Buster Posey in Georgia

The San Francisco Giants are now down, 2 games to 1, in their third World Series of the last five years.

Nobody is counting the Giants team out, however, not least because of its catcher, no-drama Buster Posey, who is a formidable hitter and, increasingly, the leader and heart of the team.

Courtesy of the Lee County Ledger

Posey grew up in a small town, Leesburg, Georgia.  Some combination of his personality, his upbringing and the traditional values of his home town seem to have formed him into the careful, modest, driven athlete whom parents would like their children to emulate.

I have friends and family in southwest Georgia, one of whom shared some Buster Posey lore.

"The local legend is that when he was in T-ball, with his father as coach, he kept hitting balls off the tee until even his father was too tired to pay attention," she said.  "I have heard that he used to hit 500 -- some say 1,000 -- balls each day when he was four or five years old, that he 'wanted' to hit that many balls."

Posey's high school baseball coach was quoted saying this:  "Most want to practice the things that they already do well.  The difference with Buster is that he wanted to work on the things that aren't as much fun, where he really needed to improve."

Posey is the oldest of four children.  His sister, Samantha, was a standout softball player at Valdosta State, and his brothers both played Division 1 baseball.

When Posey was called up by the Giants, his father told an interviewer, "I still think Sam is the most athletic of the (children.)  She has the most tools.  Buster, I think he's just the hardest worker."

Buster Posey's awards and stats are impressive.  He was college baseball catcher of the year and the National League Rookie of the Year in 2010.  After spending most of 2011 recovering from a serious early-season ankle injury, he came back in 2012 to win the NL MVP.  His batting average is consistently over .300, often way over .300.

"This is a very humbling game," a teammate once said.  "A lot of times people come in with a lot of flash, and the game humbles you and you play a certain way.  But Buster came in playing that way.  For him, it's not about back flips or hoopla or loudness or grandstanding.  It's about standing in the box and hitting a grand slam in the playoffs and acting like 'that's what I should do with that pitch.'"

Leesburg, Georgia

Posey retains his connection to his hometown. He married his high school girlfriend, and they have a place in the area where they spend time with their twin children.  In the off-season, he can be found working out at the local YMCA.  He is seen sometimes at church with his grandparents.

When he won the MVP in 2012, Posey was not available for the traditional award ceremony.  He already had committed himself to be the guest speaker at a fundraiser for the school where his mother teaches.  He gave one of the MVP prizes, $10,000 in Louisville Slugger merchandise, to his high school team and has contributed money for larger projects there as well.

Leesburg is a small town, about 3,000 people.  It has 12 churches, chapters of the Sons of the Confederacy and the NAACP, civic organizations including the Moose, the Masons, the Lions, the Key Club, the Vietnam Veterans of America, a Women's Club and a Pregnancy Resource Center.

A couple years ago, Forbes magazine named Leesburg as the second best place in Georgia to raise a child, and I think there is something to that.

Last year, I went with a friend into a store in a larger town nearby.  The store owner and my friend recognized each other but couldn't exactly place where they had met.  My friend mentioned her church, and he said no, he was a member of a different congregation.  She talked about the tutoring program she ran for poor children, and he said, no, his group sponsored children's art fairs.  She mentioned that her husband was member of a particular Kiwanis group, and he said he belonged to a different Kiwanis group.

These people were very involved in their community.  Where I live, this doesn't happen so much.  When I read about alienated young people who turn to terrorism or go on shooting rampages, I wonder about these things.

Other Leesburg Luminaries

Two music stars also hail from Leesburg.

One, Phillip Phillips, won the American Idol competition in 2012.  He just released his second album. The other, Luke Bryan, was the American Academy of Country Music Entertainer of the Year  in 2013.

Like Posey, they are alumni of Lee County High School.  Earlier this year, Bryan took a Parade reporter on a tour of Leesburg.  "It was black, white Mexican," he said.  "We'd all go out in the schoolyard and break-dance.

"I loved growing up here."