Athleticism Runs in the Family for Fireflies Speedster

Fourth of July weekend is usually a time for families and friends to gather, barbecue some incredible food and enjoy some times outdoors before setting off or watching a display of fireworks.

When you play professional baseball, things go a little differently. Tyler Tolbert spent his July 4 weekend in Augusta, South Carolina—specifically at SRP Park in the midst of a six-game series against the GreenJackets. The Alabama-Birmingham-product set off his own fireworks a little early in Saturday’s game, hitting a two-run homer in the top of the ninth, the first homerun of his professional career, to give the Fireflies a 7-4 lead. His sister Taylor was able to attend the game and cheer him on—making sure that he was able to spend some time with his family during the holiday weekend.

That’s one thing that’s paramount for the Tolberts. Family. All the Tolberts talk to each other regularly and pump themselves up in their careers. Which is important, because most of them work in the cut-throat sports industry where as athletes, they don’t always see a lot of praise.

Tyler is close with his sister, Taylor, but he also has four cousins who he used to see often during summers when he would visit his grandparents in Mississippi. There are the Dobbs. He played baseball at the University of Alabama-Birmingham with Stephen, who was a junior when Tyler was a freshman. The backstop Blazer finished his career hitting .239 in 96 games at UAB. The other Dobbs cousin is Joshua Dobbs, who was a quarterback at the University of Tennessee and has the third-most total offensive yards (9,360) of any player to don a Volunteers uniform. Joshua is currently a quarterback with the Pittsburgh Steelers, where he has spent most of his NFL career.

Not far from Josh, a third cousin, Parker Washington plays collegiate football for the Penn State Nittany Lions. Parker is the youngest cousin, but he’s already made his mark on the athletic world. As a true freshman at Penn State, Washington had six touchdown receptions, which was the fifth-most of any receiver in the Big-10 Conference. He earned The Athletics Freshman All-American Second Team honors and set a Penn State true freshman single-game reception record when he hauled in nine grabs versus the Michigan Wolverines November 20 last year.

While Josh was at the University of Tennessee, Tyler never had the opportunity to watch one of his games because he was busy travelling for baseball and going to classes in high school and college. Last year, he was planning on attending a game at Penn State, but because of COVID he wasn’t able to. Tolbert’s favorite memory with Parker though was watching him sign with Penn State.

“I actually flew in right after instructs ended and watched him on National Signing Day then I flew in to watch them play. They played Friday night and it was awesome getting to see him sign Tuesday. Getting to see him do that was probably my favorite memory.”

There’s also Ashton Washington, Parker’s sister, who is the Director of Recruiting Operations and Creative Content at Texas Tech. Ashton turned away from playing competitive sports as she moved to college. After playing high school basketball, she turned down a partial athletic scholarship in lieu of a full-ride academic scholarship at Huston-Tillotson University. It worked out. She became the first African-American Woman on the University of Illinois Football staff and her career has continued to blossom from there. She spent some time in the NFL before accepting her current position with the Red Raiders.

When the family gets together, it’s certain that there’ll be some competition. During family parties, you can find this group of cousins in the yard playing football, baseball, basketball—basically any competitive sport. If you ask Tyler who the fastest in the group is, he’ll say, “I want to say me, but Parker is fast. I think I could get Josh. He’s 6’4” so I think I could get him, but Parker and I would be a good race.”

Sure, both Josh and Parker have made careers on the gridiron with their fancy footwork, but Tyler is on the verge of something special with Columbia this season. Through the first 51 games of the season, Tolbert has 27 stolen bases, which is three behind Jayce Easley for most in the Low-A East League this season. Tolbert has nabbed 55 bags in 56 tries throughout his career, but what’s truly special is that less than halfway through this abbreviated season, Tolbert is one stolen base away from tying Jacob Zanon’s 2017 mark of 28, which stands as the most stolen bases in a single-season in Fireflies history.

Baseball is what stuck. The family would spend summers together in Mississippi at Tyler’s grandparent’s house for family reunions, birthday parties and Independence Day celebrations, but Tyler spent the rest of the year in Birmingham, where he grew up. He would play basketball, football and baseball growing up. He played both baseball and football with Josh, but when he thinks of the best basketball player in the family, he’ll tell you.

“Ashton is the best hooper. She’s the best one. Parker is probably second best, then me, but Ashton was so good at basketball.” Tolbert would be the family point-guard, and he played pass first.

In the back yard, everyone is used to changing positions and doing whatever is necessary to help their one or two teammates accomplish their goal of scoring a touchdown or winning a pick-up basketball game. On the field though, particularly at the professional level, there’s a big difference between shagging balls in the outfield and taking grounders at shortstop. For his entire life, Tolbert has been considered a middle infielder, but this year, through his first 37 games, Tolbert has worked 14 in the infield and 23 in the outfield. He’s played each position in the outfield, but when he mans right field, the Fireflies have a 7-2 record, no doubt because of the range he possesses.

Sure, it can be difficult at times changing positions, but the Alabama-resident welcomes the challenge. “You try to get one percent better each day. If you can get one percent better each day, then hopefully you can be where you want to be by the end of the year.”

Tolbert understands that success doesn’t happen overnight. The end goal for him is still a bit away, but he wants to hear his name called from the speakers at Kauffman Stadium. That only comes about through continually getting better each day and trusting the process that the coaches put him through.

Coming into this season, Tolbert’s goal for 2021 wasn’t to make it to the majors, it wasn’t even to break the Fireflies single-season steals record, which he didn’t know was so close until his Mom texted him after a game. He discussed things with his trainer back home and came up with a different goal. “We decided that I wanted to shoot for 80. That’s a lot, but you have to set your goals high, so you can be where you want to be. I think it’s feasible. It’s a long season and once some balls start falling we’ll be moving along the bases.”