Stallion Graduate Kyle Hald Lands With Cardinals

For years every summer, Scott and Debbie Hald toted their children, Kyle and Tara, to the Jersey shore for a brief respite from Northern Virginia. But as Kyle and Tara grew older, those trips became less frequent. After a five year absence, the Hald family returned to Long Beach Island with the hope of experiencing a seminal moment.

On June 7, in a Long Beach Island hotel room, the Halds watched as Kyle, a former South County athlete, was drafted in the 18th round of the MLB draft by the St. Louis Cardinals.

“We all went crazy and started yelling. The people in the room next to us probably thought that something crazy was going on,” said Kyle.

The nostalgic family moment was especially sweet for Scott Hald. “When we thought there was a chance he would be drafted, I decided that we should go back up there again and sort of do the same things that we did when he was a young kid, and wait to see if the phone would ring,” he said.“And ultimately, it did. About 5:30 that night.”

This wasn’t the first time Scott’s instincts pointed his son in the right direction. As a baseball fan, he recognized his son's potential as a left-handed pitcher. “I kind of persuaded him to work on his pitching, knowing that left-handed pitchers were a hot commodity, and that [pitching] could possibly take him a long way,” he said.

The Cardinals

Four days after he was drafted, Kyle joined his new teammates at the Cardinals’ spring training facility in Jupiter, Fla., for rookie mini-camp. After a brief stay in south Florida, he was assigned to the Johnson City Cardinals, a rookie affiliate of the St. Louis Cardinals. Hald’s new home is now Johnson City, Tenn.

“We [new players] stayed in a hotel for a couple of nights and then we got our host family. There are five of us total and we all live in the basement of their house. It’s pretty funny,” said Kyle Hald.

Shortly after arriving in Johnson City, Kyle learned that his first start would come against the Kingsport Mets on June 23, just sixteen days after being drafted. The Hald family made the six hour drive to Tennessee to witness his first start.

He didn’t disappoint.

Facing 14 batters in 3.2 innings, the rookie did not allow any earned runs and struck out one batter. Not easily rattled, Hald went about business as usual.

“I was a little anxious to get out there, but once I threw my first pitch, I calmed down and got into a rhythm, and got back to normal,” said Kyle.

Although Kyle wasn’t credited with the win, the Cardinals defeated Kingsport 2-1. For Scott Hald, an avid New York Mets fan, the night could not have been more ironic. “I’m down there cheering for [Kyle] and it’s against the farm team of the team that I’ve been following since I was little,” said Scott Hald.

In a relief effort in his second outing against Elizabethtown, on June 29, Hald struck out six batters in three innings, while allowing just one earned run.

Kyle’s composed demeanor is one of his greatest assets as a pitcher, said Tim LeVigne, pitching coach at Old Dominion University. “He’s going to be very successful in his baseball career because of the way he handles himself off of the field. He was a quiet leader. He wasn’t a jump all over you person. He leads by example. He was a very hard worker. People see this and they want to follow him,” said LaVigne.

With two games already under his belt, Kyle Hald is on his way to fulfilling his lifelong dream of playing in the majors. “It’s a dream come true. I’ve dreamt about this since I was six-years-old, just having the opportunity to play, and I finally got it. Hopefully everything will work out,” he said.