Joshua Palacios first played baseball in Red Hook with his dad when he was three years old. He has recently been able to make his dream come true by being a high selection in this year’s MLB Draft.
He came back to Brooklyn for the draft after his college season ended at Auburn. He yearned for the unique feeling of being home and being around people he was close to growing up. To Joshua, New York is home and forever will be.
Before the draft, he thought that it was great to be around people with similar accents since some people didn’t understand his accent down South. He enjoyed working out at the Red Hook fields when he was back in Brooklyn because it brought back memories from the many days he spent practicing on those fields as a kid.
“It was kind of nostalgic and reminded me of old times when I was playing with the SAYO Grays back in summer ball in high school,” Joshua said. “When I was with the SAYO Grays, our home field was Red Hook. I played there pretty much four or five times a week. That will forever be my home when it comes to baseball.”
Joshua likes to say that the draft is its own monster because there are so many variables.
“It was kind of a roller coaster,” Joshua said. “I was with my uncle and a longtime friend, my Dad’s friend Mark, and my cousin. They were there for it all. We hooked the computer up to the TV so we could watch the draft.”
Joshua became nervous when a few teams passed him by, but his uncertainty turned to joy when the Blue Jays selected him in the fourth round.
“I was kind of relieved more than anything that I finally had a team that chose me,” he said. “A weight was taken off my shoulders because it was so unpredictable.”
Joshua has baseball in his blood; two of his family members have played professional baseball as well. His uncle, Rey Palacios, who also grew up in Red Hook, was signed by the Detroit Tigers in 1982 and played three seasons for the Kansas City Royals from 1988-1990.
According to Josh’s father, Richard Palacios, Rey played on the same Royals team with stars, Bo Jackson and George Brett. “He was a catcher, and the guys that he caught at the time were a lot of famous guys like Tom Gordon, Mark Davis and Brett Saberhagen,” Richard said.
Rey wasn’t living in Brooklyn when Joshua was growing up, but came to visit and impart his knowledge.
“He would spend time with Josh and would help with the development stages and the mental part of the game,” Richard said. “With his experience in the major leagues he was able to translate that to Josh and give him information so that he would be better prepared to be successful as he pursued his career.”
Richard himself was able to get to the Triple-A level (highest minor league) with the Detroit Tigers when he played in Gastonia, South Carolina.
“[Richard and Rey] are the ones who pretty much taught me most of what I know today,” Joshua said. ““Especially my father, he taught everything he knew to me.” He added that they gave him the opportunity of getting college interest and making playing possible.
“My advice to him was really just to stay focused, to work hard, to be respectful and to respect the umpires,” Richard said.
Joshua’s younger brother, Richie, is also a successful baseball player as an All American during his freshman season at Division One at Towson University.
Joshua has achieved a lot as a baseball player since spending his summers in Red Hook. In 2013, the New York Daily News named him NYC’s Player of the Year. He led his team to the Public School Athletic League (PSAL) Class A city championship, which helped him get that accolade.
Joshua went to San Jacinto Junior College in Pasadena, Texas after finishing high school, and he dominated at that level as well. As a freshman, he had an impressive .376 average with 26 runs batted in (RBI). As a sophomore, he had a .364 average with 36 RBIs.
Brooklyn and Pasadena, Texas are two completely different places but he enjoyed the process of getting used to a new region of the country. Joshua, who had only been to Texas once for a tournament in high school, thought differences were fun. He liked learning about a new culture, music and dance.
“I am a true New Yorker and I miss Brooklyn a lot, but I enjoy the new experiences and meeting people that I would not have been able to meet if I did not play baseball and get out and explore,” Joshua said.
“It was actually a fun transition because my whole life, I had visited down south but had never lived there,” Joshua said. “When I flew into Texas, and flew into a smaller town, I saw people with cowboy hats and cowboy boots. Everybody had crazy accents. I said, ‘What the heck is going on?’ I was kind of confused in the first week that I was in Texas. I saw people riding around on horses in the streets. It was kind of a shock for me.”
