When Oscar Kean was signed up for baseball when he was four years old, he was not exactly the most coordinated. Though this was understandable for someone his age, the now six-year-old Spring Hill Dixie League baseball player has quickly developed a skill for the sport. The Dixie League athlete helped his Spring Hill Florida Gators 6U team to a 7-4-1 record during the 2023 season that ended on Nov. 11.
This was thanks in large part to a superlative campaign by Kean, who went for a perfect 32 out of 32 at-bats with a pair of grand slams. “A perfect season at any level is pretty amazing,” said Brett Teitelman, a close friend of the Kean family, when asked about Oscar’s year.
When Kean told his father, Jason, that his goal was to not strike out once during the season, the two worked to make it a reality. The older Kean purchased a Louisville Slugger Blue Flame Pitching Machine and had Oscar hit roughly 50 pitches off of it every single day. In addition to that, Kean’s father readied Oscar to fill the shoes of a well-respected first baseman the team had lost following the previous season. They had a rule as a result: “100 catches and 50 pitches before you can do anything else,” Jason Kean said. That was especially important considering the younger Kean’s lack of coordination early on – except in one specific area.
“When he signed up for baseball as a four-year-old, he was so uncoordinated he missed all three defensive balls, all three pitches, and he tripped coming off the field… was goofy and very uncoordinated, but for some reason could always hit pitches,” said Kean’s father. “6U Spring Hill Dixie, kids who are under six could potentially hit off a tee, but he’s only ever hit off a tee in one game and it didn’t go well. He went through his year five season and was out six times with three strikeouts.
The Spring Hill Dixie League team will be starting up their season again in March of 2024 at Anderson Snow Park in Spring Hill. Jason is gratified to see how far his son has come and the father recapped a special moment for the parents of the young baseball player. The Kean family is undoubtedly excited to see Oscar’s continued development on the diamond in the coming years. With so much growth over the past two seasons, how high will the slugger climb?
“I’m so proud of the work he has put in and that he sees that work paying off. The best moment for me was him telling his mom that he wants to play baseball for the rest of his life,” Jason Kean said. “Seeing him go from that kid who was so new to baseball to a kid who was hitting everything he saw made me so proud of him. His growth because of the work he put in is what I am most proud of.”
