Sunday, June 7, 1998

BY JOHN FAY
The Cincinnati Enquirer

Austin Kearns stands with his parents Jan and Dan at Lafayette High Schoo in Lexington, Ky. (Breck Smither photo) | ZOOM |

If the Reds are right -- and they're about to bet more than $1 million they are -- Austin Kearns will be the starting right fielder when they open the 2002 season in brand-new Wedged In Stadium.

"That's about right," said Reds General Manager Jim Bowden. "He'll be a rookie when we open the new stadium."

That gives Kearns, who just passed his 18th birthday, 3 1/2 years to go from high school ball to the big leagues.

That's quite a leap, and the baseball world is littered with phenoms who never made it, but don't count young Mr. Kearns out. He has a rare combination of talent and love for the game that has put him well above the development curve since he began playing baseball.

"A ballplayer is all he ever wanted to be," said his father, Dan. "Teachers would get mad and ask what he really wanted to be. But with him it wasn't just some dream."

Kearns is considerably closer to fulfilling his goal since the Reds made him the seventh pick overall in last Tuesday's draft. "It's up to me now," he said. "I love the game. It's what I want to do. I want to be the best I can be."

Still, the baseball draft is about as inexact a science as you can find. You pick players based on what you think they will be able to do in four years. That's how Bernie Carbo gets picked before Johnny Bench, Mike Piazza lasts until the 62nd round and fewer than one third of the first-round picks make it to the majors.

The Reds have been particularly cursed. They haven't drafted a star in the first round since they took Barry Larkin in 1985.

So after a couple of awful picks -- Chad Mottola in 1992 and John Oliver in 1996 -- they didn't leave anything to chance when determining if Kearns was worthy of such a high pick.

"The ball just jumps off his bat," said Al Goldis, the Reds' senior director of scouting - player development. (Breck Smither photo) | ZOOM |

A first-round pick is crucial to any club, but to a team in a low-budget - rebuilding mode, like the Reds, it is paramount to get a good player because: A) they're going to pay him a lot of money (Kearns will get a signing bonus worth between $1 and $2 million); and B) the team is absolutely starved for marquee players to build the future around.

Example: The once downtrodden Seattle franchise was saved by two great picks -- Ken Griffey Jr. and Alex Rodriguez. That's an extreme example because they were first picks overall.

But if Kearns and last year's pick, Brandon Larson, turn out to be 30-home run guys, the Reds will be in sweet shape when the new stadium opens.

To be sure on Kearns, the Reds sent a dozen people to Lexington to get a look at him. But the clincher came when they brought him up to Cinergy Field for a workout two days before the draft.

Kearns was paired with Carlos Pena, a college star from Northeastern. Kearns dominated the workout.

"He had more power to right field than the other player who hits left-handed," said Al Goldis, the Reds' senior director of scouting - player development. "The ball just jumps off his bat."

Kearns, hitting with a wood bat, hit four or five out during his session in the cage, including one in the green seats.

The Reds were sold on Kearns. Pena, by the way, went three picks later to the Texas Rangers.

Higher ceiling

The theory in taking high school players in the draft is that while they may take longer than college players to get to the big leagues, they can have a higher ceiling when they get there.

There are rare cases -- Griffey Jr., Rodriguez and Kerry Wood -- where players come out of high school and get to the bigs as quickly as college player would.

Kearns could be such a kid. The fact that he was more developed than Pena, who is two years older, isn't a surprise to people who know Kearns.

He always has been precocious when it comes to baseball.

Kearns was hitting his dad's overhand pitch at age 2. (Breck Smither photo) | ZOOM |

"When he was 2, I threw an underhand pitch to him from about 10 feet away, like you would with any kid," said Dan Kearns. "He took a swing at it like a 6- or 7-year-old. I said, "Where'd you learn that?' He said, "From TV.' I took 10 steps back and started throwing overhand. That was it. I never threw underhand to him again."

Kearns' childhood has a litany of stories like that. He started T-ball a year early and was banned after his only season. "They worried he'd hurt someone," his father said.

When he was 6, he was tossing with mom. She missed one and it broke her nose.

"She didn't think it was funny at the time," Austin Kearns said. "But it's a funny story looking back on it."

Every Little League or Babe Ruth team he played on won state and regional championships.

He started on the varsity at Lafayette High School as a seventh grader.

By the time he was a sophomore, he hitting tape-measure home runs. They still talk about one of those. His friend and teammate, Jarrod Reynolds, tells the story.

