Former Marlin, Red Sox, Oriole and Blue Jay first basemen Kevin Millar joined Off The Mound with Ryan Dempster sharing his unconventional journey to the majors where he played 12 seasons with four different teams. 

From growing up in the Los Angeles area, to playing college baseball at Lamar University in Beaumont, Texas, Millar had multiple chances to be drafted on five separate occasions. 

“I had five times to be drafted and that would be a senior in high school, two years at that beautiful LA City Junior College outside of Los Angeles and two years in Beaumont, Texas,” Millar said. “I don’t know if you’ve ever smelled sulfur plants, but take a trip to Beaumont about 9:12 p.m. in the evening and there’s this beautiful smell of sulfur. That was two more years of my junior and senior year of college.”

Millar started his career in 1993 when he played for the St. Paul Saints of the Independent Northern League, and Millar shared an important message to players about playing baseball.

“Scouts are going to make mistakes…I didn’t have a lot of tools. I couldn’t run that well, my arm strength was below average, fielding was below average and everything stat wise wasn’t great; however, I could hit and I always had a little heart on the field,” Millar said. “I always tell kids that ‘you keep playing as long as you can.’ When you have that uniform on with any team, you have a chance, because it takes one guy to say ‘You know what, that kid can play.’”