Joey DeNato’s legacy is all around Bart Kaufman Field.
There’s the picture of him plastered in the dugout, his accolades listed throughout the clubhouse and the banner in right center for the 2013 College World Series the starting pitcher played a large part in.
There’s also his glove. A glove he used to make a diving catch during a surprise appearance in the outfield at the 2012 Big Ten Tournament.
He left that glove to a player who might embody DeNato’s legacy more than anybody else in Bloomington. That player is also a left-handed pitcher who relies on location and off-speed pitches, much like DeNato did during his time as a Hoosier.
He’s IU’s new Friday night starter and is steadily climbing up the leaderboard for most career wins in an IU uniform. He’s third now, 10 wins behind DeNato.
That walking embodiment is senior pitcher Kyle Hart, and he’s still convinced he sees DeNato’s ghost around Bart Kaufman Field.
***
The similarities between Hart and DeNato are clear to most people. They both are southpaws with fastballs in the high 80s and both use change-ups with breaking pitches.
Hart said DeNato came to him with help for his change-up and he went to DeNato for help with his breaking pitches.
“I’m one year older, but in baseball that’s really not that much,” DeNato said. “There were times where I would go to him and ask him for help and vice versa. Our friendship was trying to make each other the best we could be.”
Hart said he’s trying to be more like DeNato this season. He remembers the feeling around the team whenever DeNato was pitching.
It didn’t matter how many runs he gave up or how well he was pitching, when DeNato was on the mound, the Hoosiers were going to win.
“The way it was with DeNato, it was, “We’re going to win tonight,’” Hart said. “Whether he gave up four or none or six, it was still, ‘We’re going to somehow win this game because we’ve got this guy on the mound.’”
That’s why Hart said he still looks up to DeNato. It basically comes down to the approach he takes. Whenever DeNato was on the field, he brought an intensity that made it seem like he couldn’t fail.
If he was being subbed into the game as an outfielder, pinch running or pinch hitting, he brought the same tenacity.
“He was an eye-opener for me. It was like this is the way things are done at this level,” Hart said. “I look up to him so much. I still do and I probably always will, because the way the team trusted him, I want them to feel that with me.”
So when DeNato has advice for Hart, Hart listens. He said he does this with every former Hoosier who’s playing professionally. But with DeNato, it’s a little different.
Maybe it’s because of the similarities between the two. DeNato knows how to succeed with the pitches Hart has, so of course his advice carries some more weight.
“He’s so busy with pro ball right now, I kind of let him alone,” Hart said. “I know how arduous pro ball gets and let him reach out to me, which he does quite often.”
***
DeNato can’t keep up with IU as much as he wants. He’s playing for the Clearwater Threshers, the high-A affiliate for the Philadelphia Phillies. So after he’s done playing he’ll check Twitter for updates on his alma mater.
Sunday night, DeNato read something interesting as he was scrolling.
“Kyle Hart is your new Hoosier center fielder,” the official IU baseball account tweeted.
Hart downplayed replacing sophomore outfielder Laren Eustace after the game, saying he shags balls before every game during batting practice. He first started running down fly balls in batting practice with DeNato his freshman year.
So when DeNato saw this, he had a couple of questions.
“He asked me which glove I used because he handed me a glove down for outfield,” Hart said. “But I actually handed it down to Laren, so Laren uses DeNato’s glove now. I picked up another one a couple years back and use that one just because it fits my hand better.”
DeNato actually doesn’t know Hart gave his glove away. Hart said he guesses DeNato will find out now.
The second question was typical. He asked how Hart’s arm was doing, because that’s just what pitchers do.
“He asked me how I was feeling and how my arm’s doing,” Hart said. “That’s like the first thing pitchers ask each other. He’s always worried about me and I’m always worried about him.”
Given their past, this makes sense. Going back to the 2014 season, DeNato’s last in Bloomington, the Hoosiers had DeNato starting Friday nights and Hart following him up Saturday.
