Nate Olson: Former Bryant, Razorbacks star Evan Lee needed one more game of catch with his dad the night before his MLB debut

By Nate Olson 

Bryant High School athletic director Mike Lee has been playing catch with his son Evan since Evan was five. But the catch they shared Tuesday night will be one that neither one of them will forget.

Evan, a star two-way player at Bryant and the University of Arkansas, made his major league debut Wednesday on the mound for the Washington Nationals on the road against the New York Mets.

However, on the eve of the biggest game of his life, Evan was feeling uncomfortable, and he needed his dad’s help. Evan had just thrown a bullpen at Citi Field late Tuesday afternoon, and it didn’t go well.

“There is a difference between the major league and minor league ball, and you may not notice it, but if you pick them both up, you can tell,” Mike said. “Evan has been quirky anyway about textures and things, and he wasn’t comfortable throwing it. He said he was going from batter’s box to batter’s box, and guys were looking at him like, ‘Who are you?’ He told me, ‘I need more.’”

On Evan’s insistence, Mike had packed the catcher’s mitt he has used to play catch with his son in the offseason in his carry-on luggage before he and his wife, Catrena made their way from Little Rock’s Clinton National Airport to New York.

When Mike arrived in New York, Evan’s wife, former Arkansas standout softball player Sydney Parr Lee, had texted Evan and informed Mike about the bullpen session. The former MLB scout thought he was “off the hook.”

Mike and Catrena and other family, including his daughter Megan and Mike’s sister-in-law and Sydney, were all settling in in downtown Manhattan and getting ready to meet Evan at the team hotel for dinner following the workout.

“Katrina and I had never been to New York before, so we are looking at all of this ... taking it in and couldn’t hardly believe it,” Mike said.

Then he got a phone call from Evan.

“He said, ‘Dad, can you bring the mitt down to the hotel? I need some more,’” Mike said. “I said, ‘Son, I can bring it, but I don’t know where we are going to play catch in a motel.’”

When Mike got to the posh Nationals team hotel, the AD in him kicked in, and he found a security guard and explained his son’s situation, but the guard didn’t have a solution.

Evan emerged and told his dad he had an idea. 

“We are going to Central Park,” Evan declared.

So, the entire family left the team hotel and ventured out in the 93-degree heat to make what Mike estimated as a 10-minute walk to “the edge of Central Park.” They had to walk another 10 minutes to find an open area.

“There were people all over the place laying on blankets and sitting on the grass,” Mike said.

The two measured off the official 60 feet, 6 inches, of the distance from the rubber to a big-league mound and started “getting loose.”

Mike made it clear that during these sessions he doesn’t get in the catcher’s crouch anymore and Evan isn’t gunning the ball 90 mph, but once he did start throwing harder and working on his pin-point control of aiming for Mike’s body parts, onlookers got curious.

“Twenty or so people came over with their phones and started filming, asking us what we were doing,” Mike said. “I told them they needed to get back, and that we were just a father and son.”

Parr Lee also documented the catch on Instagram. You can see the Lees firing away with the New York skyline in the background.

As the time passed 7 p.m., Evan felt comfortable enough to leave the park and not delay the family dinner any longer. Evan estimated between the session at the stadium and the park he threw 100 pitches.

“I told him, ‘You didn’t feel that good there, but you feel better now, and you are going to feel even better tomorrow,’” Mike said.

During pregame the next day, Mike could tell the session paid off even before his son began his pregame warmups — as he was long-tossing in the outfield, he was “throwing dots.” 

“I told Katrina, I don’t know how it is going to go down, but he is feeling good,” Mike said.

And it did go well, or at least pretty well. Evan threw a lot of pitches and had to leave in the fourth inning down 2-0, giving up four hits, walking three and striking out two in 3.2 innings in a game the Nationals lost to the NL-East leading Mets, 5-0.

But his dad gave him good marks. He took into consideration the umpire might have made it hard on him.

“His agent [Derek Braunecker] was texting the Nationals assistant GM and he said [Evan] was getting squeezed,” Mike said. “I thought he handled the atmosphere great. That is a tough place to play, and he dealt with that part of it well.”

After the game, Braunecker talked to the stadium staff, explaining Lee’s family wanted to make it down to the field. Sydney, who interned with the Mets, ran into some of her former colleagues who helped and soon the entire family was on the field with Evan, who was in good spirits.

Evan will again take the mound Tuesday in Miami, facing the Marlins. His folks will not make the trip, but Sydney and her parents will be there cheering him on.

Mike explains Megan is getting married later this year, and the family is saving for the wedding, but if Evan continues to stick in the bigs, the Lees will likely make another trip to see another outing in person.

And by by the way — Megan’s fiancé is Jordan Wicks, a former Conway High School and Kansas State pitcher whom the Chicago Cubs took with the 21st pick of the 2021 draft. Jordan plays for the South Bend (Ind.) Cubs — the advanced Class A affiliate. Mike said if Jordan advances to the Class AA Tennessee Smokies, he and Katrina will make the trip to the Knoxville area to take in some games.

Mike said his background as a scout makes it easy to visit with his son and soon-to-be son-in-law.

“We call or text every day,” Mike said. “That is just special. I know the good Lord has blessed me to be on this journey with them. Every day talking to them is a blessing for me.”

And that catch in Central Park and day at Citi Field was a blessing, too.

“I was just helping him, being his dad,” Mike said. “[The game] was one of the best days of my life. I mean, there was the day my daughter and son were born, so it isn’t the best day, but it is up there.”