His Name Is LuJames: Groover's great season is taking him home to Georgia

Consistency is key in a game full of failure, and LuJames Groover has been the model for consistency since the second that he stepped foot in Amarillo. 

“I just try to be the best I can be and show up every day. I do the same routine every day. It's probably boring to most people, but I try not to take more or less swings than I normally would, whether I'm feeling good or feeling bad.” Groover said as he finished that very routine pregame.“
If you do something that much, that often it just becomes muscle memory, and then even on days where you feel like you may not have it the body takes over and it just gets it done for you. I'm just trying to be consistent in everything that I do.”

That mindset, and a swing built off of a lifetime of repetition has resulted in Groover consistently getting better every season of his minor league career, climbing the ranks of the Diamondbacks system. It has also helped him lead the Texas League in batting average up until this point at .306, without it dipping below .280 since the second game of the season. Amarillo even celebrated Groover's play and presence with a T-shirt night this season, designing a shirt with an image of the infielder flashing his radiant smile in his Oakley shades, and the phrase “Groovy Vibes Only” dawning the front of it. No one was more excited with how it turned out than the man himself.

“I love the shirt. I wear it pretty much every day. I think it's very sick, honestly. It looks so good. You know my teammates have been wearing it, showing support. I got a bunch of them for my family as well.” Groover said that night. “ I think it was a very nice gesture from the team, obviously, like I said I love it. 
I'm going to rock the shirt myself all the time. You know it’s the Sod Poodles so the team could wear it in general, so it's just nice to see.”

Designed by the great Isaac Galan of the Amarillo Sod Poodles

Groover wasn’t lying, he wears the shirt at least once a week and his teammates still rock the shirt too. You will typically see one or two of his teammates at batting practice everyday wearing it since that night, and they’ve taken note of how he goes about his business on a daily basis.

“Gino (LuJames) Groover is everything you want in a ball player. I think it's funny because the way he acts in the locker room is so nonchalant, just doesn't really care a lot about a lot of stuff. When he gets on the baseball field, it's like a switch flips.” Sod Poodles catcher Jeremiah Boyd said of his teammate. "He does such a great job on his work. Even watching him defensively, I've come up with him and he's gotten a lot better at third. He's been fun to watch, and we all know he can hit. So it's no surprise that he just hits anywhere he goes."

Sod Poodles outfielder and one of Groover’s roommates, Gavin Conticello echoed Boyd’s praise about their teammates skill with the lumber.

"I've played with him for over two years now, and I've never seen him not hit. What he can do up there is pretty impressive." Gavin Conticello said.

After his batting practice session every day, Groover grabs his glove with the word "Groovy" embroidered on it, and heads to the hot corner to take ground balls from Sod Poodles manager Javier Colina, helping improve at yet another aspect of his game.

“His preparation is always great. 
Gino (LuJames) always gives you his best, and he’s been so consistent, man. When you do things the right way, the preparation and everything, it translates at 7:05 and he's one of those guys.”  Colina preached having seen Groover at two different levels, including last year in High-A Hillsboro. “He's looking for perfection all the time. He wants to learn more, to challenge himself a little bit more in all different areas every day and he's doing really well. I'm proud of Gino (Groover) so far this year and what he's accomplished.”

LuJames Groover - Emma McReynolds Photography

SEVEN MILES. That’s the approximate distance from The Walker school baseball field, where Groover played his high school baseball, to Truist Park where the All-Star Future’s Game will be held on Saturday July 12th and with the invitation came a phone call from a different manager in the Diamondbacks system, the skipper for the big club Torey Lovullo.

“I just got done hitting. I was actually taking some vitamins and I got a random phone call. 
Something just told me to pick it up this time. I normally don't pick up random numbers, but I decided to pick it up, and it was Torey." Groover explained about his hunch."He congratulated me, and asked me how I've been. 
It's the big league manager, and that's the end goal. I was thankful for the praise from him.”

Groover will get to do what he does best, with some of the other bright young talent in baseball, putting his skills on display for the world to see, in his home state of Georgia.

“It’s been awhile! I get to see my parents and my hometown. So I’m excited, hopefully my mom’s going to be cheffing it up. That’s really what I’m looking forward to. We will have a lot of family, friends, and my girlfriend is going and I think her dad is coming, so there’s going to be a lot of people.”

The Groover's are great at what they do. LuJames Groover II played for the Harlem Globetrotters, and his sister performs on Broadway, but one special guest hasn't had the chance to see him play as a pro just yet.

