metro honors three times and was named Kansas Gatorade Softball Player of the Year in her senior season at Blue Valley Northwest.
"Offensively and defensively, she just bared down," Eakin said. "You could tell she wanted to win. She was all business when she came up to bat or took the field."
While Rachael commanded the field, Steve commanded the stands, never surrendering his role as Rachael�fs coach, even out of the dugout. As quiet as Rachael was on the field, Steve would be just as vocal off the field. Steve would socialize with the other fans, talk and enjoy the game, but as soon as Rachael came up to bat, everything stopped. Rachael was his focus. He rarely missed a game.
Hit or miss, Steve never hesitated to tell his daughter what he thought, and although at times it caused some tension, both loved their role in each other�fs life. Steve instilled a passion in Rachael, and that passion helped her fulfill a goal Steve had set for his daughter from the very beginning.
"He had a way of getting her to really perform," Jane McGinnis said. "He didn�ft think that she always knew her potential, and sometimes he would make her mad. They were both headstrong, but they never offended each other."
Rachael became a Big 12 softball player. MU Coach Jay Miller had been watching Rachael since she was 12. He observed her quiet manner, her quick hands, her swing. He needed a power-hitter. Rachael fit the bill.
As a freshman, she walked into the starting third-base position for Missouri. It didn�ft take long for her to prove that she belonged there. Her first season, she led the Tigers with 59 hits and 34 runs and was third on the team in slugging percentage at .458. But with softball at its high, life hit its low.
Only a few weeks before the end of the season, Rachael�fs father had a second stroke. Rachael immediately left Columbia and headed home. But she knew he wouldn�ft want her to miss the thing that had brought them both so much joy, so she returned to Columbia to play the final game of the regular season against Kansas.
"In all the places where he would have wanted her to be, it would have been playing softball," Jane McGinnis said.
In an induced coma, Steve couldn�ft talk, but he could understand. When Rachael returned from the victory, she told her father of the accomplishment. He squeezed her hand to show that he understood. Together father and daughter - coach and player - celebrated.
A week later, Rachael went to Oklahoma for the Big 12 Tournament. She stepped on the field where her father had always wanted her to play. In the hospital room, the game played over the radio.
"I only got to play one game there, but he was definitely alive," Rachael said. "I came back and I told him. He knew. He listened to our games on the radio. I think he heard."
On May 10, one day after Rachael played on Hall of Fame field, Steve McGinnis died.
Rachael didn�ft give up on their dream. She stayed home last summer and played in her final season of eligibility for the Peppers. She knew her father would have wanted her to keep moving forward. On Father�fs Day, in a tournament in Arizona, she hit a home run. In the fall, she returned to Columbia and rejoined the Tigers.
"It was really hard for awhile," Rachael said. "But I knew he wouldn�ft want me to be a head case forever. When I was back playing softball, I knew that is what he would want me to do."
This season, she has been a bright spot on a team that�fs struggled to a 29-32 record and ninth-place finish in the Big 12. She has a team-high 67 hits and 47 RBI and is batting .385.
"That was Steve�fs whole life," Eakin said. "Watching Rachael play. But he didn�ft get to see her in full bloom."
One day, she would like to fulfill her dream and play on the U.S. Olympic team, but for now, she still has two more years of Missouri softball to enjoy.
"The sky is the limit for Rachael," Miller said. "She could be a national-caliber player."
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Today at 5 p.m., Rachael will once again walk into Hall of Fame Stadium. This time it will be to face eighth-seeded Iowa State in the Big 12 Tournament. Memories will flood the corners of her mind. She will hear him calling advice. She will see him coaching from the stands. She will feel him on the field with her.
He will have the best seat in the house.
