SMITHVILLE, Mo. _ The car was quiet on the drive home from the game.
Whether that afternoon nearly two decades ago had seen the Sluggers win or lose isn't remembered and, for the purpose of understanding just what that drive says about Jayce Tingler, knowing the result isn't imperative.
What matters is the Sluggers _ arguably Missouri's premier youth baseball team for many years in the 1990s _ had been in a skirmish with the team they were playing that day and what a Tingler does in such a situation.
No one threw any punches. But the players, in their early teens, had converged on the field and at least one of the teams was ready to go.
As they drove away from the pristine ballpark that was the Sluggers' home, Jayce sensed his mom was upset even before he saw the tears in her eyes.
After a short while, Diana Tingler pulled over.
A woman known as much for her humility as for her quiet intensity and a glare that made young athletes quiver, Diana looked at her son and said, "The next time that happens, if you're not the first person out of the dugout ... "
The anecdote would speak for itself. But it doesn't have to.
And neither is there any reason to simply rely on anyone's word that Tingler heeded the advice/warning from his mother.
The evidence is on video.
On May 15, 2016, the Texas Rangers and Toronto Blue Jays engaged in one of the more severe baseball brawls in recent memory after Rangers second baseman Rougned Odor punched the Blue Jays' Jose Bautista following Bautista's hard slide into second base.
A YouTube video of the telecast shows a coach was the first person charging out of the Rangers dugout.
That coach was Jayce Tingler, who actually stumbled as he left the top step, immediately caught himself and sprinted until he was about 20 feet past first base. At that point, he fell out of the camera's view because he slowed, having pulled his hamstring. But he was quickly back in the shot, hobbling into the fracas that had materialized on the grass in right field even as he held the back of his right leg.
Of all the effusive praise lavished by those who know Tingler, the most frequent words allude to his humility.
A Tingler doesn't use his words very often. Actions with a purpose are what speak.
And a lesson instilled deep in his soul long ago is that a man stands up for those on his side.
"If someone says something negative about one of his players," said Rusty Meyer, a travel ball teammate of Jayce's and still one of his closest friends, "he'll want to come out of his shoes."
