Fort Wayne, Ind. is not traditionally thought of as a place that fosters  Major League Baseball talent.  Jarrod Parker, a 2007 Norwell High School graduate, might be the best player to ever come out of the area.  Jarrod was the 9th overall pick in 2007, drafted by the Arizona Diamondbacks.  Fast forward to June 9th, 2010, the last day of Major League Baseball’s 3-day long ‘First Year Player Draft’, and long after most people stopped paying attention, a Fort Wayne, Ind. player was taken with the 941st pick.  And don't look now but he is making a name for himself.

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Kevin Kiermaier grew up an athletically gifted young man, excelling in football, basketball, and baseball.  His high school days with Fort Wayne Bishop continue to be near and dear to his heart.  “We went 30-3 my senior year.  We won football, basketball, and baseball.  For me to finish it off with baseball, it was like…it was crazy.”



Most college scouts and professional scouts don’t go looking for talent at 2A baseball schools in Indiana.  Kiermaier felt this struggle

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throughout his high school career, until finally somebody took notice:  “The playoffs, that’s actually where I got recognized by my junior college.  So if we had never made it deep in the playoffs, I don’t know where I would be right now.”



After an eventful last year of high school, he made his way to Parkland College in Champaign, Illinois.  There he flourished as a player, and was finally recognized by a pro scout. Kiermaier said all he wanted to do was have a chance at NCAA Division 1 baseball, but going to his junior college he was recognized while practicing in the gym by a Tampa Bay scout, “ he watched me hit and he liked what he’d seen,” he said.  Then in 2010 began the baseball career many young athletes dream about.



Kiermaier spent his 2010 campaign playing in rookie ball where he impressed the organization enough to spend 2011 in Single-A ball at Bowling Green, Ky. He continued to ascend upwards and for the majority of the 2012 season he was with the Charlotte Stone Crabs, Tampa Bay’s advanced Single-A affiliate. “We have some guys here that you have to watch so they get their work in, but Kevin, I don’t have to worry about Kevin,” Skeeter Barnes, outfield and base running coach said when explaining how Kiermaier’s work ethic has the determination of a major league ball player.



However, 2012 may not have gone exactly as planned.  Kiermaier missed 63 games with two broken hands.  After rehabbing back in rookie ball and making a comeback to advanced A Charlotte, Kiermaier dazzled his coaches and fans to earn himself a call up to Triple-A with the Durham Bulls.  After an exhausting year of recovering from his injury, Kiermaier was ecstatic about the call up.  “Once my manager told me I was going up to Triple-A, I caught a second wind and that was my first time being up there.  I was excited about the competition.”



​Kiermaier continued to impress the coaching staff with his excellent work ethic and dedication to becoming a big leaguer. “I’d put him in the outfield against any big leaguer right now,” said Barnes. Kiermaier needs to continue to learn how to hit and how to hit well before he is ready to join the Major League teams, even if his outfield skills are ready for the next level said Barnes.



By this time in their careers, most 31st round picks never even accomplish what Kevin Kiermaier has already achieved.  In fact, he is the only player from the 31st round of the 2010 draft to have played in Triple-A.  In 2013, he will start the season in Double-A with the Montgomery Biscuits, with his Major League call up dangling in the near future.



“If you had told me I would have been a pro baseball player two years after high school, I would have said you were nuts,” said Kiermaier with a smile.  “It ended up working out, and I love my life.”

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