'We didn't think twice about it': How Rangers' Jonathan Lucroy helped a former college coach during Louisiana floods
By Evan Grant , Staff Writer Contact Evan Grant on Twitter: @Evan_P_Grant CINCINNATI -- Typical of any player new in town, Jonathan Lucroy spent his first few days with the Rangers working on housing arrangements.
Typical of Lucroy, it had nothing to do with him.
Instead, Lucroy capped off a crazy 10-day stretch by pushing back from a video scouting session in Arlington to pick up the phone, call his wife, Sarah, and together they quickly decided to offer up their home in Lafayette, La., to a former college baseball coach who had been displaced by historic flooding.
"This is not just a place for him to spend his offseasons," University of Louisiana assistant coach Anthony Babineaux said Wednesday having just left the Lucroy home for his office. "He comes to games. He is involved with the school. He is involved with the community. That's just who he is."
Lucroy, who grew up in Florida, ended up at ULL in 2005 after a late scholarship offer, one of the few he got from a Division I school. He met Sarah there, had a daughter and never left.
On Aug. 11, two days after Lucroy landed in Texas, the clouds rolled in across south Louisiana, and it started to rain. It rained real hard, and it rained for a real long time.
By the next morning, water was starting to enter homes in Lafayette. Several thousand families were eventually displaced, including that of Babineaux, a south Louisiana native who is used to flooding, but said he'd never seen anything in his hometown like what took place.
By early morning on Aug. 12, the water was above the baseboards in his home. It eventually rose to two feet. The family picked up what it could, packed up what it had and went to a friend's home. By that afternoon, though, water was approaching that home.
Babineaux's wife, a former ULL softball player, had received an offer from her old coach, who lives in Baton Rouge, to stay at her Lafayette home. Just as the Babineaux family, including two daughters ages 9 and 12, was about to head for that house, they received a call from the old softball coach. Water was about to flood her home in Baton Rouge and she'd need to -- she was embarrassed to say -- rescind the offer.
Just as they hung up, Lucroy called. A former teammate made him aware of what was going on with Babineaux family. Lucroy, in the process of preparing for a game against Detroit, processed things, went back to watch some more video, but found it impossible to concentrate.
"It was bothering me," Lucroy said. "They've been really good to me. I called my wife. We didn't think twice about it.
"The place and the people mean a lot to me," he added. "They are hard-working, blue-collar people. I'm from a blue-collar family. There is nothing but swamp all around them and they made a place to live out of it. I believe in the people."
The Lucroys have also gotten involved with the relief effort through their church, though Sarah has handled much of that.
The water has since receded from the Babineaux home, but the dry wall has been removed and the house is basically down to studs. Making it livable again will probably take until November -- Thanksgiving is the hope.
For the time being, they will stay at the Lucroy home. The Lucroys won't need it before October, and they hope, not until November.
And when he gets home, typical of Jonathan Lucroy, he's as likely to check on the Babineaux house before he checks on his own.
Former Louisiana Ragin’ Cajun, and current Texas Rangers catcher Jonathan Lucroy is projected to have another solid Major League Baseball season in 2017.
Originally Posted by cajunhawk
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