WILLIAMSPORT, Pa. — Having the name Tito Fuentes comes with responsibilities.
"The name means everything to me," Tito Fuentes III said. "Being III means a lot. It's a family name, as you know, my grandpa being a star on the field."
Tito Fuentes played alongside the likes of Willie Mays and Willie McCovey and still calls Giants games on the radio in San Francisco. Before it was common and accepted, Fuentes was known for his style and personality – something inherited by his grandson.
Like his grandfather, Tito Fuentes III is an infielder – and for the past few weeks, he's been playing for the Williamsport Crosscutters.
"He's the funniest man I ever met," Fuentes III said. "He's been her 40 plus years, but he's never lost the accent. He's a real hot do. He's really corny. I feel like I flash out like him sometimes here and there, definitely with the smoothness and the corniness. It's all there. I like to say my personality comes from both my father and my grandfather."
While his grandfather may be the standard, his father is the teacher. Tito Fuentes Jr. has coached Fuentes III his entire life, including here in Williamsport as a bench coach for the Crosscutters.
"Him starting baseball at 8 years old, coaching him and teaching him how to play baseball and then, it's funny because everyone always used to tell us I don't know why," Fuentes Jr. said. "You should just let him be coached by someone else. It's never gonna happen. Well here we are and now in the MLB Draft League."
"I've learned everything I know on the baseball field from him," the youngest Fuentes said. "It's the dream. You grow up playing baseball with your pops and it's just an honor. It's special to have him out here."
And to carry on not just a name, but the Fuentes family tradition - baseball.
"My dad has done everything he could in baseball," Fuentes Jr. said, fighting back tears. "The cards weren't in it for me. He, Tito III, he feels like he wants to live up to my father and once he took that commitment, he hasn't left it."