Kelly Shoppach (1999-2001) Won Inaugural Johnny Bench Award
3/11/2021 4:51:00 PM | Baseball
(This is the 19th in a series of features on Baylor Athletics' 25 for 25, which honors Baylor's top 25 athletes in the 25-year history of the Big 12 Conference (1996-21). Selected by a panel of Baylor experts, the final list was picked from a pool of over 100 candidates that came from all 19 intercollegiate sports that the school offers. Through April 1, two honorees per week will be released and will also be featured during game broadcasts on the Baylor Sports Network from Learfield IMG College.)
By Jerry Hill
Baylor Bear Insider
Now in his fifth year as an assistant coach at Texas Wesleyan University, after a nine-year major league baseball career, former Baylor All-American Kelly Shoppach relishes the chance to "share my stories, share my experiences, with these young men that I want to have those same experiences and stories that they get to share."
A father of three daughters, Shoppach says, "My girls have no interest in (my stories), so I've got to tell them to somebody."
Inducted into the Baylor Athletics Hall of Fame in 2011, Shoppach won the inaugural Johnny Bench Award as the nation's top catcher in 2001, when he was a unanimous All-American and Big 12 Player of the Year and set single-season records for a Baylor catcher with 93 hits, 69 RBI and a .463 on-base average.
"I'd be willing to bet that we're one of the top-3 all-time teams in Baylor's history, to win that many games (132) over my three years there," he said. "Now, coaching in college, I draw on a lot of those memories and share stories, and I try to explain how we won all those games, and we only had about four guys make it to the big leagues. That's how hard it is."
A two-sport standout at Brewer High School, earning district MVP honors in football, Shoppach was part of three-consecutive NCAA regional teams at Baylor, with the Bears winning the 2000 Big 12 championship and losing to Oklahoma State in the 1999 Super Regional.
"Those are huge memories for me," said Shoppach, now 40. "I don't know if there was a time before or after those three years I was there where I had better friends.
"The impact that Baylor had on me and continues to have on me will last my lifetime. Coach (Steve) Smith was always great to me. Coach (Hoot) Johnigan, Coach (Mitch) Thompson, Coach (Chris) Berry, I still lean on those guys. I feel blessed that I had an opportunity to be there as opposed to some of my other options where I potentially could have just been a number. People like Melanie Smith, Margaret Smith, Joel Porter, Bart Byrd, they made me who I am today."
A no-brainer selection to the Baylor Hall of Fame after the required 10-year wait, Shoppach said that was never his goal or dream.
"My goal was to get my name in gold under that All-American sign (at Baylor Ballpark)," he said, "because I knew they could never take that away. . . . In my mind, if I was a great teammate first, my individual talents would come out, and down the line my numbers would say, 'Hey, this guy is qualified to be a Hall of Fame player.'''
Taken by the Boston Red Sox in the second round of the 2001 MLB Draft, Shoppach made his major league debut on May 28, 2005, and played nine seasons with the Red Sox, Cleveland Indians, Tampa Bay Rays, New York Mets and Seattle Mariners.
"I was able to trick them for a long time and time and keep me in the big leagues," said Shoppach, a career .223 hitter in the major leagues with 70 homers, 92 doubles and 216 RBI.
Losing his confidence at the plate somewhere along the line, he got it back in his second season when he got a hit off Hall of Fame pitcher Randy Johnson.
"That was the first time since college that I believed I could do it again," he said. "In the minors, I thought I was good and I was going to be great. That goes without saying that you have to have that attitude in this game, which is based around failure. But, when I got to the big leagues, I was a little bit overwhelmed. And I'm not too proud to admit that. Getting that hit off Randy Johnson gave me that confidence again."
A student of the game and film room fanatic, Shoppach knew that if he could "bump into a couple homers every year, be a great teammate, and call and prepare a game plan for our pitching staff to attack the opposing team's hitters, I had an opportunity to play a long time."
With a trade from the Red Sox to the Indians, Shoppach missed out on Boston's 2007 World Championship. But, he had his best season with Cleveland in 2008, when he hit .261 with a career-high 21 homers, 27 doubles and 55 RBI.
