TOWER GROVE • With all the relatives and advisers on the field Sunday snapping pictures and watching to see first-rounder Kolten Wong take his first swings at Busch Stadium, one was strikingly removed from the crowd.

His father.

Sitting in the stands, nine or 10 rows or so back from the field, was Kaha Wong with Kolten's younger brother. Kaha. To the best of anyone's knowledge, Kaha Sr. did not step foot on the major-league field. Kolten said it wasn't his "style," and vice president Jeff Luhnow said Kaha wanted to stay back and enjoy the view "because this day was all about Kolten." Another person with the group said Kaha would likely wait to walk on the big-league field until Kolten was there to play, not take BP.

"My parents want to go to the (team) store," Kolten explained about staying for Sunday's game. "And buy the whole store. ... I'm excited to play. I'm excited to get going."

It didn't take him long.

In his pro debut Monday night for Low-A Quad Cities, Wong went 2-for-2 with two RBIs, a walk and a hit batter. He started at second base and hit third for Johnny Rodriguez's River Bandits, two spots Wong will be familiar with as this season speeds ahead. Wong was a part of a double play and got caught trying to steal second. He had two singles but neither of his RBIs came on those hits. In his first pro at-bat he lofted a sacrifice fly to score Ronny Gil for QC's first run. Later he was hit by a pitch with the bases loaded to force in a run.

"The guy is a ballplayer," manager Rodriguez told reporters in Davenport, Iowa. (You can see Steve Batterson's game story from the Quad City Times here.) "He took a ball off his face during infield and just kept going. I watched his eyes all night, and his focus, it was there from start to finish."

I took some video of Wong's BP at Busch for those wanting to get a better view of the 22nd overall pick, and I've scattered those clips through the series of tubes. Pick your preference:

-- Wong's first round of BP, via YouTube.

-- Wong's round of BP, via the Bird Land@Facebook page.

-- A shorter round of BP, via the Bird Land@Facebook page (scroll down).

-- Another round from Wong's BP (featuring a homer), via YouTube.

-- A round with Mark McGwire heard in the background, via YouTube.

-- And a final round of BP for Wong, via YouTube.

That swing that you see in the video is the product of Wong working with his father -- a lot. Luhnow told the story this past weekend that when the Cardinals called to remind Wong to bring his Social Security Card with him to St. Louis, they finally tracked him down in the cages. On the day of the draft, Wong had already been on the field and in the cage with his father before the draft started. When Kolten had trouble with his swing at the University of Hawaii, he called his father for help.

"He said he was frustrated because he'd never hit below .400, anywhere," Kaha told The Honolulu Star-Bulletin several years ago for a story on his son's resurgent hitting. "I told him this isn't the Big Island where he could go in the batter's box, read the newspaper and still swing in time. This is different -- the ball's on top of you if you're not ready."

Kaha is a youth coach on the islands and a former pro ballplayer himself. He followed McGwire onto the baseball team at the Unviersity of Southern California in the 1980s, and Kaha played a couple seasons for Class A Reno as a third baseman in the California League.

Kolten credits him with helping to maintain his swing.

The group of folks that gathered behind home plate -- and the two family members who kept their distance by watching from the stands -- for Wong's ceremonial rounds of BP on Sunday all planned to head north to Quad Cities for his game debut. Kolten said he hasn't been to the Midwest before and his family was going to help him "get settled in. They want to make sure I'm all set."

The group from Hawaii, he said, has already had quite the adventure. Their luggage was momentarily lost (it arrived at dawn on Sunday). They planned to caravan to Quad Cities. And, Kolten said, many of them had never seen storms like the ones that strafed St. Louis on Saturday night.

"That lightning, we don't have that," he said. "It was like watching fireworks for us."

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