Kelly Gruber enjoyed starring role in two sports before choosing baseball as his future
Most people remember Kelly Gruber as a gifted and brash athlete who played major league baseball for 10 years.
Most, however, are not familiar with the hard knocks he absorbed along the way. Today, the former Westlake quarterback and infielder details the neck, back and ankle pain he battles daily. Sometimes a sciatic nerve will shoot from his ankle to his groin.
Gruber, 61, is paying the price for the rough-and-tumble way he played the game. If there was a collision to be found, he was probably in the middle of it. If there was a hot grounder in his area code, he'd dive for it, even if he had no chance to catch it.
Football was Gruber's first love, but baseball was his ticket to a professional career. The Cleveland Indians selected him with the 10th overall pick of the 1980 MLB draft and he would have a fine career — mostly with the Toronto Blue Jays — finishing with 117 home runs at a .259 batting average.
But football is king in Texas and Gruber played baseball like a runaway bull. While playing quarterback at Westlake, it was not unusual for him to carry the ball up to 30 times a game. Getting hit was part of the game and he missed it after he graduated from high school.
"When I played baseball, I played it the same way I played football," Gruber said Thursday, one day before Westlake was to play its Class 6A semifinal in the UIL state tournament. "I threw my body around too much. I was terrible on myself. That's the way it was, and I wouldn't change it for the world.
"I wanted to make sure I didn't have any regrets. I liked football so much better than baseball. Baseball seemed to be a lot of standing around. Back then, I wasn't a baseball player. I was an athlete on the baseball field."
Gruber was such a good athlete that Barry Switzer asked him if he'd like to run the triple-option for Oklahoma. Any thought of playing football for good vanished when he was drafted in the first round by the Indians.
Gruber, who lives on four acres of land in Liberty Hill, is a pioneer for Chaparrals sports. He was the shortstop for the 1980 team that captured Westlake's first state baseball title. Batting third in the lineup, he had two hits, two RBIs and scored a run as the Chaps beat DeSoto 11-10 in the Class 3A championship game. He hopes to be at Dell Diamond for Friday night's semifinal.
As for professional baseball, Gruber made his debut in April 20, 1984 at Toronto's Exhibition Stadium. His career began to flourish when he hit .278 with 16 homers and 81 RBIs in 1988. A year later he became the first Blue Jay to hit for the cycle.
Eventually, injuries started to pile up. He tore a ligament in his hand in 1991 and played only 113 games. In 1992 he sustained knee and ankle injuries. Doctors would later find a bone spur embedded in his spinal core. Despite his injuries, he helped the Blue Jays win the World Series against the Atlanta Braves that year.
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In 1993, Gruber had back surgery. During a five-hour procedure, Dr. Robert Watkins fused a piece of bone from Gruber's hip into his neck. Although he attempted a comeback, it would be his final season of pro ball.
Gruber said his aggressive style might have come from listening to the late Don Baylor, an Austin High graduate who played 19 years in the majors.
"(Baylor) told my dad that if I was fortunate enough to play in the big leagues, he needed to play every pitch like it was his last," Gruber said. "That way he would have no regrets when he's on his front porch. That stuck with me."
This article originally appeared on Austin American-Statesman: Before Kelly Gruber left his mark in baseball, he played QB with Chaps