Darryl Tiebout is key figure in Josh’s baseball career and development. He was instrumental in him getting college interest. Not only did Tiebout coach Richard and Rey as kids in Red Hook, but he also coached Josh and his brother on some of the same fields.
“Tiebout was in contact with a lot of college recruiters, so he would invite them out and showcase the kids,” Richard said. “He helped them with the recruiting process. Once Josh sent his information and his videos out, a lot of schools were showing interest.”
Scouts told Tiebout that if Joshua wanted to be considered a serious baseball player, he should go down south. The “talented and “serious” players were playing there, according to Richard.
After his two successful years at San Jacinto Junior College, he had multiple offers from schools across the country. He chose Auburn University in the prestigious Southeastern Conference (SEC).
“As far as baseball is concerned, their facilities are amazing,” Richard said. I think that him being in an environment where other kids were very serious about the game really helped him to propel him to really polish and develop his game. Having people who are knowledgeable about the game or have professional experience, which Auburn had, was very helpful for him in developing his baseball skills.”
Regarding the educational part at Auburn, Richard thought that the SEC school was a great choice for his son because they were proactive in helping him with his schoolwork. They made sure that his classwork got done. Joshua’s major at Auburn was public administration.
“Playing in that conference was a blessing for me because coming from New York the fields are not the best fields; you make do. Some fields we don’t even have fences,” Joshua said. “From there, to be playing in the SEC, where it is pretty much major league stadiums, we usually have over 5,000 fans a game; we have PR guys and pre-game videos. Everything we do is broadcasted over the Internet or on TV. It was amazing.”
Joshua led the SEC in hitting for about three weeks before hurting his wrist. His parents were proud because their kid from Brooklyn was top dog. Joshua’s mother, Lianne said many people were surprised that someone from the northeast could lead the league.
Off the baseball field, he was a fan favorite and was able to take pictures with fans and sign autographs. “I think that really helped him to prepare for playing professional baseball,” Richard said.
Joshua agrees. “Everything you say and do [in the SEC] is really being watched by a lot of fans, which I realized. Education was one of the main things that I admired most at Auburn. And then, I learned a lot from the Auburn University coaching staff.”
After drafting him, the Blue Jays flew Joshua down to their facility in Florida so that he could do his rehab under their guidance. He is now fully recovered and playing on an affiliate team in Vancouver.
“We get to the complex and they feed us breakfast there and they have a spread for us at about 6:45,” Joshua said. “Everybody that needs rehab goes into the training room and we do workouts on whatever is bothering us. By about 8:30, we all meet on the field, warm up, have a full day of practice and then come back.”
After their second rehab in the training room, they shower and get the shuttle back to the hotel. On game days, they finish at the complex in late afternoon.
Richard fondly remembers teaching his son baseball in Red Hook.
When Richard first started to teach Joshua the game of baseball he played catch with him and showed him the basic skills.
“I would go down there when the Red Hook fields were available and we would take batting practice, we took ground balls, worked on fielding, worked on accurate throwing,” Richard said.
“Having Red Hook was great; it was very beneficial to us because we had a place where we could actually practice the game of baseball.”
After Joshua learned how to play baseball from his dad, he was on to playing little league in Red Hook. He enjoyed the passion and enthusiasm for the game that the kids had in the league.
“It is not big fanfare, there are not a lot of fans on those fields, but everybody loves the game, has passion for the game and plays hard,” Joshua said. “The passion that the coaches had to helping the kids and making them better, not just playing on the field, but players off the field, really added to it.”
Joshua was so dedicated that they would go to the fields in Red Hook year-round to work on everything. Even in the winter, if it wasn’t too cold they still threw and hit the ball. They also worked on running since running is a big part of baseball.
“I remember telling him to keep focused and stay disciplined because with discipline and focus, you are able to accomplish a lot of things in life because the distractions tend to be many,” Richard said.
Richard felt that with Joshua’s fair play and also his development he would eventually really polish his skills to the point where he would be able to take baseball to the point where few kids get to go.
