Like father, like son:VC’s Landry following in the footsteps of his dad

By: William McDaniel
Blair Landry had a season to remember for the Vermilion Catholic Eagles baseball team in 2011, but that’s only part of the story.

In district action, Landry, 17, hit a remarkable .647 with 10 RBIs and 11 stolen bases.

For the season, he hit .489 with 42 runs, 23 RBIs and 25 stolen bases.

Those numbers earned the junior second baseman all-district MVP, all-state, all-parish, and all-Acadiana honors.

Landry is one up on his father, Howard Landry, 44, in that department.

“They didn’t have all-Acadiana when I was in school,” the elder Landry joked.

As a junior left-handed pitcher at Abbeville High, the elder Landry got all-district, all-parish co-MVP and all-state honors.

In his senior year, Howard earned all-district MVP, all-parish and all-state before graduating in 1985.

He also played tight end for the Wildcats football team.

Howard went on to pitch for then-USL his freshman year, transferred to Howard College at Big Spring, Texas as a sophomore. He was drafted by the Oakland A’s that year, but decided to go back to USL for his junior year instead.

At the end of that year of school, the Boston Red Sox selected Landry in the 15th round of the draft. He signed that time.

He played four years in the Red Sox farm system, making the AA team, before having major shoulder surgery for a torn rotator cuff and labrum in 1992.

“I tried to come back, but that was it,” Howard said of his career-ending injury.

He said he had no regrets, though.

The younger Landry has played recreational hockey, as well as basketball and football for VC.

It was that last sport, football, that caused Blair to follow his father’s footsteps down a path no athlete wishes to go down: debilitating injury.

The initial injury to Blair’s shoulder was in youth football. He partially dislocated his throwing shoulder while making a tackle from his linebacker position when he was 12.

The injury repeated itself when Blair was in his freshman year at VC.

That time he completely dislocated it, though he played through the pain.

“I played my freshman year hurt the whole season,” he said.

The Landrys didn’t recognize the full extent of the damage at first.

“We didn’t realize, I think, how much it affected him until he started trying to throw in baseball,” said Howard.

“His freshman year at VC in baseball, he played a little bit in the outfield, but he mostly DH’d the whole year.”

Blair still made all-district as an outfielder that season.

The injury to the shoulder was not getting any better, so the Landrys decided to take Blair to see LSU’s orthopedic surgeon, Dr. Mark Field.

“We went to see him in October of ‘08. We were kind of hesitant on doing surgery, because of his age. He was 15,” said Howard.

They began a six-month regimen of physical therapy, but there was no improvement, so the Landrys elected for surgery at that time.

Like his father, Blair had a torn labrum, in addition to loosened tendons that tend to accompany that kind of injury.

Four months later, during football season, Blair was on the sideline of a game in Morgan City against Central Catholic and re-injured his shoulder when he threw his arms up to celebrate a touchdown.

The “excruciating” injury required a second surgery, one that Blair was reluctant to undergo.

“It was starting to dislocate in his sleep,” said Blair’s mother, Mia Cheek.

Blair acquiesced, and underwent a second surgery on the day before Thanksgiving in 2009.

Blair would return to football in a supporting role, but not to play.

“I just decided to hang up football after that,” he said.

He said it was a long path back to the baseball diamond, but he didn’t have to do it alone.

“When you’ve got everybody behind you, it’s really not (that difficult),” he said, pointing to his parents.

“You’ve got him (Howard) telling me ‘You’ve got to work out’ every day, and she’s (Mia) backing him up 100 percent,” he said.

Blair also said his teammates at VC had his back.

“They were all there for me...If I wouldn’t have had my dad, mom, Coach Jerrod (Duhon, VC), Coach Mac (Daniel McMurtry, VC) and everybody helping me through it, there’s no way,” he said.

“I mean, I have drive, but to come back from two shoulder surgeries in the arm that you throw with, it’s not an easy path.”

Blair said he’s now 90-95 percent back from the injury.

If the numbers he put up this year are anyindication, he will be a force to be reckoned with next year.

“I told myself at the beginning of the season, ‘You’ve got to have a big year this year,’ because if I didn’t... it wasn’t going to look good for my senior year.”

Blair said his goal now is to make it into Division I college baseball.

He was reluctant to answer when asked if he wanted to go pro like his dad.

“I don’t know,” he said. “I’ll just take it one step at a time, I guess.”

Howard, a dispatcher with Acadian Ambulance, is now an assistant coach at VC.

He said he coached his son all through childhood.

“I started out coaching him when he was four and coached him every year,” he said.

Howard’s only year not in the dugout with his son was his freshman year at VC, when he said he was ready to hand over the reigns to his high school coaches.

“I was a fan his freshman year and then Coach McMurtry came in and asked me if I wouldn’t mind helping,” he said.

Blair described his relationship with his dad as “father-son” off the field and “coach-player” off it.

He said he is enjoying playing baseball with the players at VC, who he has played with since childhood.

“It’s just like a big family,” he said. “We look at it as a family, not a team.”

He said he hopes to put together another strong year in 2012.

“I want to do everything I can...to where I don’t have to look in the mirror later and say ‘I didn’t do everything (I could have),” he said.

The Landrys said the only thing missing are the grandfathers.

Blair’s paternal grandfather, Howard, died when he was four. His maternal grandfather, Donald “Speed” Theriot, died before he was born.

Blair expressed his appreciation to his stepfather, Marcus Cheek, grandmothers Leanne Landry and Betty Theriot, and Greg Landry, of Abbeville, for their support throughout his recovery.