'Your name is all you have': How mom shaped D-backs' top prospect on and off the field

This is the story of the woman behind baseball's No. 4 prospect.

Because the story of Jordan Lawlar can’t be told without understanding he is the son of Hope Lawlar, a single mother who raised him to make as much of an impact off the field as on it.

In the Lawlar household, mom and son didn’t just have a catch, they had full-on batting practice sessions. Hope fed the pitching machines near their home in Carrollton, Texas, and if that didn’t work out as they wanted, she just tossed baseballs herself so the precocious youngster could hone his self-made swing.

“I have encountered the high of the highs and the low of the lows and we fought through it,” Hope said. “When those moments come and he walks through the door and he goes, ‘Mom, we did it, we made it,’ it’s always a ‘we.’ Even though he’s playing the sport or he’s got the test, it’s always, ‘Mom, we did it.’”

Hope ensured young Jordan could play nearly every sport. The Lawlar home had a basketball net, a tee, a soccer goal -- all with Mom’s goal of her son carving his own path in mind.

“Very competitive,” said Hope of Jordan in his formative years. “Always wanted to win, even at that age. You told him to go there or do that, he wanted to be the best at that, but he did it with a lot of fun and not at the expense of others. He enjoyed people.

“I told him, ‘If we’re going to go play a sport, we are going to play it with intent and purpose. We’re going to go out there and do our best and we’re going to have a good attitude whether we won or we lost.’”

Ask nearly anyone associated with Lawlar and his journey in baseball and the first sentiment is almost unanimous, a version of: “He’s a great ballplayer, yes, but he’s an even better person.”

“I always tell people: The best thing that happened is that I had my child because he made me a better person,” said Hope. “He truly loves people and wants the best for people and wants them to succeed, because he’ll succeed. He challenges me to keep my thoughts, my attitudes always in check.

“I used to tell him: ‘Your name is all you have. So make sure that when someone says Lawlar, that what they say after that is what you want to be remembered for.’”

“Coach, what can I do to get better?”

So it wasn’t very surprising to Mom when the preternaturally gifted Lawlar’s reputation preceded him upon entering the high school ranks. Students matriculate at Jesuit College Preparatory School of Dallas on the basis of their academics, something that never fazed Jordan. Hope's son had set the goal of not just attending the school, but thriving upon arrival.

“His whole thing was, ‘I want to go where I’m academically challenged and athletically challenged. I’m going to go show them that I’m just as academically at the top as I am [at baseball],” she said. “His mindset has always been, ‘I want to go and be with the best. Because if I compete with the best, it’s only going to make me better.’”

With an alumni list that includes big leaguers Josh Bell and Kyle Muller, having a talented youngster wasn’t new to Jesuit head coach Brian Jones. But hearing from college scouts during the fall of freshman year before Lawlar had so much as put on his cleats? That was unprecedented.

“I remember like it was yesterday,” said Jones, turning back the clock to a conversation he had with a coach. “After answering a question, I was like, ‘We’re talking about a freshman!’ This was the first time I had ever had anybody at that age, that soon, that I was that far along in conversations about. [I said,] ‘We’re talking about a freshman that I have yet to see on the baseball field.’

“The guy says, ‘Coach, I get it, I understand. But when you do see him on the field, you will know why I’m calling.’”

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On July 31, 2021, Hope stood on the warning-track dirt at Chase Field and looked around, taking it all in.

A storied prep career on the diamond led Lawlar to bypassing another prestigious academic institution (Vanderbilt University) to get his pro journey underway. After his selection as the sixth overall pick in the 2021 Draft, the D-backs brought Jordan -- and Hope -- to Phoenix for an official introduction.

“It’s amazing," Hope said then. "It’s a dream come true. He’s worked really hard. He was 6 years old when he said he wanted to play in MLB, and here we are today. It’s been a lot of hard work and a lot of dedication and a lot of times behind the scenes when the lights and the cameras aren’t on. It’s just to God be the glory, a dream come true. I couldn’t be prouder.”

But from that moment, Lawlar’s arc through the club’s system has been anything but a one-way upward trajectory.

After playing in just two games for the club’s Rookie-level Arizona Complex League squad, a posterior labrum tear in his left shoulder ended his year early. For nearly eight months, Lawlar was left to rehab -- and stew -- in anticipation of a return to action in April 2022.

His first full-season affiliate at-bat in the D-backs’ organization, the culmination of countless hours of putting in work alongside Hope to achieve his dream, and then the subsequent rehab that threw it all into a haze, saw Lawlar work the count full. When he swung at the 3-2 offering, it materialized into his first Single-A Visalia hit and homer all in one, a laser shot to left-center.

That unflappability was on display again in August 2023 when he was called up to Triple-A Reno for the first time. Savoring the moment alongside his mom, Lawlar went from elation to scramble mode in the span of a few hours. Canceled flight, lost bags, new gear. When he strode to the dish in his Aces debut, he was wearing freshly purchased cleats from a sporting goods store and using a teammate's bat.

Still, his first hit at Triple-A -- in his first game, yet again -- was a resounding thump, this one colliding with a scoreboard that bore his image beyond the fence in left-center field.

“I feel like he’s one of those guys where baseball is the easy part,” said former Visalia Rawhide broadcaster Jill Gearin, who watched Lawlar up close for two months in 2022. “Just being able to see the way he holds himself, you can tell that he was raised very well.”

Top-tier prospects -- particularly ones away from home for the first time -- can often be timid or reticent with all that comes along with being a professional ballplayer. That was never Lawlar.

“For me, it’s more what he does off the field [that makes him a superstar],” Gearin said. “He cares. Like he genuinely cares, but in a smart way. I [coached] softball in the area and I had a few of my girls with me and Jordan comes out for his pregame routine and I tell him, ‘I know you have to get ready for the game, but the girls really would love to get a photo with you.’ He immediately puts down his stuff [and takes a picture].

“He just gets it. He gets that, even though he’s only a [22]-year-old guy who wants to play baseball, him going and meeting these people and spending time with them -- whether it’s young athletes or even going to hospitals and talking to kids who are sick -- he gets what that means. That really is a testament to who his mom is and how she raised him.”

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Lawlar is quick to unabashedly point out that his mother is his biggest inspiration. Weeks before his MLB debut, the bright lights of the big leagues just over a dozen sleeps away, the D-backs’ top-ranked prospect was focused on what it would mean to give his mother that call that they were going to The Show.

Naturally, the ball from his first D-backs hit in September 2023? That was a gift to Hope.

“There is no greater joy than seeing your child do what they’re called to do,” Hope said. “But the fact that he’s never been embarrassed with me giving him a hug in front of his high school friends or a kiss, the bond is there. The fact that we can experience it together -- the good, the bad, the ugly, the highs -- it’s incredible. We’re really super, super close, but yet, I’ve learned as a mom.”

Before there were diamonds with bases 90 feet apart or stadiums full of fans, there was mother and son. Baseball was part of that bond -- but it was never everything. There was life beyond the adulation, the success and failures that are part of a ballplayer’s life. Hope always made sure Jordan remembered a simple mantra:

“Go make a difference today, leave a footprint. Make it better than when you went there. Be friends to all and be mindful.”