Shoppach said it was time to hang it up after his final season in 2013, when "my ability to hit an 88-mph fastball had become too much of a challenge, where I started to guess."
"Once that confidence is gone, it's gone, and you're not going to get it back," he said. "I was never one of those guys that was going to hang on if I wasn't good enough anymore. The other part of it was my oldest daughter was starting high school, and they were going to stop traveling with me. So, I would be on my own out there, getting my brains beat in by pithcers that were better than me, night in and night out, and have nobody to deflect that disappointment and discouragement when you come to the realization that your skills are not what they used to be."
With the Texas Wesleyan baseball program, part of his job now is "teaching them how to stay confident, because when doubt creeps in, the at-bat is over."
Kelly and his wife, Jennifer, live in Aledo, Texas, just outside of Fort Worth, and have three daughters, Alexandra, 21; Addison, 14; and Aubrey, 12.
Alexandra, a student at Baylor School of Nursing in Dallas, is "actually the highlight of my life right now," Kelly said.
"She administered nine-straight hours of COVID vaccines about two weeks ago at Eastfield College," he said. "I know she doesn't see it that way, but man, sure seems like she's making a lot bigger impact on the world than I ever will."
After an extended COVID pause, Shoppach's Texas Wesleyan baseball team opens conference play this weekend at Southwestern Christian University in Bethany, Okla.
Previous:
Daniel Sepulveda, Football (2002-06)
Brette Reagan, Softball (2006-09)
Yossiana Pressley, Volleyball (2017-21)
Kiara Nowlin, Acrobatics & Tumbling (2013-17)
Johnathan Motley, Men's Basketball (2013-17)
Shea Langeliers, Baseball (2017-19)
Bayano Kamani, Men's T&F (1998-2001)
Jason Jennings, Baseball (1997-99)
Brittney Griner, Women's Basketball (2009-13)
Robert Griffin III, Football (2008-11)
Dawn Greathouse Siergij, Soccer (1997-2000)
Benedikt Dorsch, Men's Tennis (2002-05)
Corey Coleman, Football (2013-15)
Whitney Canion Reichenstein, Softball (2009-14)
Trayvon Bromell, Men's T&F (2014-15)
Stacey Bowers-Smith, Women's T&F (1996-99)
Andrew Billings, Football (2013-15)
Benjamin Becker, Men's Tennis (2001-05)
By Jerry Hill
Baylor Bear Insider
Now in his fifth year as an assistant coach at Texas Wesleyan University, after a nine-year major league baseball career, former Baylor All-American Kelly Shoppach relishes the chance to "share my stories, share my experiences, with these young men that I want to have those same experiences and stories that they get to share."
A father of three daughters, Shoppach says, "My girls have no interest in (my stories), so I've got to tell them to somebody."
Inducted into the Baylor Athletics Hall of Fame in 2011, Shoppach won the inaugural Johnny Bench Award as the nation's top catcher in 2001, when he was a unanimous All-American and Big 12 Player of the Year and set single-season records for a Baylor catcher with 93 hits, 69 RBI and a .463 on-base average.
"I'd be willing to bet that we're one of the top-3 all-time teams in Baylor's history, to win that many games (132) over my three years there," he said. "Now, coaching in college, I draw on a lot of those memories and share stories, and I try to explain how we won all those games, and we only had about four guys make it to the big leagues. That's how hard it is."
A two-sport standout at Brewer High School, earning district MVP honors in football, Shoppach was part of three-consecutive NCAA regional teams at Baylor, with the Bears winning the 2000 Big 12 championship and losing to Oklahoma State in the 1999 Super Regional.
"Those are huge memories for me," said Shoppach, now 40. "I don't know if there was a time before or after those three years I was there where I had better friends.
"The impact that Baylor had on me and continues to have on me will last my lifetime. Coach (Steve) Smith was always great to me. Coach (Hoot) Johnigan, Coach (Mitch) Thompson, Coach (Chris) Berry, I still lean on those guys. I feel blessed that I had an opportunity to be there as opposed to some of my other options where I potentially could have just been a number. People like Melanie Smith, Margaret Smith, Joel Porter, Bart Byrd, they made me who I am today."
