A.J. Ewing's road from Springboro to big leagues began at early age

Jun. 18—CINCINNATI — Four buckets of Dubble Bubble gum sat in the middle of the New York Mets clubhouse on Wednesday, June 17, at Great American Ball Park. Each had 380 pieces — many more than a big-league team would need in a series but maybe not enough for famous bubble blowers such as Eugenio Suarez, of the Cincinnati Reds.

Gum remains as big a part of the game as sunflower seeds, and many of the players on the Mets roster likely started developing the Dubble Bubble habit in their earliest days in youth baseball.

Few of those players got their starts as early as the Mets’ 21-year-old center fielder, A.J. Ewing, a Springboro High School graduate who started playing organized baseball for a YMCA team when he was 3.

“My mom (Cindy Hawkinson) had to call and convince them because you had to be 5 to play,” Ewing said.

Ewing talked to the Dayton Daily News in the Mets clubhouse before the final game of a three-game series against the Reds. His dad, Joe Ewing, did an interview later in the stands and confirmed the story about Ewing’s baseball debut.

“We had to pull some strings and call and beg to let him because he wasn’t old enough,” Joe said, “We said, ‘Listen, he can handle this.’ We talked our way onto the team.”

The drive to play started at home.

“I can remember him in the side yard of the house, swinging and throwing him wiffle balls and things like that,” Joe said. “He was a kid who was drawn to baseball at a very early age and just loved it. He was blessed with a lot of God-given talent, you know. Even when he was 4, 5 and 6, when he’d swing the bat, you just knew right away. Nobody else swings like that.”

Confident rookie

A.J. didn’t have to talk his way into Major League Baseball. He experienced a rapid rise in the Mets farm system after they drafted him in the fourth round three years ago.

Ewing hit .286 in the Rookie League in 2023, slipped to .228 with Single-A St. Lucie in 2024 but rebounded with a .400 average in 20 games with St. Lucie in 2025. He continued hitting with Brooklyn at the High-A level, batting .288 in 78 games, that same season and then earned a promotion to Double-A Binghamton, where he hit .339 in 28 games.

This season, Ewing returned to Binghamton and hit .349 in 18 games before earning a promotion to Triple-A Syracuse. He hit .326 in 12 games and got the call to the Mets on May 11. By that time, he ranked second among prospects in the Mets organization and 78th in baseball, according to MLB Pipeline.

In Ewing’s Major League Baseball debut on May 12 against the Detroit Tigers, he became the first player since at least 1900 to walk three times, triple, steal a base and record multiple RBIs (2) in his debut.

“I’m confident in my ability,” Ewing told reporters after that game. “I’m just going to play the same game I’ve been playing and do what I do.”

Joe watched his son’s debut from the stands at Citi Field in New York.

“I’m a nervous wreck watching him,” Joe told SportsNet New York during the game, “but once he gets in the batter’s box, he doesn’t know there’s anybody here but the pitcher.”

Busy summer

Joe has now seen A.J. play 12 times with the Mets this season. He attended all three games in Cincinnati and said close to 200 people came to the games each day to watch A.J.’s first big-league games in Ohio.

Ewing went hitless in seven at-bats in the first two games but went 1-for-4 in the finale with a two-run double as the Mets avoided a sweep with a 9-1 victory. He also had a diving catch in center.

Through 34 games, Ewing was hitting .250 with two home runs, 11 RBIs and seven stolen bases.

Ewing grew up attending games at Great American Ball Park and was a fan of Joey Votto, the face of the franchise for most of his 17-year career that ended in 2023. He also remembers Reds closer Aroldis Chapman’s electric performances.

“Growing up, watching games here and then being able to play here, it’s a little bit of a weird feeling,” Ewing said, “but it’s cool and it’s a lot of fun.”

Joe enjoyed the 35-minute drive to the games after traveling many miles in the previous weeks to see the Mets.

“It’s unreal, surreal, exciting, exhausting,” he said. “You’re busy. The first month has been busy. That’s all I can say.”

It’s been a similar journey since A.J. started playing when he was 3. He started travel baseball with the Dayton Sting. He later played with Midland Baseball and the Cincinnati Spikes.

“Baseball has been a part of my life ever since I was growing up,” Ewing said Wednesday. “What I would tell a kid is just to have fun playing the game, and don’t ever lose that. Just have fun with everything you do, and play the game hard.”

Ewing was on the Spikes’ 15-and-under team in 2020 when the team featured him in a story on its website. He was about to start his freshman season at Springboro and had just committed to Wright State. He had been attending Wright State baseball camps since seventh grade.

Ewing remained a Wright State recruit until switching his college choice to Alabama during his junior season. By then, he had started to gain even more attention as a prospect. He hit .375 as a junior at Springboro and led the Greater Western Ohio Conference with three home runs. As a senior in 2023, he led the GWOC in batting average (.464), home runs (4) and RBIs (37).

Following that standout senior season, in July 2023, Ewing decided to start his professional career in the Mets organization instead of playing college baseball.

When I was a little kid, I always dreamed of being a professional baseball player, not a college baseball player,” Ewing said then. “If I get my feet wet now, get used to that kind of schedule, just being a baseball player, not having to worry about the schoolwork and all the outside distractions, I just feel like I’ll be in a better spot long term.

Three years later, Ewing is right where he wants to be, and he enjoyed seeing so many family members and friends in Ohio during the series against the Reds.

“It’s awesome,” he said. “It’s hard to put into words, but it’s a lot of fun.”