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Athletics shortstop Jacob Wilson turned heads on Monday after he hit his first career home run wearing the No. 24 on Rickey Henderson Night in Sacramento. It was a solo shot that came in the bottom of the third inning against the Chicago Cubs to give his team the first run of the game after being down 4-0.
Wilson is the son of Jack Wilson, who was also a shortstop as he played for several teams after being drafted in 1998. Following in his father's footsteps, Jacob has also established himself as a shortstop. Jack's notable playing time came with the Pittsburgh Pirates as he played for them from 2001 to 2009.
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Everything to know about Jacob Wilson
Jacob Wilson was born and brought up in LA, California, where he attended Thousand Oaks High School in Thousand Oaks. He is the son of Jack Wilson and Julie. He has two younger siblings: Jaidyn Faith and Jersi Grace.
Jack was a coach at Thousand Oaks High School from 2017 to 2021 and paid close attention to the development of his son's baseball career. There, he went 98-30-1.
He then went on to play college ball at Grand Canyon University. There, he played 47 games in his freshman year (2021), hitting .313/.376/.440 with four home runs and 29 runs batted in (RBI). In his sophomore year, he hit .358/.418/.585 with 12 home runs and 65 RBI in 59 games.
The following year, in 2022, he went to the Orleans Firebirds of the Cape Cod Baseball League for summer baseball. In 2023, Wilson was drafted by the Athletics sixth overall. After a year in the minors playing for the Athletics affiliated teams, the shortstop was called up to join the 40-man roster on July 19, 2024.
At the time, Jacob was appreciative of his father, as he said:
"It’s pretty awesome being able to have him in my corner. Growing up, his main thing was to really just have fun playing this game. You grow up playing this as a kid.
"Obviously, being blessed enough to play at this stage is pretty awesome. But his main thing was to come in each day, no matter how good or bad you did the day before, and just flip a new page knowing you get to play this game again tomorrow."
Wilson played 28 games last season, hitting .250/.314/.315 with an OPS of .629.
