Today’s game:
Who: Dayton (5-8) at Great Lakes (8-4)
When: 6:05 p.m.
Radio: WONE-AM (980)
Online: DaytonDaily News.com/dragons
DAYTON — When they drive to Fifth Third Field from their host family’s house in Eaton, Kurt Muller is usually behind the wheel. It’s his car, after all.
“He doesn’t like the music,” Muller said. “He’s not into the country stuff I listen to.”
No, Donald Lutz, who grew up in Germany and has lived in the U.S. only the past few summers after leaving as a baby, prefers hip-hop.
He’d also like it if Muller could drive a little faster.
“I’m not a big fan of the speed limits here,” Lutz said.
So Muller clings to the keys lest Lutz mistake State Route 35 for the German autobahn, where no official limit exists but 81 miles per hour is recommended.
While he might be having some slight difficulty adjusting off the field early in his Dayton Dragons tenure, Lutz has not let it affect his performance. He hit a home run in both ends of Sunday’s doubleheader in Lansing, Mich., and led the team with three in 12 games going into Wednesday’s series finale against Bowling Green.
Accompanying the power was a .357 batting average and a .400 on-base percentage as he splits time between first base and designated hitter with Dominic D’Anna, another hot hitter.
“I wasn’t expecting to struggle,” said Lutz, 20, who has been batting cleanup.
“But I’m definitely surprised. Right now, I’m just seeing it well and putting good swings on the ball.
“I’m just hoping to stay consistent. If you do that, you can end up wherever you want.”
Lutz’s numbers are no shock to manager Delino DeShields, who managed him last season at rookie-level Billings when he hit .286 with seven homers and 28 RBIs in 203 at-bats.
“Donald has as much power potential as anyone in the organization,” DeShields said, comfortable with the boldness of that statement. “He’s still learning, but he’s learning fast.”
Scouts find players in all corners of the world, and the 6-foot-3, 234-pound Lutz is a classic example. German kids don’t play high school baseball. They play on teams that represent cities, and they play only two or three times a week.
“You don’t get paid or anything,” Lutz said. “Just, after school, you go play a little ball.”
He says he was “1 or 2” when his parents split up and his mom, a German national, decided to raise him in her native land. Lutz, whose dad lives in Virginia Beach, Va., grew up in Regensburg, about an hour outside Munich, but he was discovered in Italy, where Major League Baseball annually invites 60 top European players to what amounts to a three-week August tryout camp.
After signing with the Reds as an international free agent in 2007, professional success did not come overnight for Lutz. He hit .250 with one homer in 34 games with the Gulf Coast League Reds in 2008, then was batting .169 there the next year when he suffered a broken wrist in July and missed the rest of the season.
“That might have been a good thing,” DeShields suggested. “Sometimes it’s good to sit and watch.”
Only last season did the Reds truly have reason to start taking Lutz seriously.
But teammates always have gravitated to him — “just ’cause he’s German,” Muller said, smiling. “And he’s Donald.”
Lutz, who holds dual citizenship, speaks with a slight accent, but nothing that would betray his heritage. His grammar and syntax are works in progress, not to mention a constant source of humor in the clubhouse.
“I say wrong things and they make a lot of jokes,” Lutz said, laughing with Muller after Tuesday’s win over the Hot Rods. “I just mix up some grammar sometimes.”
An example? “I guess I say ‘so don’t I’ a lot.”
Lutz takes his ribbing in the playful spirit intended, which endears him to the needlers.
“To me, he’s the one guy on this team who kind of brings everything together for us in the clubhouse,” DeShields said. “He’s the glue. All the guys love him. White kids, black kids. He’s funny, and he doesn’t take himself too seriously. He’s just a beautiful kid.”
Contact this reporter at (937) 225-2408 or smcclelland@DaytonDailyNews.com.
About the Author