Behind the dish umpiring or in the dugout coaching, J.D. Cleavinger has spent so much of his life at baseball diamonds in Lawrence.

Cleavinger coached major-league baseball players long before they were signed to professional contracts, including Steve Jeltz, Lee Stevens and Kevin Hooper. And it’s with great pride that he points out that his son-in-law, former Lawrence High standout Matt McWilliams, had a minor-league baseball career.

Even with all of Cleavinger’s experience with professional baseball players, Tuesday qualified as one special day for Cleavinger. His grandson, Garrett Cleavinger, was chosen in the third round of the Major League Baseball free-agent draft out of Oregon by the Baltimore Orioles.

It takes a lot to bore a man with J.D.’s passion for baseball by talking baseball, but if anything can do that, it’s coverage of the draft. Unlike with the football and basketball drafts, nearly all of the names mean nothing to nearly all baseball fans.

“I was almost asleep after listening to about an hour of that,” J.D. said of the TV draft coverage. “It’s kind of like watching paint dry. There wasn’t too much excitement. ‘The Yankees pick so and so. The Diamondbacks pick so and so.’ And it was all kind of monotone. I about fell asleep after eating lunch. And I kind of picked him to go in the fourth or fifth round, at best. I was really shocked when they announced it.”

The grandson took so many baby steps witnessed by the grandpa leading up to Tuesday’s big day, triggering memories of catches in J.D.’s back yard with Garrett and other children from wife Sharon’s day-care group, of Baldwin City youth teams coached by Garrett’s dad, Rob, of football and baseball games at Lawrence High.

Garrett Cleavinger becoming the highest draft choice among alumni from Lawrence high schools since Lee Stevens was chosen by the California Angels as the 22nd overall pick in 1986, continued the feel-good momentum of local baseball started by Free State High winning its second 6A state championship in such memorable fashion.

Lawrence High coach Brad Stoll said he broke down crying when talking to his former power left-hander to congratulate him.

Sadly, about four hours before Garrett Cleavinger’s name was called, another loving family was overcome with tears as parents and grandparents shared hugs with a once-promising lefty power pitcher Cody Kukuk, who started his 31/2-year sentence for aggravated robbery, robbery and aggravated burglary.

We’ll never know what changed Kukuk, but he said in court that he had been using cocaine, not only a game-changer, but a brain-changer. It destroys the pleasure center in the brain, and in order for users of it to experience pleasure, they need more of it. My guess is, had Kukuk, 22, never tried cocaine whenever he did that first time, he would still have his freedom and his fastball.

Modern science informs that the brain does not fully develop until the age of 25. Kukuk’s is not the first undeveloped brain to make a bad decision with severe consequences. If he makes his crimes his low point and leaves illicit drugs completely in his past, he has a chance at a good life, a chance to make his parents and grandparents proud again.

Here’s hoping the arrow points straight up for Cleavinger’s career and Kukuk’s life.