From the day he was born, freshman Cody Huson had baseball in his blood. His father, Jeff Huson, played for nine teams over the course of his 12-year MLB career, and now, Cody is looking to make a name for himself at ACU in the sport his father passed on to him.
Cody was born in Arlington in 1995, the city where his father played the longest as a Texas Ranger, but has lived in Parker, Colorado, nearly his entire life. His father’s last professional game was in October of 2000.
Since then, his father has remained close to the game, being a roving infield instructor in the Chicago Cubs Minor League organization from 2001-2005, and has been a color analyst for the Colorado Rockies since 2006.
Having a father around that played at the most difficult level of baseball has helped Cody grow in skill and helps him prepare for what he will see in his future baseball career. Cody said that having his dad around and being able to use his experience has helped him grow exponentially as a player and get to the level that he is today.
“I appreciate the knowledge of the game that he offers,” Cody said. “My dad went through the same things that I’m going through right now, but at the highest level. So, he’s able to go out to the field and work on specific situations with me to make sure that I know what to do in those situations so that when I would go to practice, I would be almost a step ahead of the game because I had the knowledge already from my dad guiding me.”
But growing up being the son of a former professional athlete is more work than it looks to be.
“I try not to talk about it,” Cody said. “If other people bring it up, I’ll talk about it, but I try not to discuss it because I don’t want it to be a reason why people look at me differently. I try to be humble about it and not to discuss because, yeah, it’s really cool, and I love that my dad played professionally, but it’s not something that I’m going to let define me because that’s something that my dad accomplished. That’s an amazing accomplishment, but that’s not how I want to be looked at.”
From his older sister Lindsay, who played volleyball at Western State Colorado University, to his older brother Kyle, who is currently a defenseman for the University of Connecticut hockey team, the Husons are no strangers to playing various sports.
But Cody, who grew up playing multiple sports, said his decision to stick to baseball was his, not his parents’.
“I think that my parents did a good job when they raised us to tell us that whatever we wanted to do, we were able to do,” Cody said. “I wouldn’t say that I felt pressure to play baseball instead of playing another sport. I feel like my parents never put pressure on me to play baseball, and my dad would always tell me that I had to do what’s best for me.”
Getting to the bigs is a near-insurmountable task, but that doesn’t stop Cody from setting his goals high, as he has seen firsthand that big dreams and hard work can pay off.
“Ever since I can remember, I’ve been around the clubhouse,” Cody said. “I’ve been able to just experience a lot of different things through my dad which has been cool and kind of given me the desire to strive to go to the MLB and play at that high of a level. I’ve always been around it, and it’s been cool to have my dad be able to give me those opportunities that I wouldn’t have had otherwise.”
