SURPRISE, Ariz. _ Texas Rangers top pitching prospect Taylor Hearn has known for a while that Arizona Diamondbacks pitcher Madison Bumgarner has been competitively calf roping for years under a pseudonym, because Hearn is a roper himself.
"Yeah, he blew my cover," Hearn said Monday morning.
News broke from The Athletic on Sunday night that Bumgarner has been roping for years under the name "Mason Saunders." The story is a big deal because it involves one of the better pitchers in baseball, and such activity could be (probably?) a violation of his contract with the Diamondbacks.
Hearn is kidding that Mad Bum "blew his cover," although Hearn is serious about his ambition to rope again.
Since Hearn hasn't quite reached Madbum's status as an elite pitcher with millions in the bank, he won't be taking chances trying to moonlight as a competitive roper while he tries to become a regular big league player.
"I'm not doing it any more. I haven't done it in a while," Hearn said. "When I'm done playing, absolutely I will go back to doing it. I loved it."
Hearn, 25, is considered one of the Rangers' top pitching prospects, but his lineage is far deeper in the dirt of a rodeo arena than on a diamond.
Hearn's grandfather, Cleo Hearn, has a star on the Texas Trail of Fame in the Fort Worth Stockyards. He roped in the 1971 Fort Worth Rodeo.
Cleo Hearn was the first African American to attend college on a rodeo scholarship at Oklahoma State.
Cleo was the first African American to win a major calf roping event at the 1970 Denver National Rodeo. One year later, he started to produce the Texas Black Rodeo, and was one of three men to form the American Black Rodeo Association.
Taylor Hearn was born in 1994, and his life always included horses and live stock in Royse City, which is 30 miles northeast of Dallas. When he was 5, he started to calf rope and just took to it.
"We'd go to tournaments and competitions. It's a lot of stuff I don't even remember because we just went to so many," Hearn said. "We did Texas, Louisiana, Oklahoma, Frontier Days in Cheyenne."
Hearn never had any interest in riding a buck, or a bull. He never did team calf roping.
"I never had any interest in losing a thumb," he said. Although he has suffered his share of injuries related to riding and competing.
"Fell off a horse plenty of times. Broke my arm once," he said. "Got kicked plenty of times in my legs and my ribs. A calf is trying to get away and is jumping, and he'll kick."
Sounds great.
"It looks hard but ... once you do it it's not," he said. "Really, it's like riding a bike."
With the slight difference that the cyclist doesn't peddle at full speed, jump off their bike, run up to a smaller cyclist, and rope their limbs together. That could, however, make cycling a more appealing spectator sport.
Hearn noticed that when it came to rodeo events he stood out. One, he's tall. He's listed as 6-foot-6. Two, he's African American. There are not that many African American participants in the rodeo related events.
"Honestly, it's just like baseball. There are just not that many (African American) guys who rope and we all know each other," he said.
Roping is one of those things that is just in Hearn's blood. He is open with his passion for it with Rangers general manager Jon Daniels, and anyone who asks.
Hearn gave up competing and roping when he was in college, around 2015, to focus on baseball. With his chance to make big league money, he will not pull a MadBum. He won't rope until baseball is done. Or almost done.
Hearn said he may ride or a horse or two, and spend some time around livestock, but nothing more than that.
"Do I miss it?" Hearn said. "Yeah. I do. It's fast paced. It's fun."
So much fun that an MLB All-Star pitcher has been doing it for years under a fake name.
