Elliott: Dante Nori climbed the ladder in more ways than one

How the littlest Toronto Raptors ball boy grew up to become a first round pick

July 14, 2024

By Bob Elliott

Canadian Baseball Network

We’ve heard about pitchers climbing the ladder on opposing hitters. Like the way LHP Jimmy Key did successfully for the 1992 World Series champion Toronto Blue Jays.

Or the way RHPs Marco Estrada or A.J. Burnett climbed for manager John Gibbons.

Higher and higher the pitches would go as a swing and miss would be followed by another one higher still, followed by a wild hack.

Selected in the first round (27th overall) by the Philadelphia Phillies Sunday night, Nori also worked the ladder -- as a hitter.

Former Toronto Raptors scout and assistant coach Micah Nori had his own hitting drill in his back yard in Canton, Mich. Micah and Dante would place stuffed animals on chairs on a make shift field and more on a six-foot, blue step ladder that was placed 25 feet in front of the plate with stuffed animals on each step.

DRAMATIZATION: Zero stuffed animals were injured in this replica of the Nori backyard.

A bear, a lion, a tiger, a T-Rex, an elephant and others that were gifts from road trips, birthday presents, hand me downs from cousins. Each stuffed animal took line drives in the kisser or the noggin. Zero animals were injured. It was a good thing that Nori targets were not like Woody and Buzz Lightyear in the movie Toy Story.

“I would tell him which animal to hit, he wasn’t allowed to change his feet, only his bat path,” said Micah. “When he would hit the ones we wanted, we would celebrate and he would get bubble gum. Probably psychotic, but we always made everything a game and a competition.”

I’d call it unique, but now that the word is out ... we can see the drill spreading all over Canada. Especially when people read that slot money for 27th overall is $3.23 million.

Now, this ball field is not easy to duplicate. Micah’s mom, Sara, taught kindergarten for 30 years, so when new desks for class arrived, she gave her son 10 small chairs from her classroom. The animals fit perfectly on them and would fall when he struck.

“Dante has always had outstanding hand-eye coordination and could hit from the time he was two or three years old,” Micah said. “It would keep his attention, develop his skill and most importantly make him competitive. To this day, he hates to lose.”

Another drill would be Micah tossing three different colored foam golf balls. Blue, red, yellow at same time. Micah would call out which color he had to hit as he threw, which helped Dante’s hand-eye, focus and again made things fun for him.

When Gregg Jefferies won Baseball America player of the year -- both in 1986 and 1987 -- his father did similar drills with coloured and numbered balls. Said Micah, “Gregg Jefferies was my guy growing up. I had his rated rookie Donruss baseball card.”

Another drill, which we have seen, is setting up two tees. One on the inside, one on the outside of the plate. As Dante took his stride, Micah would call out “inside” or “outside” and he would hit that ball.

And in yet another drill, Micah would colour baseballs with green or red marker. Then when he would throw him batting practice. Dante had to take the balls with red on them and had to swing no matter what at the green ones (like when the hit and run sign was flashed). There were also plain balls which Dante could either swing at or take based on whether they were a ball or a strike.

“Funny thing is,” Micah said. “I can count on one hand to this day how many times I have asked him to go work out. He would always ask me to go hit. To this day, when I am home, he will come down the steps holding his bat and say, ‘You ready?’ I go get my shoes on and we would head to the cage to work.”

Dante’s mom Melissa stopped teaching when Dante was born and took him everywhere. They did “mommy and me” classes and outings with other young mothers and kids. Dante was friends with Lauren DiPietro, daughter of Kevin DiPietro, now the Raptors’ travel coordinator.

In fact, it was DiPietro’s Expedition Micah borrowed to drive from the Brock University campus in St. Catharines to reach Mt. Sinai for Dante’s arrival.

When Dante was older, father and son would head to the Raptors’ practice facility to hit whiffle balls and shoot hoops.

Father’s No. 1 lesson to his son?

“Mechanically: less is more. Try to limit pre-swing movement and keep things simple with your head down,” said Micah. “My biggest message to Dante was you have to work when no one else is working. If you only work at practice with your team, you are all going to get better at the same rate.

“In order to separate yourself or close the ground on those better than you, you have to do extra. Everyday. To this day, when we are at facilities or cages hitting and no one is around, I will say to him, ‘You are getting better today and nobody else is here working.’”

What does a hoops guy know about teaching hitting?

Well, Micah was a hitter in his own right with the Indiana Hoosiers from 1994 to 1997, including a Big Ten championship in 1996.

A middle infielder, Micah hit .305 for his Indiana career with 20 home runs, 127 RBIs, 35 doubles and 18 stolen bases. He still ranks among the top 20 in home runs, RBIs, doubles, hits, slugging percentage and extra base hits.

In his final spring, Micah led the team with a .365 batting average with 12 home runs, 59 RBIs, 115 total bases and slugged .635. He earned Academic All-Big Ten honours and received the Jake Gimbel Award for outstanding mental attitude.

Micah’s father, Fred Nori, played for the Hoosiers from 1963 to 1965 and produced a .284 batting average with five home runs and 55 RBIs before playing two seasons in the New York Mets and Chicago Cubs organizations.

How did Micah get from the diamond to the gym?

Two words: Butch Carter. Both grew up in Middletown, Ohio, What did Butch teach Micah … the No.1 lesson?

“Butch taught me how to coach from the end of the game to the beginning… setting up rotations throughout the game so you could finish with the group you want so they would be fresh,” said Micah. “He taught me you have to teach the ‘why’ when dealing with pros … how to count possessions instead of looking at score, if you are down seven-to-nine points late it’s three possessions, not insurmountable,

“He taught me how to break down film and figure out what you want to take away from an opponent, or as he put it ‘How do you want to lose?’ Which fed into game planning…taught me how to plan practice…showed me what actions are successful against different types of defences: switching, trapping, drop, zone, etc.”

Micah learned from Butch.

And Dante learned from Micah