Bishop Lynch baseball field.
Evan Gattis has a World Series ring, and knows just how fortunate he is to get one. His twitter profile picture is his ID card from when he was a janitor for Jan-Pro Cleaning systems as a reminder of how far he has come.
Gattis grew up in Forney, and was a premier youth baseball player in Dallas, at times playing on the same team as his World Series opponent and Cy Young winner Clayton Kershaw, who graduated from Highland Park High School. Gattis bounced around DFW area high schools to play for specific coaches, attending Bishop Lynch High School in East Dallas along the way.
Substance abuse and anxiety derailed his scholarship to play baseball at Texas A&M in 2004, and Gattis drifted for years before landing on the field again. He spent time as a ski instructor in Colorado and was a janitor on Abrams before he headed to the University of Texas of the Permian Basin in 2010, where he played baseball with his step brother. He excelled there, and was eventually drafted by the Atlanta Braves.
Gates bounced between the Braves and the minor leagues for a couple years, and earned the nickname “El Oso Blanco” while playing in Venezuela. He eventually solidified his position in the Major Leagues in Atlanta, proving to be a quality hitter, and was traded to the Astros in in 2015, where he has played mostly as a designated hitter.
His career came full circle when the Houston Astros won the World Series in a dramatic seven-game bout against the Los Angeles Dodgers. It was both the Astros and Gattis’ first World Series championship.
