Jason Grilli spent most of his career on the move, making stops with 12 different organizations during his 20 years of professional baseball.
So when he found himself out of the majors at 41 years old, he wanted to settle down in a place where he felt at home. That place was Pittsburgh.
Grilli, who pitched more games for the Pirates than any other club, bought his house in Pine Township in 2014, the last of his four years with the team. While playing for the Atlanta Braves in 2015, Grilli said, the city was “becoming a home for him” and that he was “slowly adapting to becoming a full-time Yinzer.”
Three years later, he seems pretty well adapted.
Today, Grilli spends his time giving back to a community that welcomed him with open arms when he joined the Pirates in 2011. He’s spent time maintaining some of the area’s baseball fields and has begun building it a few new ones — just like he thinks any Yinzer would.
“There’s a lot of good things here,” Grilli said. “Pittsburgh’s an underrated city, and I think everybody that lives in Pittsburgh wants to try to keep it that way, and people keep finding out about it. Lot of good things going on, lot of great people. I’m just trying to blend in and mix in with them.”
While his feelings about Pittsburgh haven’t changed all that much, the way he spends his time certainly has. Gone are the long days at PNC Park and the 162-plus-game seasons. Now, nearly a season removed from his last major league pitch, the former closer has “hit that pause button” to relax and spend time with his family.
“I’m breathing. That’s one thing, you know. Breathing’s good,” Grilli said. “Twenty years of professional baseball — I’ve surrendered my entire adulthood to play a game that I love and respect, and I think that’s a good amount of time. … It’s refreshing to be in a position to just kind of sit back at my age, take a breather, [and] smell the roses a little bit.”
Grilli’s “breather” — he pitched for the Texas Rangers in 2017 and isn’t quite ready to retire — hasn’t meant a break from everything. He’s picked up guitar, read a few novels, watched some movies, enjoyed a performance by the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra, and sat in the stands watching his oldest son, 10-year-old Jayse, play baseball.
In fact, those summer league games in Pine-Richland led Grilli to his most recent endeavor. At a fundraiser for Jayse’s team, he asked the coaches if he could have the keys to its equipment shed so he could work on the fields. Grilli said he wanted to set an example for kids by showing them the value of hard work — and the importance of maintaining their fields. He “gets a lot of requests” to speak to local youth-league players and preaches the same values, telling them to avoid saying “can’t” like it’s a curse word.
Grilli even got some help from members of the PNC Park grounds crew, as they assisted him in rebuilding pitching mounds. It reminded Grilli of when he built his own bump in his backyard to practice as a kid; he thought it was “just kind of in [him] to do some of that.”
Even then, Grilli was looking for a chance to make a greater impact.
Fortunately for Grilli, he found that opportunity when he acquainted himself with Charlie Vrabel — or, more accurately, reacquainted himself with Charlie Vrabel.
Vrabel, who owns a plumbing business, founded No Offseason Sports to help athletes like his son pursue their passion for athletics year-round. He had met Grilli twice before — once by chance in 2012 at Orlando International Airport and again in 2016 at PNC Park, when Grilli was with the Braves — when Grilli reached out about working with No Offseason’s AAU team in June. After that third connection, just as Vrabel was looking to take his organization to the next level, he knew it was meant to be.
“I was driving, and I said [to Grilli], ‘Do you remember me?’” Vrabel recalled. He’d mentioned No Offseason to Grilli during their airport meeting six years earlier.
“[Grilli] put those little things together and he goes, ‘Wow, this was really meant to be, wasn’t it?’ I said ‘Bud, we’re just getting started here.’”
No Offseason currently has three indoor facilities — two in Mars and one in West Deer — that host tournaments and training sessions for primarily baseball, cheer and dance teams. It’s planning a fourth in Russellton, featuring eight outdoor turf baseball fields with inflatable bubbles that act as “retractable domes.”
Grilli has played a big role in the project, and he said he has enjoyed it; he’s been able to take a hands-on approach to construction, operating excavators and other heavy machinery over the past few weeks. But more than anything, Vrabel said, Grilli’s presence and enthusiasm can be a “game-changer” for both No Offseason and the area’s youth baseball scene.
“It’s incredible [to see] just his natural talent and determination to want to be great at something,” Vrabel said of Grilli’s impact on No Offseason. “That’s just how he represents himself. It’s incredible. He’s a natural, and he does it because he’s enjoying himself right now.”
For Grilli, it’s all part of repaying the place and the sport that have given him so much. Plus, he doesn’t think it’s a bad way to relax during his “breather.”
“It’s just giving back to the community that’s supported me and just continuing to grow baseball,” Grilli said. “To be able to just hit that pause button and just pay attention to [my family] and do other things and see what life after baseball brings, it’s pretty special, man.”
Ben Padanilam: bpadanilam@post-gazette.com, twitter: @BenPadanilam
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First Published: August 13, 2018, 12:30 p.m.