How Clemson helped Grayson Byrd escape his dad’s shadow and create his own legacy

It’s a chilly April afternoon at Doug Kingsmore Stadium in Clemson. As the Tigers are warming up between innings of a game against Duke, Clemson outfielder Grayson Byrd is playing catch with three bundled-up young fans in the left-field bleachers.

The kids are loving every second of the interaction with a college baseball player. What they may not realize is that Byrd is enjoying every moment of it as well.

Those closest to Byrd describe him as a fun-loving guy who everyone wants to be around. At times during his college career, however, his outgoing and playful personality didn’t shine through.

Byrd started his career at LSU — where his father and former major league pitcher Paul Byrd was a star — before transferring to Clemson in search of a place where he could be himself.

Byrd found that and more at Clemson, and had the best year of his college career as a senior. The Tigers are in the NCAA tournament for the 11th consecutive year, facing off Friday against Illinois in the Oxford (Mississippi) Regional.

This season hasn’t just been special because Byrd is having a career year in terms of average, home runs and RBIs. It has been special for him because he has created his own legacy and has had a ton of fun doing so.

“Obviously I’ve hit well and my statistics are good, but even if I didn’t hit well, just getting a degree and having another year with teammates and friends on campus has been one of the best decisions I’ve made,” Byrd said. “I went into this year and told myself that I was going to try to cherish every moment knowing it was my last season of college baseball, and I’ve done that. It’s been a blast.”

A different path

Paul Byrd always assumed his son Grayson was going to follow in his footsteps and be a star pitcher, and early on it appeared that was going to be the case.

By the summer of 2011 Grayson had turned into a top pitcher for the Georgia Roadrunners travel ball team.

The young teenager had a solid pitching frame and all of the pitches to go with it. He was throwing harder than most kids his age and had developed a changeup and curveball that were elite for a teenager.

His father, Paul, was coaching the team.

“I was like, ‘Man, this guy’s a pitcher,’ ” Paul recalled. “But I would go talk to him on the mound and he was just like, ‘Can I just go back to shortstop? I hate pitching.’ ”

The news was tough for Paul to accept at first. The fourth-round pick in the 1991 MLB Draft pitched in the big leagues from 1995-2009 and was named an All-Star in 1999.

He envisioned a similar path for his son.

“My wife had to sit me down and say, ‘This is about you needing to listen to your son and let him be his own person,’ ” Paul said. “That’s when it started, like, ‘My son loves baseball, but he loves baseball not because of me. He doesn’t want to be me or be compared to me or any of that.’ ”

Rude awakening

Grayson did not follow in his father’s footsteps on the mound, but when it came time to choose a college out of high school, he picked LSU.

“Going to LSU, that was kind of my dream,” Grayson said. “Both of my parents went there and they have an awesome program. I grew up in purple and gold.”

Grayson was ranked as the No. 178 player in the nation by Perfect Game coming out of high school, and several MLB teams were interested in drafting him. But he wrote a letter to scouts informing them that he was going to school and not to select him with a high draft pick.

Grayson played in 24 games as a freshman at LSU, hitting .212 with one double and nine RBIs. While that was his dream school to attend growing up, once he got there he realized it wasn’t a good fit.

“It was tough. My mom’s from New Orleans and she went to LSU. My dad went to LSU. So I’ve got a lot of connections down there,” Grayson said. “The toughest part was leaving the people, my teammates that I was close with over that year. ... But at the same time I knew that I had to move on.”

More than anything, Grayson needed a program where he could be himself without always being compared to his dad.

“He went to college and it was a rude awakening for him. He didn’t have fun. Everybody at LSU just wanted to talk to him about Paul Byrd. And it really wasn’t fair to him. It wasn’t fair to me. It wasn’t fair to the LSU program,” Paul said. “I think he needed to go somewhere where he could be himself and it really wasn’t a good fit at LSU. I think he wanted to be his own person, and I really admired that.”

New beginnings

Grayson considered going to a junior college and entering the draft after one season but ultimately decided he wanted to attend another four-year college.

“I wanted to come back and go to a four-year college and try to make a name for myself and play for something more than just pro ball,” he said.

Grayson played on teams with former Clemson star Seth Beer in middle and high school and spoke with Beer about coming to Clemson. Grayson ended up getting in touch with Tigers coach Monte Lee, who had just left the College of Charleston to take over the Tigers’ program.

Grayson visited Clemson and decided it was the perfect spot for him.

“I was looking for a clean slate. With Monte I met with him and really liked his style of coaching,” Grayson said. “I wasn’t super familiar with him from Charleston, but I knew what he was about, knew what he was like. I wanted to come to a place where I felt like I was wanted and could compete for a job and play for someone like Monte.”

Creating a legacy

Grayson’s time at Clemson hasn’t always been easy. He battled back injuries his first year as a sophomore in 2017 and played the majority of last year with a torn quad that severely hampered his ability to run.

Still, he was a third-team All-ACC selection as a junior, hitting .243 with nine homers and 26 RBIs while playing on one leg at times.

The injury hurt Grayson as far as the MLB Draft. Some teams reached out in the later rounds, but he decided to return to school to show what he could do fully healthy.

The move could not have worked out better for Grayson as he leads the Tigers in batting average (.315), home runs (15) and RBIs (56) entering the NCAA tournament opener against Illinois.

“He’s healthy. He’s having fun. He’s not worried about if the next swing’s going to hurt. ... It’s fun to see him go out there and have fun and be a leader and mix it up with the guys and smile and sign autographs after the game,” Paul said.

Grayson was also a big part of Clemson reaching the NCAA tournament as he hit 10 home runs the final 13 games of the regular season with the Tigers fighting for a postseason berth.

“This year he’s really put together a heck of a season for us,” Lee said. “Glad to see him hitting and playing his best baseball right now for us and feel like he’s going to get an opportunity to keep playing once our season’s over.”

Byrd was named first-team All-ACC this season, earned his college degree and will get drafted next month. Instead of following in his father’s footsteps, he created his own path.

“When I went out there on Senior Day and Monte presented him with a jersey and gave him a hug and told him he loved him, I was getting choked up because I was just so proud of him that he had been his own person,” Paul said. “He had weathered the storm. He had gone somewhere else and fought through adversity and become a man. He’s earned everything that’s come his way.”

Oxford NCAA regional TV schedule

Clemson (34-24) vs. Illinois (36-19) 4 pm Friday, ESPNU

Ole Miss (37-25) vs. Jacksonville State (37-21) 8 pm Friday, ESPN3