Glenbrook North Alum At Home At U.S. Cellular

It wasn’t quite the dream homecoming for at Tuesday night’s Cleveland Indians vs. Chicago White Sox game. If this were stuff of storybook legend, the Northbrook native would have hit a crucial home run in his first game in the ballpark he loved growing up. But a bad right oblique muscle prevented that from happening.

Still, it has been quite a ride for someone who was playing for the Spartans of Glenbrook North (GBN) High School a mere six years ago.

The 2005 GBN graduate has been off to a very good start for the Indians since being on July 21. Specifically, while playing second base, he has hit six homers in his first 18 games and has made some history in less than a month of major league action.

Kipnis did not hide his disappointment that a problematic right oblique muscle caused him to miss his third straight game Tuesday night. The Sox defeated Cleveland 8-7 in a 14-inning marathon.

“Obviously, I have a bunch of family and friends that I wanted to play in front of,” Kipnis said, estimating that there may have been as many as 200 friends and family in the U.S. Cellular Field crowd. "You have to put the team first, but we don’t want to turn two games into 28 games.”

Kipnis is hoping to get on the field either Wednesday or Thursday as Cleveland battles the White Sox and Detroit Tigers for the American League Central Division championship.

The injury is likely to be a minor bump in the road for Kipnis, who has risen quickly through the Indians' minor league system after being selected in the second round two years ago in the baseball amateur draft. Now he finds himself in the middle of a pennant race, three games behind the division leading Tigers.

“This is what you dream about when you are a young kid growing up playing the game,” Kipnis said. “To play on fields like this and get into clubhouses like these, it has been unreal so far.”

But his journey has not been the one of an awestruck kid trying to find his place in the majors. Actually, it has been quite the opposite as Kipnis has had a major impact keeping the Indians in the division race.

In addition to his six homers, Kipnis is hitting .279 with 11 runs batted in. Last Wednesday, in a 10-3 victory over the Detroit Tigers, Kipnis went 5-for-5, scored four runs with a homer and had three runs batted in, becoming only the 14th rookie ever in major league baseball history to pull such a feat.

Moreover, he hit homers in four consecutive games from July 31 to Aug. 3, the first player ever to do that in major league history.

But those were not his favorite moments so far in his short time in the big leagues. That occurred July 25, less than a week after being called up, when Kipnis got a game winning hit in a 3-2 Cleveland victory over the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim.

It was his first hit as an Indian, his first game-winning hit and provided his initial victory with his new team.  

“I knocked three birds with one stone on that one,” Kipnis said. “I won’t be forgetting that for quite some time.”

The 24-year-old rookie is certainly pleasing his manager thus far.

“He’s not intimidated; he has brought a spark offensively at a time [when] we really needed it,” said Cleveland skipper Manny Acta. “He has brought that attitude of a gritty, gutty type of guy that he is.”

Being in the majors is another step in the rise of Kipnis, who was a fan of both the Cubs and Sox growing up in Northbrook. But he always wanted to play at U.S. Cellular Field.

“I always wanted to play at this one more than I wanted to play at Wrigley,” he said. “It just looked like a better field.”

Kipnis may not be thinking of his hometown every time he comes to the plate, but he does try to instill the values he learned from all of his coaches and teammates.  

“The way we were taught to play the game is what I still try to do,” he said.

Kipnis, who loved going to Little Louie’s and U Dawg U, is still getting adjusted to the major league game and the requirements both on and off the field, which is not easy.

“Baseball is a tough game,” said Cleveland designated hitter Travis Hafner, who has been in the big leagues since 2003. “You see a lot of can’t miss prospects that come up here and struggle and there are guys who have had to battle their entire careers and never had much had fanfare and do well. It is all based on the individual and how well they can handle stuff.”

Yet from what he has seen thus far of Kipnis, Hafner believes the rookie is doing OK.

“There are a lot of things associated with the big leagues such as the travel and being on TV,” Hafner said. “I think he does a pretty good job of playing the game and not being distracted.”

As soon as his oblique muscle will allow, Kipnis will be back on the field in the middle of the hottest race for a playoff spot in the majors right now.

While he hasn’t yet felt overcome by the fact that someone who was playing for the Spartans six years ago is now playing against the best players in the world, that day may still come, he said.

“It will happen some time, but I am hoping it doesn’t happen until the season is over,” Kipnis said. “Right now, I am just putting my head down and playing.”