A no-brainer selection to the Baylor Hall of Fame after the required 10-year wait, Shoppach said that was never his goal or dream.
"My goal was to get my name in gold under that All-American sign (at Baylor Ballpark)," he said, "because I knew they could never take that away. . . . In my mind, if I was a great teammate first, my individual talents would come out, and down the line my numbers would say, 'Hey, this guy is qualified to be a Hall of Fame player.'''
Taken by the Boston Red Sox in the second round of the 2001 MLB Draft, Shoppach made his major league debut on May 28, 2005, and played nine seasons with the Red Sox, Cleveland Indians, Tampa Bay Rays, New York Mets and Seattle Mariners.
"I was able to trick them for a long time and time and keep me in the big leagues," said Shoppach, a career .223 hitter in the major leagues with 70 homers, 92 doubles and 216 RBI.
Losing his confidence at the plate somewhere along the line, he got it back in his second season when he got a hit off Hall of Fame pitcher Randy Johnson.
"That was the first time since college that I believed I could do it again," he said. "In the minors, I thought I was good and I was going to be great. That goes without saying that you have to have that attitude in this game, which is based around failure. But, when I got to the big leagues, I was a little bit overwhelmed. And I'm not too proud to admit that. Getting that hit off Randy Johnson gave me that confidence again."
A student of the game and film room fanatic, Shoppach knew that if he could "bump into a couple homers every year, be a great teammate, and call and prepare a game plan for our pitching staff to attack the opposing team's hitters, I had an opportunity to play a long time."
With a trade from the Red Sox to the Indians, Shoppach missed out on Boston's 2007 World Championship. But, he had his best season with Cleveland in 2008, when he hit .261 with a career-high 21 homers, 27 doubles and 55 RBI.
Shoppach said it was time to hang it up after his final season in 2013, when "my ability to hit an 88-mph fastball had become too much of a challenge, where I started to guess."
"Once that confidence is gone, it's gone, and you're not going to get it back," he said. "I was never one of those guys that was going to hang on if I wasn't good enough anymore. The other part of it was my oldest daughter was starting high school, and they were going to stop traveling with me. So, I would be on my own out there, getting my brains beat in by pithcers that were better than me, night in and night out, and have nobody to deflect that disappointment and discouragement when you come to the realization that your skills are not what they used to be."
With the Texas Wesleyan baseball program, part of his job now is "teaching them how to stay confident, because when doubt creeps in, the at-bat is over."
Kelly and his wife, Jennifer, live in Aledo, Texas, just outside of Fort Worth, and have three daughters, Alexandra, 21; Addison, 14; and Aubrey, 12.
Alexandra, a student at Baylor School of Nursing in Dallas, is "actually the highlight of my life right now," Kelly said.
"She administered nine-straight hours of COVID vaccines about two weeks ago at Eastfield College," he said. "I know she doesn't see it that way, but man, sure seems like she's making a lot bigger impact on the world than I ever will."
After an extended COVID pause, Shoppach's Texas Wesleyan baseball team opens conference play this weekend at Southwestern Christian University in Bethany, Okla.
Previous:
Daniel Sepulveda, Football (2002-06)
Brette Reagan, Softball (2006-09)
Yossiana Pressley, Volleyball (2017-21)
Kiara Nowlin, Acrobatics & Tumbling (2013-17)
Johnathan Motley, Men's Basketball (2013-17)
Shea Langeliers, Baseball (2017-19)
Bayano Kamani, Men's T&F (1998-2001)
Jason Jennings, Baseball (1997-99)
Brittney Griner, Women's Basketball (2009-13)
Robert Griffin III, Football (2008-11)
Dawn Greathouse Siergij, Soccer (1997-2000)
Benedikt Dorsch, Men's Tennis (2002-05)
Corey Coleman, Football (2013-15)
Whitney Canion Reichenstein, Softball (2009-14)
Trayvon Bromell, Men's T&F (2014-15)
Stacey Bowers-Smith, Women's T&F (1996-99)
Andrew Billings, Football (2013-15)
Benjamin Becker, Men's Tennis (2001-05)
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