The three Tenuta brothers laugh about it now. And Grant, the youngest, may have become a better baseball player because of it.
Evan and Will Tenuta, who starred as pitchers at Sandburg, have been on Division I rosters at Notre Dame and Purdue, respectively.
Now, Grant is ready to make his mark. The junior to be recently represented Team Illinois at the Prep Baseball Report Future Games in the Atlanta suburb of Emerson.
The showcase was open to the top unsigned 16-year-olds in the country. To get elite status, Tenuta had go though growing pains courtesy of a couple of brothers who were happy to dish things out.
“We still joke about this because I was picked on more than your average youngest child,” Grant said. “But at the end of the day, it helps a lot. It makes you better when you have two big brothers that are always pushing you, and it gives you expectations to meet.”
Grant said an injury curbed Evan’s career at Notre Dame, while Will decided to put more time into his engineering studies at Purdue. Both are out of the game.
But they were ready hand out wisdom to boost Grant’s budding career.
“They spend a lot more time working with me and helping me out,” Grant said. “They are always helping me with my mechanics. Growing up, I could see what they (went) through to be successful and I picked up things.”
Sandburg coach Jim Morsovillo has appreciated having a parade of Tenuta brothers on the mound.
“Evan, Will and now Grant have all come through Sandburg and have been part of the baseball program,” he said. “They all have had live arms and have great fastballs. They are all competitors and give you their best every time out.
“The family is great, and the kids have been great pitchers for our program.”
Grant said he and his brothers all have different pitching mechanics, but the bottom line is bringing the heat.
“The way we pitch and the things we do with our bodies are different — there are no similarities whatsoever,” he said. “But we’re a fastball family. We throw pretty hard, and that’s how we get guys out.”
Evan holds the record for the family by having a 94-mph fastball recorded during his Sandburg days. Grant, who has reached 89, is looking forward to the day he can hit 90.
Team Illinois took an army of pitchers to Georgia, with outings of one and two innings being the norm. Other area pitchers on Team Illinois were Brother Rice’s Cole Van Assen and Homewood-Flossmoor’s Vince Waterman.
Tenuta enjoyed his time performing in front of college scouts.
“It was a pretty cool experience for me because all of the coaches were watching our games,” he said. “It was an experience like no other to see every single coach there.
“It was a little nerve-wracking, but it was pretty fun. Nothing like that will ever happen like that again for me.”
Tenuta said his father, Paul, got the boys interested in baseball when they were young by playing whiffle ball. Grant said all three figured out hitting wasn’t going to work out, so segued to the mound.
Grant said he loves taking the ball to pitch.
“From a pitching standpoint, there is not better feeling than to strike someone out,” he said. “Just going on the mound and knowing that the entire game revolves around your success.
“It puts a lot of pressure on you, but I just love that type of pressure and just love how meaningful it is.”
Jeff Vorva is a freelance reporter for the Daily Southtown.