Tucson High baseball's Arias has been there, wants to do that one better

You’re the father, watching your son’s training wheels being stripped right before your eyes.

You’re the player, wondering just how in the world this is happening, how three varsity innings pitched all season could translate into the starting nod in the state championship game.

Right around a year ago, Tucson High School’s George Arias Jr. could not have anticipated how the state baseball playoffs would end up. In late April of 2015, Arias was not even an afterthought, he was a never-thought, the Badgers so loaded on varsity that they couldn’t even use the son of a former major-leaguer. He was on junior varsity most of the year.

But with his starting staff fatigued heading into the title game against Canyon del Oro on May 19, coach Oscar Romero called upon Arias to start. It was a gutsy decision.

Arias threw four innings of one-hit ball, though the Badgers would go on to lose out on their bid for a 30th state baseball title.

The showing was a sign of things to come.

“I just had to take it as it was given to me. Coach asked to step up, and I felt prepared,” Arias said. “I think I was ready once he told me. I was ready for the challenge. It really gave me a taste of what it was like to play championship baseball.”

If last season’s one-game wonder was just a taste, this season’s been a full platter for the son of George Arias, the former Pueblo High School, Pima College and UA star who played four seasons (1996-99) in the major leagues.

Arias the Younger is 3-1 with a 0.70 ERA and is batting .302 with 11 RBIs as the Badgers enter the Division II state playoffs, though he has battled tendinitis recently.

The sophomore drew interest and offers from myriad major colleges. USC beckoned and New Mexico called; Arizona got Arias’ verbal commitment, the bloodlines staying true.

If one game can be like a shot in the arm of confidence, last year’s playoff game was it.

“It definitely brought him to a higher level,” Romero said. “Competing that day against CDO — that lineup was as good as I’ve ever seen — he just did his job. That performance that day opened a lot of doors for him. But he’s a special kid. I think the doors would’ve opened for him either way.”

This, after his father once shut the door rather resoundingly.

That May day last year may have been Arias’ first real shot, but it wasn’t the first time he’s been tested.

George Arias Sr. has become one of the city’s great youth baseball instructors and ambassadors. He serves as a Badgers assistant coach, owns Centerfield Baseball Academy and works for Arizona’s International Baseball Consortium.

A couple years back, he created a 15-and-under junior Olympic squad. George Jr. wasn’t quite big enough or strong enough. In a gut-wrenching move, George Sr. cut him.

It was, he said, “the hardest thing I’ve had to do.”

“Then I had to go listen to mom when I got home,” said George Sr., who, with wife Rachel, has three children. “I had to sleep on the couch a few nights.”

Junior could have gone in the tank, his confidence — and his identity — shattered. He did not.

“I was afraid of a few things — ‘Screw you, I’m never gonna play again’ or ‘Dad, I’ll show you’ — and he took it as I expected him to,” George Sr. said. “He didn’t give up, working harder, proving he wants to play this game.”

George Sr., 44, has a true love for baseball. He traveled the world to play it, continuing his career in Japan after his big-league tenure with the Padres and Angels ended.

He respects the game and its traditions, and he adds, “That’s the one thing me as a dad, a guy who plays the game, I’m not going to give anything to them. Even if it takes cutting him to teach him a lesson.”

It wasn’t just a pivotal moment for the father, though, but for the son.

“Yes, it was the right call,” George Jr. said. “That team, they were playing against some big boys. I wasn’t ready for it. I was getting outclassed. They were stronger than me. I didn’t take it too hard — he’s trying to build the best team, and if I didn’t make it, I respected him still.

“It told me I had to work harder, and I did.”

Nothing can make a dad — and a coach, sometimes two-in-one — prouder.

“Without a doubt, I get excited because I see that,” George Sr. said. “The game of baseball, I tell my students, it’s about teaching you character. It reveals character. It builds life skills.

“To see my son, and he’s growing, and he’s putting in the effort to love the game, that brings joy to me. I’ve told him, ‘Son, you don’t have to play, but whatever you do in life, do it full, do it for God, let him take care of the results.’”