Hart used to joke with then-IU Coach Tracy Smith he was at a disadvantage. DeNato would pitch Friday and win, so when Hart took the mound the next day the opposing team would have a game plan to beat that style of pitcher.
But it didn’t last. It all ended on a cold day in Columbus, Ohio.
DeNato said he thinks Hart loves pitching in the cold weather, or he’s just mentally stronger than everyone else and handles it better.
Either way, the weather shouldn’t have been a problem for Hart. Then, after Hart finished the fourth inning, he told DeNato something felt off in his arm. DeNato brushed it off. He said he knows how much cold weather can affect how a player’s arm feels and Hart didn’t seem too concerned.
But then Hart couldn’t finish his warmup pitches in the fifth inning and had to leave the game. He went back into the locker room and DeNato followed closely behind.
“He went back to the locker room and I went in there to check on him and see what’s going on,” DeNato said. “Honestly he made it sound like it was no big deal. He went in to get an MRI the next day or the day after that, and I didn’t talk to him because he was at the doctor’s office.”
The two were lifting partners up until that point, meaning every day they would spot each other and go to the weight room together. The first time DeNato saw Hart after that cold day at Ohio State was the next week in the weight room.
DeNato came to work out. Hart came to say he couldn’t. Hart had torn a ligament in his elbow and would need Tommy John surgery, meaning he was done playing baseball with DeNato for the rest of the year.
“It was devastating for me just because I felt like I let him down and left him alone,” Hart said. “I could just see when I told him I had to have surgery, and the look on his face was so distraught. One of the moments I won’t forget is when I told him about it.”
Hart spent DeNato’s final season trying to recover, but he wouldn’t ask for help. Hart said he didn’t want to trouble his teammates as they tried to make a return trip to the College World Series.
There were bad days, Hart said. He also said he couldn’t go to DeNato during these bad days because he didn’t want to poison the team.
If he was having a rough Thursday, he said, and his rehab was progressing poorly or was in serious pain, he wouldn’t talk to DeNato because he didn’t want to distract him from his Friday start.
But DeNato still helped. So did all the Hoosiers — that’s just what the mentality of the team was. That mentality still remains.
In November, the team reunited in San Diego for DeNato’s wedding. When he sent out the invitations, DeNato said he expected a few people to come. Instead, 22 of his IU teammates made the trip, including Hart, who served as DeNato’s best man.
“I didn’t really expect too many people to make it because school was going on and the season was approaching, so I was really excited,” DeNato said. “It was a lot of fun having all those guys out there in San Diego. It was a big team reunion and was probably one of the best weekends of our lives.”
***
Hart swears sometimes he sees DeNato’s ghost.
There’s times when Hart is on the mound pitching, or last Sunday when he was in the outfield, when he thinks about watching DeNato do many of the same things.
“After the game, before the game, I get déjà vu all the time just seeing the ghost of Joey DeNato walking through Bart Kaufman,” Hart said.
Whether it’s a situation on the mound where Hart will think back to how DeNato handled it, or sometimes when he’s shagging balls in the outfield before games, he can’t stop thinking about DeNato.
Even when he watches opposing base runners not try to run against Hoosier pitchers, Hart thinks of DeNato, who had one of the best pickoff moves in the country, Hart said.
“They didn’t try to steal and he still got them,” Hart said. “It was like a Houdini move. He was going to the plate, he was going to the plate and you were looking to see if the pitch was there, and the umpire is calling the guy at first out.”
DeNato’s pickoff move was just one of the many things that linger in people’s minds about him. There’s also the tenacity and the sheer ability to get hitters out.
And of course, there was just the character of DeNato, a character Hart is trying to replicate.
“There wasn’t one thing that made Joey who he was,” Hart said. “It was just a combination of so many characteristics he did to his fullest potential that makes him the guy he is, the husband he is and the pitcher he is.”
