He was told to call a man in East Tennessee.
Kurt Elbin had recently been hired as Virginia Tech baseball’s recruiting coordinator. He sought to expand the team’s recruiting footprint. A colleague, Casey Dykes, who now happens to be the New York Yankees’ assistant hitting coach, suggested the Hokies could tap into the Tennessee talent base. Dykes told Elbin he needed to dial Adam Cross, a former minor leaguer who coached a youth travel team called the East Tennessee Crusaders.
Elbin dialed, and Cross answered.
The conversation flowed, finding its way to the talented young players Cross coached. Cross began with a left-handed pitcher. “He’s not going to blow the radar gun up,” Cross told Elbin, “but by golly, he can pitch.” Elbin jotted down the name. Cross continued, bringing up a catcher. Again, Elbin scribbled down the information. Finally, Cross mentioned a particular left-handed-hitting outfielder.
“He goes through this long list of players,” Elbin recalled recently in a phone conversation, “and then goes, ‘Oh, by the way, my son, Gavin Cross — I think he’s going to have a chance.’”
The father’s comment sounds laughably understated considering what occurred a few weekends ago. The Royals formally introduced first-round pick Gavin Cross, a 6-foot-3, 210-pound three-year outfielder at Virginia Tech. On that day, Gavin sat inside the news conference room at Kauffman Stadium, thanked his family, described his playing style and listened to Royals staffers such as scouting director Danny Ontiveros outline the reasons behind the club’s selection.
Cross’ hit tool was easy to grade. So were the speed and the size and arm. But the emotional maturity? “He reminded me of the temperament of an Alex Gordon,” Ontiveros said. Asked where his calm demeanor came from, Gavin cited his father and the East Tennessee Crusaders. Adam, interestingly, believes the foundation of his son’s temperament goes back further, to Gavin’s earliest days on a ballfield.
Adam Cross can still picture the scene: 2-year-old Gavin bouncing around the baseball field at Walters State Community College, tossing the ball and slinging around a bat.
“You could tell even then that baseball was probably going to be what he was passionate about,” Adam said.
At the time, Adam was a baseball coach at the school. He had played at the only school that offered him a baseball scholarship: NAIA’s Milligan University. “If it wasn’t for that offer,” he said, “I guess my baseball journey would’ve been done.”
Instead, the opportunity later earned him transfer interest. He landed at East Tennessee State, where he played infield for three years before longtime Atlanta Braves scout Jack Powell signed him as an undrafted free agent in 1995. A few years later, he exited pro ball and began coaching at Walters State. And then he and his wife, Becky, had a son, who was running around the practice fields.
By age 6, Gavin could swing fluidly. “He was staying balanced,” Adam said. “Loading his hips. He had movements you sort of have to teach along the way. What I knew was, ‘He’s got a chance to be pretty good!’” Wanting to further Gavin’s development at age 9, Adam started a travel team, compiled of players from the Tri-Cities: Kingsport, Johnson City and Bristol. Adam believed he and a few of his fellow coaches could enhance the players’ skills.
Adam recalled a conversation with the players about hitting.
“Who’s the best hitting coach you’re ever going to have?” he asked them.
“You, Coach!” they responded.
Adam shook his head. No.
“My dad!”
Nope.
The kids were confused.
“Yourself,” Adam told them.
Essentially, the goal was to make players understand how knowledge of their own swing would be most useful over their careers. Gavin internalized the thought and continued to further his baseball passion. In 2010, he attended Opening Day in Atlanta at Turner Field. In the first inning, Jason Heyward, who was making his debut, homered to right-center. “That’s when it was like, that’d be something I want to do,” Gavin said. “I don’t know why that sticks out in my head. But it was like, ‘I want to be that guy one day.’”
If Adam Cross remembers correctly, the first time Kurt Elbin scouted Gavin was a summer weekend at LakePoint Baseball Complex in Emerson, Ga. It was late at night. Rain delays had affected the entire day’s schedule. Kurt happened to remain at the fields through the mess of the day, and he just so happened to stumble upon Gavin, who was hammering baseballs inside a cage.
The hit tool was partly what earned him first-team all-state honors while at Tennessee High School (Bristol, Tenn.) in 2018-19. He stole bases (in 2018, he set the state record with 41). He ranged for balls in the outfield. Physically, he was imposing.
“The biggest thing that stuck out to me was he had an insane amount of talent,” Elbin said.
