A Man Called Kyle Schwarber

Larger than life. Stronger than a bull. A hero to all.

- Hallie Grossman

IN THE BEGINNING

KYLE SCHWARBER JOINS THE PANTHEON OF HEROES

Gather close, dear reader, for the tale of Kyle Schwarber, he of the giant bat and mighty homers that echo still through the Midwestern night. It is a story of a man and his home runs that generations will know.

Kyle Schwarber hit his first dinger at the tender age of 10. It was the most remarkable of shots: a grand slam! In a tournament! On Father’s Day! In Cooperstown!

A mere six years later, as a stocky sophomore at Middletown High in Ohio, Kyle Schwarber wowed the faithful again, launching a line-drive missile—“It couldn’t have gone more than 20 feet in the air!” marvels Jason Cave, his high school coach— that hurtled over the fence, smashing a window of a Ford Aerostar. Those in the stands on that April evening still recall the sound of shattered glass as young Kyle Schwarber rounded the bases on his walk-off game winner.

But neither of these feats would compare to the home run Kyle Schwarber launched the very next year, sealing his name in south Ohio lore. On an otherwise unremarkable day in the spring of 2010, No. 12, Kyle Schwarber, stood in the dirt, a fireplug at the plate, 6 feet tall and growing into his 235-pound frame, and sent a ball sailing into the Middletown sky. On it traveled, up, up, up, over the right-field fence, beyond Forest Hills Drive and past the press box that looks onto the high school’s adjoining soccer field. Legend holds that, before Kyle Schwarber, only one other player had crushed a ball beyond that press box: his childhood idol, Ken Griffey Jr., from nearby Moeller High.