By Jerry Del Priore
Behind the painstaking hours of an athletes’ success are the people who help them get there. For Pavin Smith, the Arizona Diamondbacks’ 2017 first round draft pick out of the University of Virginia, seventh overall, he had the opportunity to show his gratitude to the people he loves the most: his parents.
Pavin, 21, paid off his parents’ mortgage with his draft signing bonus, making his family’s Christmas one for the ages.
“Thank you for everything you have done for me! This doesn’t make up for any of it,” Smith wrote on Twitter. “Love you both so much. Our home is finally all YOURS. Merry Christmas!”
Pavin, a first baseman in Arizona’s farm system, laced .318 with 27 RBI, 15 doubles and two triples in ’17 with the Single-A, short-season Hillsboro Hops of the of Northwest League (NWL).
Way to go, kid!
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