White says he has two types of swings. This is an important point when looking at his start to his NC State career, which included nine home runs in his first eight games.
The first is his game swing. On his first swing, it was pure muscle, attacking the center-field wall. He is happy to hit all fields with one strike. His high school spray charts are a study in symmetry.
His dad compares his approach to Jeff Bagwell's, just looking to put the ball in play, with two strikes. White doesn't like strikeouts, if most big league power hitters have embraced the swing-and-miss as the cost of doing business.
Each approach is different and aiming for clean, hard contact. He said that he is a power hitter who wants to hit for average.
His second swing is a home run derby swing.
White was not swinging for power when he hit nine home runs, including three in his first game as a college player. That was the normal game swing, and his dominant debut was something of a happy accident -- good swings at the right time, and the ball just happened to fly out of the park. There was no showing off.
White said he was focused on getting a couple hits that first weekend.
With Major League Baseball working through the final stages of a tumultuous lockout, college ball was the only game going, and White's hot start, combined with a quirky image complete with dangling jewelry and a scraggly beard, instantly made him a cult hero. He had a nickname, a merchandise line from Barstool Sports, and a legion of fans who show up to home games with mullet wigs, fake beards, reflective sunglasses, and gold chains.
White wants you to remember that this was abnormal, the far end of his bell curve. It was not going to be sustainable. The game is unpredictable.
White was going to cool off as the Wolfpack prepared to play Florida State in mid-March, and he had gone eight games without a home run.
He hit two more out of the park against FSU. He added another against Georgia Tech a week later. He had a hit in 11 straight games entering this weekend's series against Virginia Tech, and after striking out four times in an extra-innings affair in the finale of the series against the Seminoles, he whiffed just three times in 29 at bats. White is hitting.355 for the season with 12 homers and a 1.132 OPS.
He is quick to point out that the start of the Tommy Tanks era at NC State was not a coincidence. The second act might look different than the first.
The home runs are what created the craze, but he is more than that. He is a really good baseball player.
White is a ball player even without his uniform. He has the look. Not just any baseball look. Think back to the mid- 1990s, when there was a scraggly beard, a barrel-chested man with gold chains around his neck, and long, dirty blond hair.
"You could put his face on this article and people will be drawn into it," said Kason Gabbard, White's high school coach.
The hair is a natural look for him.
NC State second baseman J.J. Jarrett said that he was the perfect guy for a mullet. That is him.
White was late in realizing his destiny if he was straight out of baseball's central casting. White quit baseball when he was 13 years old.
White switched travel ball teams when he was 13 The team was built for speed because he was playing on the bigger fields. He didn't hit many long balls when he was brought in. He wasn't scrawny, but he hadn't filled out yet, and the power numbers he posted on smaller fields didn't translate. He found himself on the bench or demoted to a position that he wasn't enjoying much. He was ready to move on.
Baseball has always been more of a hobby. White liked basketball and fishing and that was enough to make up for his competitive fire. After a friend invited him to play in a baseball tournament after a year away from the game, he figured, why not?
White said that he saw balls start jumping off his bat. I thought maybe I can do this.
His dad thought there was a future for his boy in baseball. Maybe a Division II or mid-level scholarship was possible. He told his son to stick with the sport.
Tom Jr. said he could see his hand-eye coordination.
White began to blossom into a star as a senior at IMG Academy. If his first eight games at NC State represent a high-water mark to his career so far, a close second might have been his sophomore season in high school, when he had a hit in every game but one.
White went to Raleigh for the first time that summer. He practiced with the team. He saw 18 pitches. He hit them all out of the park.
White had always told his father that the first school that offered him a scholarship and a chance to make the College World Series would be his landing spot. The power show solidified the decision.
White thought he could do some damage.
White is the only guy in Raleigh who wears a ski cap, and he often wears a face mask and sunglasses to escape the attention of campus-wide fame.
Tommy Tanks is an obvious celebrity, but this is new territory for Tommy White.
White, a third baseman in high school, had pro prospects, but the MLB draft hadn't been particularly kind to power-hitting corner infielders in recent years. White was not ready to skip college for the first decent offer.
He huddled with his dad and came up with a number, and told teams that if they couldn't hit it, he was going to NC State. He plays first base for the Wolfpack.
It was hard for Tommy to see friends getting drafted, and he is still sitting there without anyone calling. Your path will go through Raleigh.
The lack of fishing options has been the biggest problem so far.
White spends most of his time deep-sea fishing at home in Florida, and is proud of his trophy fish. White doesn't like the fame his fast start at NC State has given him. He loves fishing because it is quiet. That is his comfort zone.
His dad said that he was low-key and overwhelmed by the attention.
White had no idea how to use social media. He said that a lot of people post him stuff and repost him, and that he is not familiar with the abbreviations on the social networking site.
There has always been pressure in the batter's box. White remembers his legs shaking as he walked to the plate for his first college at-bat, the one that turned into a home run to dead center. For better or worse, the game has become a job. He is not complaining. When he set the high bar for MLB teams, he chose NC State as his home for the next three years. He learns and refines his skill set there. If it is not a job yet, it is an internship.
A rare college baseball player who, for a week or two at least, became part of the cultural zeitgeist, after a magnificent start, followed by something approaching true stardom. He was going to play a conference game. How is a guy supposed to think about that?
Everyone is expecting him to have those games all the time, but it is not going to happen.
He had his concerns as well. The Tommy Tanks Show is something new for him and he has coached some big-time prospects.
Avent said he had never seen something like it before.
The more he talked to White, the more comfortable he was with his freshman. White is still laughing and talking with his teammates. He wears a mask and hoodie around campus to keep a low profile.
NC State and Duke played a scrimmage at the Durham Bulls stadium. There is a warehouse outside the left-field wall.
He was letting it eat him during the game, and I could tell he was trying to put balls on top of the building. I thought that was different.
The home run-derby swing has not been seen by the Wolfpack since then. There was no showing off. Tommy Tanks is doing his job.
White still wants a call from a major league team with an offer that surpasses the number he set as a high school senior. He hopes the start to the Tommy Tanks era will be a postscript on a career that includes more than a few weeks of celebrity status.
He said that the Tommy Tanks Show is still going on. He is writing a plot for something better.
White doesn't have to prove anything to anyone right now.
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