“This will be the first time that my grandma gets to see me play as a professional, so I have to make sure that I go crazy.” 

LuJames Groover - Photo Credit Emma McReynolds Photography

Groover hit .387 in his last full season his junior year when he played with the other alumni from The Walker School that will be playing at the All-Star Futures Game. Last year's third overall pick out of the University of Georgia, Charlie Condon will also be joining him in Atlanta on the National League roster, playing with Groover once again.

“We actually texted each other the other day congratulating each other. We are really excited to play with each other again, probably in front of some of our high school friends. We grew up together, he’s seen me grow up, I’ve seen him grow up so this is pretty cool.”

The dynamic duo posted slash lines of .387/.513/.774/1.287 for Groover as a junior, and .417/.481/.458/.939 for Condon as a sophomore in their final full season together before COVID-19 would cut Groover's final season short, and the infielder headed off to tackle college baseball.

“I got a name from Leland Maddox who is a professional scout and a big deal around the Charlotte area. He gave me a name and said that you’ve got to see this kid from the Atlanta Area”  then University of North Carolina at Charlotte hitting/associate head coach Bo Robinson said of the first time he heard the name LuJames (Often referred to as Gino) Groover. “On the first day that I saw him, I watched him hit in the cage, and I knew that I had to have him. He was a guy that was very advanced for his age. Gino went out there and played in a game on our field, and he was on time to a 90 MPH fastball, and when you're in high school you don’t see that very often. Then in the second at bat he hit a homer with a wood bat at our stadium. After that I pretty much got up, got on my phone and called Maddox and said yeah he's a guy I want. It was a no-brainer.”

Robinson got his guy. Groover wound up on campus playing for the 49ers and lead the team in average, slashing  .351/.380/.489/.870 in his freshman season, including launching his first collegiate home run at Hayes Field against a ranked Tennessee team, and finishing his Charlotte career on a 20 game on-base streak.

After his freshman year Groover transferred to North Carolina State to play for Elliott Avent, and reunited with Coach Robinson who had taken a job on staff with the Wolfpack. Robinson and Groover would continue to forge a great bond with Robinson in the process.

"Essentially, he helped form my swing. When I was in college, he came up with my whole routine. 
I owe a lot to him for just giving me that opportunity. He was also a part of the reason why I went to NC State as well." Groover said of his college coach. "He looked out for me, he made sure I was always taking care of, and he helped me become the player and hitter I am today."

Groover would get to play with another member of the upcoming Futures Game in now Athletics prospect Tommy White. White played one season at NC State with the Sod Poodles third basemen before transferring to a historically good LSU team and winning a National Championship. 

“We hit back to back the whole year, and we were inflicting a lot of pain and a lot of damage. ​​I think that was just a really good team." Groover said of White. "He's a great hitter, a great player, and great person. I haven't seen him in a long time. So we'll have some catching up to do.”

“I'll tell you what that was a fun team to have when you had Gino (Groover) and Tommy White on the same team at NC State that was a fun group. There's no doubt about that, but that was a devastating force to have it in the middle of your order.” Robinson said about the duo that combined for 66 extra base hits in Groover's sophomore season.

LuJames Groover - Photo Credit: Parker Liles for Sideline Sports

The infielder's junior season saw him slash .332/.430/.546/.975, set collegiate highs with 13 home runs and 50 RBI, and walked 10 more times than he struck out. Those numbers and his potential were good enough for the Diamondbacks to take him in the 2nd round of the 2023 MLB Draft. The only thing that has slowed Groover down has been a broken wrist suffered at the beginning of 2024 at High-A Hillboro, but even then Groover would get back on track later that year after recovering and he making it to Amarillo for the final stretch of the season, hitting .340/.400/.600/1.000 for the 14 games he was in Bomb City.

It's all brought him to where he is, leading the Texas League in batting average at .306, and finding himself in the top 5 in SLG (.464), OPS (.846), Line Drive % (28.6%), and wRC (53). Those numbers will easily make him a Texas League All-Star, and have sent him to Atlanta for the All-Star Futures Game with using the same routine that he brought with him this far.

“I think to be good in this game, you have to be consistent at everything, whether it's hitting defense, running, pitching, whatever it is." Groover said after getting his work in before a game. "The best are consistent at what they do, and then when you take being great at something, and then you become consistent at it, that's when you get All Star or Hall of Fame type guys. So I think if you want to do anything for a long time, you have to be consistent at it.”

Groover continues to consistently get it done everyday, and you can watch him do his thing at the All-Star Futures Game this Saturday July 12th on MLB Network at 3:00 CT.