Middie baseball players held the gigantic jersey replica as the public-address announcer read off the lengthy list of Schwarber’s accomplishments. Schwarber delivered a few remarks at the conclusion.
“I want to thank the whole Middletown community,” he said, wearing a purple Middletown baseball cap and jacket with his pregnant wife, Paige, standing by his side. “I love Middletown. It’s in my heart. It’s in my blood.”
On deck? Induction into the Middletown High School Athletic Hall of Fame on March 5. Whether Schwarber will be able to attend that ceremony depends on when Paige delivers the couple’s first child.
The Hall of Fame ceremony was scheduled for this month but was postponed due to COVID-19.
Schwarber’s number is the eighth to be retired in Middletown sports history, but the first for a baseball player. He also played linebacker on the Middie football team.
The number retirement ceremony originally was scheduled for the football season when Schwarber was in town with the Washington Nationals to face the Reds, but he was traded before the series to the Boston Red Sox.
The Schwarber party took their courtside padded folding chairs across from the Middie bench in the last minute of the warmup period.
Stored in a room behind the top row of the stands before the ceremony were the large replica jersey and a framed posted listing many of his post-Middletown accomplishments at Indiana, with Team USA and with the Chicago Cubs, Washington Nationals and Boston Red Sox. The poster was titled “Kyle’s Journey” with the subtitle “Once A Middie, Always a Middie.” In the middle was a photo of Schwarber finishing a home run swing.
A student was spotted Friday wearing a Schwarber Red Sox No.18 jersey.
Also on hand was former Middletown football and track star Darrell Hunter, who played football at Miami and in the National Football League in 2006 with the Atlanta Falcons.
Schwarber, a 28-year-old left-handed batter, was a two-time Great Miami Conference first-team all-conference pick – as a catcher in his junior year and designated hitter in his senior season, when he was named co-GMC baseball Athlete of the Year after leading league in hitting and home runs. He played three seasons at Indiana, helping the Hoosiers to the first College World Series appearance in program history. He was drafted in the first round as the fourth overall pick of the 2014 MLB draft by the Chicago Cubs and rolled through Chicago’s minor league system and before joining the Major League team in 2015.
Playing left field in the third game of the 2016 regular season, Schwarber suffered a left knee injury that was supposed to sideline him until Spring Training 2017, but he returned in time for the World Series and played a key role in the Cubs’ championship, batting .412 to help them win their first World Series in 108 years.
Since then, he has played for the Nationals and Red Sox and in six postseasons during his seven-year career. He’s a free agent after signing a one-year, $10 million deal last year with Washington. He finished the 2021 season with 32 homers and a career-high .266 batting average.
MIDDLETOWN HIGH SCHOOL RETIRED NUMBERS
Basketball
11: Shelby Linville
13: Jerry Lucas
14: John Fraley
42: Butch Carter
51: Archie Aldridge
Baseball
12: Kyle Schwarber
Football
1: Cris Carter
83: Todd Bell
SOURCE: Middletown High School athletic department
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