Chicago Cops Raise Amazing Baseball Player

by • Featured

By LOU PAVLOVICH, JR.
Editor/Collegiate Baseball

CHICAGO — When you have one parent who is an undercover cop and another who is a sergeant in the Chicago Police Department, you learn early in life how to go about life the right way.

Marty Bechina, a tough as nails third baseman at Michigan State University who was hitting .387 with 4 homers, 3 doubles and 13 RBI, has been hit by pitches 8 times in 17 games which is tied for seventh nationally in NCAA Division I.

Being raised by two police officers is rare in college baseball. But he is the luckiest man in the world to have such caring, loving parents who also know how to sprinkle in discipline.

Make no mistake about it. His parents have dangerous jobs.

Chicago had the deadliest year in nearly two decades in 2016, according to data released by the Chicago Police Department.

The city saw a surge in gun violence in 2016: 762 murders, 3,550 shooting incidents, and 4,331 shooting victims.

A year earlier, there were 480 murders in 2015, the most in the city since 1997.

Attacks on police officers nearly doubled in 2016.

“The neighborhood where I grew up is filled with police officers and firemen,” said Bechina.

“My mom’s whole family have been cops. I really have never thought anything of it because being around police officers is something that is natural to me.

“My mom (Lori) is an undercover cop, and my dad (Steve) is a sergeant. They don’t share a lot of stories with me about their jobs.

“But I do know that New Year’s Eve is a crazy time in Chicago. They always have to be on high alert. Once it hits midnight, there is a lot of nonsense going on.

“There are a number of people who shoot guns in the air. And those bullets eventually come back to earth and have the potential to hurt someone.

“They try to keep most of the stories away from me because they don’t want to worry me. My mom has always got some crazy stuff going on being an undercover officer. And so does my dad. I am extremely proud of both of them. I know they have gone through a lot over the years.”

To read more of this story or subscribe to Collegiate Baseball, CLICK HERE. The rest of the story explains what his mother does as an undercover officer and dad with the Chicago Police Department.  Their true life stories involve everything from gangs, drug sales, sexual assaults and people diving to their deaths in the subway, plus much more.