Tinley Boy, 7, Plays Catch With White Sox Pitcher He Impersonates

TINLEY PARK, IL — When a 7-year-old Tinley Park Bobcats baseball player mimicked practically the entire Chicago White Sox team, he had no idea it would lead to meeting one of his favorite players.

Brooks Johnson, a second-grader at John A. Bannes Elementary School, is "obsessed" with mimicking Sox players, whether it’s pitching delivery or batting stance, according to his mother, Candi Johnson.

Johnson said when Brooks started impersonating players at games, his coach would chuckle because he is also a fan of the team. But it wasn't just his coach. Teammates, opposing teams and audience members were all fans of Brooks' impersonations. Over time, he started to get quite good at his impersonation of Liam Hendriks, an Australian pitcher for the team.

"Brooks tended to get more confidence when he would do it because he's like, 'mommy, I throw a bunch of strikes when I imitate Liam Hendriks when I pitch, so I'm gonna keep doing it.'"

Finding the impressions amusing, Johnson shot a video of Brooks in action and shared it on Twitter. The video was reshared by a popular fan account, Soxon35th, then got the attention of Hendriks himself, who commented," That’s how to do it, mate! 💥"

"I almost dropped my phone when I saw that Hendriks commented on the post," Johnson told Patch. "That was good enough for us. The fact that he saw the way he influences a young kid made my day."

But it didn't stop there.

Johnson received a message request from an unknown person who said they were an agent for the baseball player himself. Brooks was invited to Guaranteed Rate Field to meet Hendriks. The Johnson's were overjoyed.

"He said Liam loved Brooks’ video and wanted to meet my boy. Unbelievable," Johnson told Patch. "We told him about a day before, and he just kind of smiled and looked at us with a bit of shock and disbelief. He didn't really realize that kids like him can meet these major league players in person."

Johnson told Patch that the family had no idea that Brooks would be able to actually go on the field and play games with Hendriks. Brooks, with a large smile on his face, headed off to Guaranteed Rate Field on Saturday wearing his Sox jersey, carrying a card he made for Hendriks that read, "Dear Liam Hendriks, I strike a lot of people out when I pitch like you."

Brooks got to chat with the baseball player, and received a signed ball, autographed spikes, and the chance to play catch on the field. And of course, Brooks put his skills to the test in front of Hendriks and coaches — impersonating his favorite player in the process.

Johnson's favorite part of all was that Brooks chose one question to ask Hendriks, and it was, "why do you scream like crazy when you pitch?"

"After smirking a little, Liam explained when he first came up with Minnesota, he didn’t show any emotion when pitching," Johnson relayed to Patch. "He thought that was what a baseball player was supposed to do, stay calm and cool. He said he wasn’t any good. Then he started to show more emotion and acted like himself, got comfortable, and coincidentally started to pitch better and better."

Johnson said the baseball player told Brooks that “it’s ok to be a little bit weird, it’s ok to be different, you just have to be yourself.”

The family believes Hendriks is a "class act and wonderful human being."

"It's so much more than just sports and meeting a professional athlete," Johnson said. "If we could meet anyone and have this experience with anyone, we are so happy that it was him because he just seems like a wonderful person, and we got to experience that firsthand. He's a wonderful role model for not all my son, but for so many other kids out there — and the fact that he emphasized staying true to yourself and being yourself even if you're a little goofy or weird, emphasizes what we try to teach in our home, too."