"We were facing this big kid from Bryan Station, Bernie Adams, who threw really hard. Austin hit one that took off like a rocket. It landed on the highest part of the roof of the school.

"It was still going up. It had to go over 400 feet. I've seen him do a lot of things, but that was probably the most amazing."

Kearns has played every position except second base this year for Lafayette High. He was a top pitching prospect before a mechanics problem robbed his fastball of its pop. He has played mostly shortstop lately because that's where he's needed most.

"He has great natural ability," his coach, Rick Langston, said. "But he's always been willing to work at it. A lot of kids with great ability don't want to work at it.

"But you can always count on Austin putting his time in."

All in the family

The Kearns' family life always has revolved around baseball. "When I was growing up, my brothers and sisters and I were always swimming and playing tennis," mother Jan Kearns said. "I guess that's inherited."

However, Austin's talent can't be traced strictly to genes.

"I played baseball in high school," Dan said. "He asked me one time if he got his ability from me. I said, "No, that's special gift from God.' "

Jan and Dan were Austin's first T-ball coaches and have helped nurture his ability through the years.

"It wasn't unusual for just the three of us to go to park just so he could hit," Dan said.

"Austin was always willing to work to on the little things to get better, without anyone telling him to," Jan said.

Dan grew up in Cynthiana, Ky., but came to Lexington to work in the the car business. He met Jan, who is from Boardman, Ohio, there. Austin is their only child. As he got better at baseball, the social life in the summer became his games.

"We've made so many good friends we've met through Austin's teams," Jan said.

How important was baseball to Kearns family? Let Dan tell you:

"When he was 10 years old, I was working for a big auto dealer in town. I would need couple hours to get away to watch his games. You have to understand the auto business is a 60-hour-a-week job. At first, it was OK. Then I started getting funny looks, then comments.

"I decided I didn't want to look back in 20 years and say, "I wish I had been there.' So I started my own used-car business on a shoestring eight years ago. It worked out. I highly recommend it."

The Natural

Kearns and his teammates at Lafayette are at The Ball Diamond in Lexington, waiting around to get in a little batting practice on the afternoon their sectional game has been rained out.

Kearns looks like any other high school kid. He's a little bigger -- 6-foot-3, 215 pounds -- but his build is natural, not brought to you by Creatine.

"He's a five-tool kid," Langston said. "He runs a 6.5 (second) 60-yard dash and that's very good for a kid who's 6-3 and 215 pounds."

Kearns does stand out when he gets in the batting cage. Then you instantly know why the Reds fell in love with him. Kearns' swing is smooth, effortless, a quiet explosion of quick wrists.

The ball ricochets off his bat like a laser shot. But the bat the balls are jumping off of is made of aluminum, the hitter's best friend and a great fooler of scouts.

"The aluminum bat is a big deal," Bowden said. "It's the worst thing in baseball. It's worse than Astroturf, worse than two-sport stadiums, worse than the DH. That's bad because all those things are bad. It's easier to make a mistake when a guy's hitting with an aluminum bat."

The Reds tried to take the guesswork out of the aluminum-wood dilemma. They and 15 other teams had Kearns hit with a wood bat.

"He hit with wood (in those sessions)," Langston said. "On two of those occasions, of the 40 pitches he was thrown, he hit 15 home runs, and on one of those occasions, he hit eight of those 15 on top of the roof of the school -- 415 to 420 feet from home plate."

Now what?

Jan Kearns wonders what life will be like when Austin finishes his high school career.

"It's going to be like, "What do we do now?' " she said.

Austin is likely to be sent to Billings, Mont., for rookie ball. "That's a long ways from here," Kearns said.

The Kearnses were thinking about such things the moment Austin was drafted.

"A lawyer I know in town, Brent Caldwell, was the first one here (on draft day) and the last one to leave," Dan said. "I said to him, "We've got to find someone who knows someone who knows someone (in Billings).'

"The next morning he was back at the house. He had his law partner with him. The partner's best friend is the federal prosecutor in Billings, and he's from Harlan, Ky. When Austin gets to Billings, he'll take him under his wing."

But Dan and Jan will be there -- in spirit at least.

"He's going to get all the support he's needed from this family," Dan said. "Whether it's phone calls once a day, twice a day. Whatever it takes."

And given Austin's track record, it won't be long before he's playing just a short drive up I-75 from the Kearns' home.