“As soon as Neftali was able to sit, I was rolling him a baseball. Then I started bouncing it and he started catching it, then I started tossing it and this is all before he could walk,” Reyes Sr. said. “He started to throw once he was walking, and swinging the bat, and I got him in the baseball league at Humboldt Park initially — and he just took off from there.”
His son started doing so well, Reyes Sr. put him on travel teams.
“Everything was baseball, baseball, baseball … baseball was life for him,” he said. “Kloey would be with the family watching the games.”
Reyes Jr. would follow his love for the game to Claflin University in South Carolina on a full-ride baseball scholarship. On a visit home in December 2017, his car was rammed while he was driving in West Town. People in the ramming vehicle then fired shots, hitting Reyes Jr. He died following the incident.
“I couldn’t come to this park in the beginning,” Flores said. “When Kloey played her first year, I couldn’t come here, it was so hard.” When talking about his son, Reyes Sr.’s voice trembles as he tries to keep the tears at bay.
“There’s bad days and some days that aren’t so bad, but we’re always thinking about our son. I come to this field, and it breaks my spirit sometimes. But it also brings back great memories. And then I see my little girl out there doing her thing, watching her shine. … I like to say she’s following in her brother’s footsteps but in her own style and with her own swag. She’s got the competitive fire that her brother had.”
Kloey didn’t always want to play competitively in team sports. But then something clicked.
“My whole family plays it, all my cousins play baseball and I just wanted to do it, too, not because they played it but because I wanted to do it,” she said.
“There’s not a lot of girls that’s playing on Little League teams,” Prince said. “You have some girls that have played and trained with their dads that play baseball.”
“I just got really good at it because of him,” Kloey said. “He taught me how to play, he taught me how it works, how to go on the field, how to hit — he was my coach for most of my life. And as soon as I knew how to play it, that’s really when I started wanting to play baseball because it was fun to me.”
Prince said Reyes Sr. throwing out the first pitch at the July 15 game was an emotional show of support for the family, especially after a new mural of Reyes Jr. (“Tunnel of Blessings: Neftali Reyes Jr. Memorial Mural“) had been unveiled at The 606’s Bloomingdale Trail on Humboldt Boulevard earlier in the week to honor his legacy.
Reyes Sr. and Flores both have been victims of violence — Reyes said he was shot six times, once through his heart when he was in his early 20s; his wife was shot in the head twice at the age of 14.
“She’s not supposed to be here. I’m not supposed to be here, and yet we had three children together,” he said. “So my whole thought is my kids are going to be special, something’s planned for them. They’re good kids.”
Since Reyes Jr.’s death, the family has made it a point to make sure his name isn’t forgotten. His mom keeps fighting for justice for him and a resolution to her son’s case.
“I have cried five times in my life, one of the five being when Buzzy’s (Neftali Sr.) son died. That broke me,” Jones said. “They were devastated. I wouldn’t say baseball gets them through everything, but it is the one thing that binds the family together.”
Jones calls Kloey, a seventh grader at Sabin Magnet School, the future of baseball. Since he’s been letting the team help him coach this year, his catchers are basically running the team.
“They call the game, basically — they call the pitches, they call the defense. That’s a very important position. And because she’s a Reyes, she’s got fire and she’s got an arm, too, I’m cool with her being my catcher. The team responds because they know Kloey knows what she’s talking about,” Jones said. He says out of the 21 years he’s been coaching, Kloey is the most intelligent player he’s ever coached.
Reyes Sr. said many weeks follow the baseball calendar. He has a small amount of time after work to shower, eat and make sure Kloey is fed before heading out to take her to a game or practice.
“It’s just how it is, but baseball is life around here,” he said. “We maintain, we fight. My wife is always fighting for justice. Wherever I go, I wear a shirt with either Neftali’s picture on it or his name. We take pride in our name and in ourselves. We want to make sure that we do good things and help people when we can on our way up, knowing that we’re going to make it up.”
“I think about how Neftali loved his little sisters and how he loved us, and it was his love that helped me through,” Flores said. “Kloey’s not really walking in his footprints, she’s filling them almost. I want her to know that we applaud her for her, for her efforts. Even though we know she’s gonna be the bomb because it’s in the bloodline.”
Chicago Baseball & Educational Academy is hosting a weekend of youth tournaments, skill challenges and a celebrity softball game on the University of Illinois at Chicago campus at Curtis Granderson Stadium, 901 W. Roosevelt Road. Events run from Friday, Aug. 6 to Sunday, Aug. 8.
Darcel Rockett
