When Andrew Benintendi was 5 years old, his father, Chris, took him out on the acre the family owned in southwest Ohio to practice shagging fly balls.
Chris Benintendi would grab a tennis ball and a racquet, hitting the ball as hard as he could. His firstborn would leg out the high flies, catching them nearly every time.
Seventeen summers later, Andrew Benintendi is adjusting to life as a big-league baseball player, having notched two hits in his first start for the Red Sox as 18 family members looked on at Safeco Park.
But Chris Benintendi, a partner at a Cincinnati law firm, never suspected his only son would make it this far.