By then, the newly hired Virginia Tech recruiting coordinator had learned about Adam’s background and why he’d started the youth team. Adam also understood that expanding the footprint with a player of Gavin’s status could alter the course of the program. So, the Hokies offered. Gavin, thinking he could start immediately, accepted.
Among the father-son conversations that occurred during Gavin’s freshman year, one from the fall stood out.
“How’s it going?” Adam asked.
“It’s good,” Gavin responded. “The only thing is, sometimes I feel like I get stuck on velocity in.”
Adam remembered that word.
Stuck.
Elbin recalled the results of Gavin’s swing feeling: hard-hit balls on the ground.
“He just couldn’t lift the ball,” Elbin said. “He didn’t know how to do it.”
The realization spurred a swing change that helped unlock Gavin’s potential. Essentially, Gavin’s swing featured what Adam termed as a “conventional load,” meaning there was not a ton of movement. Elbin offered some suggestions, beginning with opening up his stance to better connect with pitches out front.
“We tried to open his move up to stay behind the ball in his swing,” Elbin said. “Just telling him, ‘Swing at pitches you can drive in the air more.’ Gav went out and executed. But, the bat-to-ball skills were always there. Probably one of the best pitch-recognition, strike zone disciplines that I’ve ever coached.”
That winter, before Gavin batted .369 in 16 games as a freshman, he returned home. One night, he and his father drove to the cages to hit. While Gavin was hitting, another man asked, “Hey, what have you been working on at Virginia Tech?” Gavin, who had been loosening up with some swings on a tee, stopped hitting and proceeded to talk for 30 minutes about his mechanical changes.
Adam, listening from afar, sat down on an empty ball bucket, blown away. He thought back to the conversation with the young players. About how they would be their own best hitting coach. Adam was observing this in action … with his son.
“In my mind, it was like, ‘He doesn’t need me anymore,’” Adam recalled. “It was a really proud moment. And it was sort of a tough moment, too.”
Tough because this was the type of moment any parent is familiar with; one that indicates the times are a-changing.
Proud because any parent hopes their child takes their advice to heart.
The first time Danny Ontiveros met Cross was after practice this past fall. Virginia Tech coach John Szefc walked Cross over. He sat down. And he and Ontiveros chatted for 20 minutes about family and baseball and school.
“The one thing that stood out was how organic the conversation was,” Ontiveros said.
That night, Ontiveros had to drive from Blacksburg, Va., to Raleigh, N.C. The car ride went swiftly.
“It felt like it went by in 10 minutes,” Ontiveros said. “My mind was running. Is he going to get to pick No. 9?”
By that point, the Royals had scouted his rangy outfield talent and bat-to-ball skills for a couple of years. Keith Connolly, the Royals’ East Coast cross-checker, had written a glowing report at the ACC Tournament during Cross’ sophomore season. Two more Royals scouts, Howard McCullough and Todd Guggiana, confirmed what Connolly had seen while evaluating Cross’ dominant performance with Team USA, which included multiple homers.
Cross’ tear at the plate continued when the collegiate season began. In 280 plate appearances, he batted .328 with a .411 on-base percentage. He also hit 17 home runs. More impressive, at least in Elbin’s eyes, were the ways Gavin responded to slumps and approached his at-bats on a pitch-by-pitch level.
Rather than heading to the cage to take a thousand swings during a slump, he’d spend 20 minutes in front of a mirror, working on a specific body movement. Facing a certain pitcher, Cross could almost predict how he would be approached. “For us, and our group, he kinda moved the needle,” Elbin said. “You know what I mean? The things we were trying to do as a program.” This, of course, was the hope when he was told to call a man in East Tennessee so many years ago.
Ontiveros’ hope — that Gavin would fall to No. 9 — came true on the first night of the draft. Which led to his introductory presser, and to a question about his calm demeanor. Gavin recalled a moment as a youth when he struck out, then showed up the umpire by tracing the path of wayward pitches by drawing lines in the dirt with his bat. The outburst, he said, earned him a benching for the entire weekend.
“I think lessons back then helped,” Gavin said.
Adam, speaking days later, recalled another line he offered to the youth team: “If we can learn not to go up and down, and to stay the course, we’re going to be more consistent.”
The advice stuck throughout Gavin’s high school and college years. And although professional baseball is an entirely different beast, emotional maturity remains an essential piece to reaching the goal he’s had since he watched Jason Heyward. The goal of wearing a big-league uniform. Of stepping into the batter’s box in a big-league ballpark. Of making an impact in a big-league game with a crowd going nuts.