"Before he left, we were told to stroke Matt gently and to tell him goodbye," said Becky Hobgood, his mother. His only chance was a blood-cleansing procedure that carried its own risks, including blindness and brain damage. The parents agreed.
"By God's grace, Matt turned out perfect," his mom said.
He grew fast and weighed 30 pounds within a year.
"He was a beast," Becky Hobgood said. "Whenever my husband and I took Matt out somewhere, we had to take turns holding him because he was so heavy. Solid, too, like a tank."
At 8, he got a ball and glove for his birthday. The youngster's eyes lit up. Outside, on a wall of the house, he fashioned a strike zone out of duct tape and taught himself to pitch.
"I'd stand out there and throw for hours," Hobgood said. "Never got burned out. Maybe that's why I'm able to pitch deep into games."
Youth leagues beckoned, and his father attended games when he could. Stricken with cancer when Matt was 6, Rick Hobgood battled for eight years before his death in January 2005. Once a bear of a man at 240 pounds, he weighed 100 at the end.
"Rick hung on until there was absolutely nothing of him left," Becky Hobgood said. "He did it for the kids. He said, 'If it was just me, I'd go to be with Jesus.' "
Matt and his sisters have coped well, their mom said.
"I told Matt that it wasn't his job to be the new man of the house, and that a 14-year-old kid deserved to be a kid," she said. "But, living in this sea of estrogen, I guess he took on that larger role himself."
In high school, Hobgood homered 39 times - including 21 this past season - and on each occasion, he raised two fingers to the sky. No one at Norco had to ask why. But only on the last one did he squat and draw Rick Lewis Hobgood's initials in the dirt.
The blast put a huge dent in Matt Hobgood's bat, which had to be replaced. The old one, he will keep forever.
Matt Hobgood
Hometown: Norco, Calif.
Age: 18
Size: 6-4, 245
Position: RHP-1B
2009 high school statistics: Won 11 of 12 decisions with a 0.92 ERA, 101 strikeouts and 26 walks in 68 1/3 innings for Norco High. Batted .475 with a nation-high 21 home runs and 55 RBIs.
Awards: 2008-09 Gatorade National Baseball Player of the Year; 2008 Los Angeles Times Player of the Year.
