Most mornings growing up, Megan Grant ate her breakfast with the TV tuned to MLB Network. She loved watching “Quick Pitch,” the daily show that aired highlights of the previous day of baseball, catching fans up on games or moments they missed.
Grant’s affinity for the sport wasn’t only as a fan. She didn’t play softball until the seventh grade; instead, she started with baseball because of her older brothers, Devin and Camron, who played. Those mornings eating cereal and watching MLB Network are when she saw a mental approach that’s stuck with her throughout her career.
Sean Casey, also known in his 12-year Major League career as “The Mayor,” took to TV after his playing days. The three-time MLB All-Star regularly appeared on MLB Tonight as an analyst, sharing his elite hitting knowledge and approach.
Casey batted .302 with 130 home runs and 735 RBIs in his career. He played most of his career with the Cincinnati Reds (1998-2005), a club that now has him in the Hall of Fame. He had stints with the Cleveland Indians (1997), Pittsburgh Pirates (2006), Detroit Tigers (2006-07), and Boston Red Sox (2008), too.
Casey finished in the top-10 in National League batting average three times in his career and had six seasons in which he hit better than .300.
“See the ball, be easy, and hammer it” was Casey’s hitting mantra. He wrote it on a notecard that he kept in his back pocket and would peek at before at-bats.
Casey picked it up from “The Mental Game of Baseball” by H.A. Dorfman and Karl Kuehl. Grant, now the NCAA single-season home run record holder, picked it up from Casey when watching “MLB Tonight” in high school.
The goal of the notecard was to simplify Casey’s thoughts. And the “be easy” was all about breath.
“That breath reset everything,” Casey explained on “MLB Tonight.” “Just a big deep breath cause I felt like if I’m easy and I’m slow, guess what? I’m turning my vision on … I was always taught tension’s poison. You’ve got to get it out of your body. That breath gets you back to being relaxed. See the ball, be easy, hammer it.”
She adapted the mantra and used it throughout her teen years while playing travel ball and throughout high school. As a three-sport athlete at Aragon High School, she was hammering it herself. In her freshman year, she posted a .500 batting average with 51 RBIs and was named the San Francisco Chronicle’s softball regional player of the year. As a senior, she hit above .500 again and was named her region’s softball co-Player of the Year, plus the San Mateo Daily Journal Girls’ Athlete of the Year.
Things hardly slowed down once she got to UCLA. She logged a batting average above .333 every year and an OPS above 1.000 in three different seasons. Her best was in 2026 with a slashline of .455 / .510 / 1.308. Her OPS for the year finished at 1.947.
She became the Bruins’ all-time home run leader (91) and NCAA Division I single-season home run leader (42), breaking a record that stood for 38 years.
Seven years after Grant watched Casey break down his approach on TV, Grant was on MLB Network herself, sharing her own approach that had caught attention.
Between pitches, she leans over, almost in a bow. With her left hand on her helmet, she closes her eyes and takes a deep breath.
“Honestly, it’s all within my routine. I developed it sophomore year,” Grant explained to MLB Network analyst Harold Reynolds.
“It kind of just came natural … So, I just decided to stick with it all throughout my years. Some people think I’m saying something, but really it’s just a breath. Oxygen is really big for me, especially when I’m in the box. Just allowing myself not to think about anything, just competing.”
In the new city of Portland and on a new stage as a pro with Cascade, some things will remain the same for Grant. Lean down, left hand on the helmet, deep breath.
And as usual, hammer it.
Savanna Collins is the Senior Reporter for the AUSL. You can follow her on Instagram @savvyco.