'I vow to make my dad proud': DREAM Series pitcher presses on after tragedy
Kevari Thunderbird is chasing big league dreams while honoring his late father
Betelhem Ashame
@betelhem_ashameTEMPE, Ariz. -- When it came to baseball, Kevari Thunderbird¡¯s father, Kevin, made it a priority to always be present.
Whether it was practices, games or MLB Develops showcase events, Kevari could count on his father being in attendance. Baseball was the sport that bonded them together. Kevin was a star center fielder for Simeon High School in Chicago; Kevari is a star left-hander for nearby Kenwood Academy.
Last May, Kevari pitched a 12-strikeout gem to lead Kenwood to the first Chicago Public League city championship in the school¡¯s history. He turned 17 years old the next day.
It was a family affair, as Kevari¡¯s two older brothers, Kevin Jr. and K¡¯Vion, were also part of that title-winning team. On a Monday afternoon at Guaranteed Rate Field -- home of the Chicago White Sox -- Kevin Sr. watched three of his sons become champions.
No one could possibly have known that it would be one of the last times he¡¯d see them play.
¡°We used to go to the park and be in the backyard like 24/7. We used to talk about baseball since I even knew what a baseball was,¡± Kevari said last week after finishing his workouts at the 2024 DREAM Series. ¡°That¡¯s where my love came from and where my passion came from. He just was there every moment. He was there every step of the way. That¡¯s [why] baseball is -- it¡¯s the greatest thing ever.¡±
Thunderbird was one of more than 80 predominately Black elite high school athletes invited to Tempe Diablo Stadium to work with current and former Major League players and managers on improving their pitching and catching abilities in the hopes of reaching the next level.
The DREAM Series, held annually since 2017 during Martin Luther King Jr. Day weekend, is one of a circuit of amateur development initiatives put on by MLB and USA Baseball with the goal of helping talented ballplayers, specifically from diverse backgrounds and underserved communities, chase their big league aspirations.
Thunderbird has been to all of them, whether it¡¯s the Breakthrough Series, the Hank Aaron Invitational or the Nike RBI World Series. A member of the White Sox Amateur City Elite (ACE) program since he was 10, Thunderbird is no stranger to the spotlight.
As Kenny Fullman, co-founder of the ACE program, narrated in a video that aired on a special edition of MLB Network¡¯s ¡°Hot Stove¡± live from Tempe: ¡°200 miles from our home of Chicago lives the Field of Dreams. In 2021, on the site of the father-son baseball movie, kids from our Chicago ACE program saw their dreams fulfilled. And one name, in particular, caught the attention of fans and scouts.¡±
Fullman was referring, of course, to Thunderbird, who pumped gas on the mound to strike out consecutive batters in Dyersville, Iowa, as Chicago¡¯s top youth team defeated New York¡¯s one day before the White Sox walked off the Yankees in the inaugural MLB at Field of Dreams Game.
As fate would have it, that was the one event Kevin Sr. wasn¡¯t in attendance for. Even though he couldn¡¯t make the trip, he was watching the game on TV, locked in on his son¡¯s performance as if he were in the stands.
¡°He was so happy when I talked to him after the game, it was like he was there with me,¡± Kevari said. ¡°He said he was talking to me through the TV, and he said he felt like I was listening to him. Because at first, I was doing good, but I knew I could do better and he knew I could do better. He was just like, ¡®Just chill, kid, just chill.¡¯ And he said when he said that, I turned my whole game around.¡±
It proved to be a turning point in his playing career as a whole, both on and off the field.
¡°That¡¯s kind of how I got to bond with a lot of my teammates. All of us go to school together now,¡± Thunderbird said. ¡°If it wasn¡¯t for that game, I don¡¯t think a lot of my teammates and I would be as close as we are today. So I want to thank whoever even put us in that game, because if it wasn¡¯t for them, I wouldn¡¯t be here today.¡±
Those were the teammates with whom Thunderbird won a city championship in his junior season, with Chicago mayor Brandon Johnson on hand to congratulate them. And they were the ones who were by his side when his world was upended two weeks to the day later.
On a Monday night in June, Kevin Sr. was walking in Hyde Park when he was shot in a drive-by. The 36-year-old father of five boys was taken to the University of Chicago Medical Center, where he was later pronounced dead.
Kevari was slated to attend the Breakthrough Series at the Jackie Robinson Training Complex in Vero Beach, Fla., that weekend. Kevin Sr. was supposed to join him.
Amid unimaginable grief, Kevari chose to go, while the rest of his family hosted a vigil with hundreds of community members on the baseball diamond of Kevin Sr.¡¯s alma mater.
¡°Us as a coaching staff, we were just going to wrap our arms around him, make sure he knew that it was a place to really distract him from the things that [were] going on at the time and give him our support,¡± Marvin Freeman, a Chicago native and longtime MLB pitcher who has taken Kevari under his wing, told MLB Network. ¡°I thought it was very, very courageous of him to say, ¡®I want to be there.¡¯ It just shows a lot about what kind of character he has and how he¡¯s built.¡±
Later that summer, the Nike RBI World Series offered another outlet for Kevari to deal with the magnitude of his loss. He wrote an essay for the ¡°Breaking Barriers¡± contest, which was started by Jackie¡¯s daughter, Sharon Robinson, and tasks participants with sharing an obstacle they have faced or are still facing in their lives, like the trailblazer did in his own MLB career.
Standing amongst a crowd of his peers, Thunderbird couldn¡¯t believe his ears when David James, MLB¡¯s vice president of baseball and softball development, began to read part of one of the winning submissions:
Winning a city championship was a goal of mine this high school season. I learned how to play and love the game from my dad. And I vow to make my dad proud. All things I do going forward will be in memory of my father, Kevin Thunderbird, Sr.
¡°It was shocking,¡± Kevari said. ¡°A lot of people were talking to me like, ¡®Man, that¡¯s a lot of stuff you went through and you¡¯re still here.¡¯ ¡ Whoever¡¯s going through adversity, they can look at my story and be like, ¡®Oh, he did it, so that means I can do it.¡¯
¡°I really sat back and cried when -- I didn¡¯t cry in front of people -- but when I got it, I went in my room and was just like, ¡®Man, I just really did that.¡¯ I inspired a lot of people. I didn¡¯t know I touched that many people. It was big for me.¡±
With his senior season on the horizon, Thunderbird -- who has not yet committed to a college -- is focused on what lies ahead. This year, he wants to win not just city, but a state championship. After that, it¡¯s all about being drafted. Just like he and his father always talked about.
Kevari never considered leaving behind the game they both love.
¡°You¡¯ve got to keep pushing through,¡± Thunderbird said. ¡°It¡¯s just adversity, that¡¯s really what it is. It¡¯s just God testing you, like, ¡®Can I fight through tragedies? Can I still stay on top of what I need to stay on top of?¡¯ Because I still got people who look up to me.
¡°If I would have quit, it would have been like it was all for nothing. ¡ I feel like it was just him giving me motivation. Before he even passed, there was motivation, but with him leaving, it was like, ¡®All right, now you got to do it without me.¡¯ It¡¯s going to be 10 times harder, but you just got to get through it.¡±
Just like in Iowa, Kevari may not be able to see him, but Kevin Sr. will always be there.