Sean Cleary spent much of his youth on the baseball fields at Arnold Athletic Association. During those early years, there was one team that always seemed to catch his eye.
“I remember seeing the (Jefferson County) Blazers play, and whenever they did, I knew that I wanted to be with that team,” Cleary said.
That would help Cleary make an important decision later in life.
Cleary played on a 15U team in the Blazers program along with several Fox teammates, but as that 2016 season ended, it became apparent that most of those other players had decided to play for a different program the following summer. Cleary stood at a crossroads.
“I was pretty much stuck between a rock and a hard place,” Cleary said. “I had to make a decision, and I kept going back and forth. I came to conclusion that, with the opportunities that were there and what they could help me out with, I decided to stick with the Blazers. I think it turned out pretty well for me.”
It didn’t turn out too badly for the Blazers, either.
“You don’t find too many truly elite catchers, and he’s definitely one of them,” Blazers manager Aaron Kutilek said.
This season, Cleary caught every inning in 40 of the Blazers’ 41 regular season games, helping lead them to a 34-6-1 record and a three-way tie for first place in the St. Louis Amateur Baseball Association (SLABA) South Division with a 12-2 league mark.
“We realized this team was only going to go as far as Sean could carry us as a catcher,” Kutilek said. “There’s no way we do what we do without Sean.”
And it wasn’t just his work behind the plate. Despite the physical toll of his position, Cleary finished the regular season and postseason tournament with a .339 average, usually batting in the No. 5 slot, and drove in 24 RBIs.
“You can’t catch 45 out of 46 games and not feel it,” said Kutilek, whose team won the SLABA 18U Championship Gold playoff title to improve to 38-7-1. “It sucks the life out of your legs and you’re going to feel it in your bat, but Sean just works like crazy to be the best player he can be. He’s typically one of the first players to get there, he’s one of the last to leave, and he just loves to be around the game.”
Cleary’s passion and commitment are recognized by coaches around the league, Kutilek said, and with the skills to match, Cleary was recently selected as the SLABA 18U most valuable player.
“Sean’s game stands out,” Kutilek said. “Coaches know what he means to our team, and they’re aware of how good he is.”
Cleary said he initially played shortstop and third base in little league, but once his coach tried him behind the plate, there was nowhere else Cleary wanted to be.
“Ever since then, I loved the position, so I stuck with it,” he said.
“I’ve always seen it as a leadership kind of position. You’re the only one on the field who’s able to see every single play in front of you, and they’re expecting you to call everything, call every game. That’s what keeps the game interesting for me.”
Kutilek said Cleary has called probably 99 percent of the pitches for the Blazers this season, and that has played a crucial role in the success of the pitching staff.
“There are catchers in the past who have not called a pitch for us, because they don’t seem to have a grasp at all of what’s going on, but Sean’s very aware, he’s very receptive to what we’re trying to teach,” Kutilek said. “He’s an intelligent kid, and he’s a guy that definitely has a lot of freedom. We have a lot of trust in him.”
That same type of trust was invaluable to the pitchers, according to Davis Mason, who over the course of his first season throwing to Cleary quickly realized that he could throw any pitch at any time and have complete confidence that Cleary would block it. It also helped to calm the pitchers with runners on base knowing that Cleary’s arm was locked and loaded.
“You don’t have to try to hold runners quite as close or do as much to play that game of cat-and- mouse to hold runners on, because you know Sean can throw anybody out,” Kutilek said.
“Sean has got to be one of the top catch-and-throw kids in St. Louis. He can really throw the baseball from behind the plate. He absolutely shuts down running games, and sometimes he embarrasses people by throwing them out by so much. That can really be demoralizing to a team, and if you can be an elite shutdown thrower from behind the plate, you can go a long way in this game.”
And that’s the goal, to go as far as he can in the sport. As impressive as it is to win league MVP honors as a junior, Kutilek said he believes Cleary has only begun to write his story.
“He’s a kid with a much bigger mission,” Kutilek said. “He’s a guy that meets me on Sunday morning to go to church with me, so he’s very grounded and humble in that regard, and he’s working for bigger things, he’s just getting started, to be honest. Sean is going to continue to grow and work and develop, and he’s not going to stop. It’s hard to fathom that he’s only a junior and I have him for another year.”