Before Luke Weaver became a Friday night starter at Florida State, before he was picked in the first round, before he became a journeyman starter who became vital in the Bronx, he grew up as a shortstop to hone his skills in his backyard in central Florida.

Mark Weaver owns 30 acres in DeLand. On one of them, near the family home, he built a shooting range for his two sons. It became a refuge for Luke and his younger brother Jake. There were L-screens, pitching machines and lights to help them play baseball when the sun went down.

“It was great,” said Mark Weaver. “I had the Cadillac. I had completely lit him up. Like a baseball field at night, man.”

Teammates and their families would gather there. The children waved away. The parents watched from the benches. They drank drinks and snacks while the aluminum pinged. Luke, if you listen to his father, was “the man. He could crank it up, man. Oh my god.”

Mark Weaver didn’t play baseball after high school – he has run a construction company specializing in major remodeling projects in DeLand for 31 years – but he has invested heavily in his sons’ passion for the sport. He provided the tools and challenged them.

Luke Weaver believes it was the time he spent in those cages, the countless ground ball drills at the local park, the two-day and the three-day, that prepared him for his current role under brighter lights – a role very different from what he had imagined presented when he hit line drives at home – and all the adversity he faced.

Weaver isn’t just excelling in his first season as a reliever. The wiry right-hander — he’s listed at 6-foot-4 and 183 pounds — has been a godsend for the New York Yankees and the central figure for a bullpen that has exceeded expectations in the postseason.

“His personality just clicks,” Mark Weaver said. “He just changes. He becomes super competitive. And he does, he becomes ferocious. He’s a very nice guy and a little soft at times. But I wouldn’t cross him.”

The idiosyncratic closer for the Yankees, who will make their first World Series appearance in 15 years on Friday night, has compared escaping a traffic jam to “when you see the ice cream truck and your parents say yes and you kind of faint,” and attributed his dramatic fastball improvement to drinking “local orange juice with a little bit of pulp.” Earlier this month, during the Yankees’ clubhouse celebration after the team advanced to the American League Championship Series, he credited the “fierce jungle cat” in him for his perfect ninth inning.

“I was mixing things up and the word ‘savage’ came to mind,” said Weaver, 31. “And then the next word was ‘jungle’ and then the next word was ‘cat.’ So there’s no reason for it .”

Weaver was an anonymous middle reliever when the season started and now enters games at Yankee Stadium for a montage and Gary Wright’s “Dream Weaver” amid “LUUUUUUUUKE” chants from the crowd.

In the clubhouse he likes to keep the atmosphere light with one-liners. His dry sense of humor has become an unexpected source of entertainment. Aaron Judge knew about it a while ago. The presumptive AL MVP played with Weaver in the Cape Cod League in 2012. Judge was coming off his sophomore year at Fresno State. Weaver was one of a handful of freshmen invited to play in the prestigious summer league.

“The guy always had a smile on his face, but even when he got on the mound he turned into a different man,” Judge said. “He was just focused, locked in. When you watched his career unfold, he was the same guy.”

That competitive side is the reason for his rapid rise from failed starter to dominant bullpen arm. At one point last season, when he posted a terrible 6.87 ERA in 21 starts for the Cincinnati Reds, Weaver wasn’t sure this pitching thing was for him anymore. He arrived in New York in September 2023 as a waiver claim with a 5.18 ERA in eight seasons with five teams. The doubt was fleeting.

“I think, ‘Is this something I want to do?’” Weaver said. “And there was just absolutely no way in my core that was allowed.”

A year later — after signing a one-year, $2 million deal with the Yankees in the offseason as starting rotation depth — Weaver became the first Yankees pitcher since Aroldis Chapman in 2017 with multiple five-out saves in a postseason and the first pitcher for any team to save his team’s first four postseason wins since Neftalí Feliz did so for the Texas Rangers in 2011. He did not surrender an earned run from September 2 until Jose Ramirez homered off him in Game 2 of the ALCS — a stretch that included 17 innings, 13 appearances and an unofficial promotion.

Yankees manager Aaron Boone never officially named Weaver his closer when he announced that Clay Holmes would leave the role after a save on September 3. Boone instead said the team would get “creative” with its bullpen usage. But Weaver essentially became the ninth-inning specialist three days later when he recorded his first career save with a scoreless ninth inning at Wrigley Field. In total, including the postseason, he has converted eight saves into nine chances: four in the regular season and four in the playoffs. He has secured at least four outs in five of his eight postseason appearances.

“I love what he does,” Boone said. “He’s a great person, and certainly a nice personality.”

The basis for his sudden success is a vastly improved four-seam fastball. Last year, in 25 starts and four relief appearances for three teams, batters batted .311 and batted .543 with a 17.5% whiff rate against the pitch. They hit .177 with a .331 slugging percentage and 30% whiff percentage during the regular season this year.

Yankees pitching coach Matt Blake explained that the difference comes from two changes: adjusting his grip on the baseball to create (or drive) more vertical motion and throwing harder in shorter bursts as a reliever. Weaver’s average fastball velocity has increased from 94 mph to 95.7 mph this season. His strikeout rate increased from 19.4% to 31.1%. In short, he became a different pitcher.

“It’s kind of like one plus one equals three,” Blake said.

The formula hasn’t been perfect. Weaver experienced failure for the first time in his new role as the baseball world watched. One strike away from giving the Yankees a 3-0 lead in the ALCS, he surrendered a double to Lane Thomas. Moments later, Jhonkensy Noel fouled out for a two-run home run to tie the game and give the Cleveland Guardians life in the series.

Weaver spent the next 48 hours biding his time, thirsty for a new opportunity. He wanted it ‘bad, very bad’. He set the score in the ninth inning of Game 5 with the score tied – one error out of another loss – and retired the side in a row.

“I said to myself, ‘If you give me one point, this game is over,’” Weaver said. “There’s no one scoring on that board.”

Juan Soto gave him three with a go-ahead home run. Weaver then took the mound again to send the Yankees to the World Series for the 41st time.

“I wanted it,” Weaver said. “I wanted it all the time.”

Mark Weaver watched from home. He, his wife and Jake are flying to New York next week to watch Luke play in the World Series. It’s what every child dreams of having in their backyard.

“He’s finally getting to the point where he’s figuring all this stuff out, and he’s finding his role,” Mark Weaver said. “I’m so happy for him that he’s finally coming into his own.”