This story was excerpted from Mark Bowman’s Braves Beat newsletter. To read the full newsletter, click here. And subscribe to get it regularly in your inbox.
ATLANTA -- Remember when Austin Riley faceplanted while scoring a key run in the eighth inning of a 7-6 win over the Cardinals on April 21? His mother Elisa happened to be visiting from Mississippi that night. She made sure to stay awake until her son got home.
To make sure he was OK?
“She specifically stayed awake so that she could make fun of me,” Riley said. “She said she stayed in bed a little longer the next morning just to watch the video. Every once in a while, she’s still like, ‘So, how’s the nose?’ I’m like, ‘Mom, leave it alone.’”
As Riley prepares to celebrate Mother’s Day while the Braves conclude a series in Pittsburgh on Sunday, he’ll fondly remember the countless sacrifices his parents made to enable him to be a Major Leaguer.
“We talk pretty much every day,” Riley said. “She's the best. It's tough love, but it's good love. She gave up a lot to get me to all my games, wash my jerseys, you know, the whole nine yards. So we have a really good relationship.”
Asked for a favorite childhood memory involving his mother, Riley smiled and said, “She’s the one that sent me to the fat farm.”
Huh? How?
“My mom had a friend who had these vouchers for Cracker Barrel,” Riley said. “So, when we were traveling for baseball, it was like we hit up every Cracker Barrel in the United States. It was Grandma’s Pancake Breakfast. Everybody knows about it, and I would just crush it and I got pretty large.”
Riley was a hard-throwing high school pitcher and third baseman who attracted the attention of many scouts, including one at the Area Code Games, who bluntly told the aspiring athlete he needed to lose weight.
The message was heard loud and clear by Riley, who said he was approximately 260 pounds during his junior year at DeSoto Central High School in Southaven, Miss. How did he lose the weight that led the Braves to take him with the 41st overall selection the following year (2015)?
“I stopped eating at Cracker Barrel,” Riley said.
The sacrifices Riley’s parents made were rewarded when he made his MLB debut about six weeks into the 2019 season. The family celebrated the Braves' World Series title together in 2021 and Elisa now has the pleasure of being a grandmother.
Austin and his wife, Anna, have two sons, Eason Michael, who was born in 2022, and William Beau, who was born last year.
“If one of her kids needed her, we all know she would drop everything in place and be there,” Riley said. “She definitely means a lot to us.”