Iowa native Levi Usher selected in 10th round of MLB Draft by Kansas City Royals
It was during Louisville’s game against Clemson on April 30 that Iowa native Levi Usher popped on the radar of baseball fans across the country. During the top of the seventh inning, Usher raced to the centerfield wall, climbed the park’s fence and took a would-be game-tying home run away.
The play landed Usher on “SportsCenter’s” Top 10 plays for the night and captured the attention of even more fans and possibly the few Major League Baseball teams who weren't paying attention to him yet.
“I have a feeling that probably not every MLB team had known of me, but I’m assuming some more teams saw that play and I got on their radar,” Usher said.
That play paid off in a big way Monday when the Kansas City Royals selected Usher in the 10th round of the MLB Draft. Usher, the 295th overall pick in the event, said he plans to forgo his remaining eligibility at Louisville and sign with the Royals.
“It’s just a really cool experience,” Usher said. “I’ve been working hard for it. Just for it to finally pay off and have a team that looks like that have a lot of interest in me, it just means a lot.”
The Fairfax native was a star at Cedar Rapids Prairie High School where he hit .381 with 17 extra-base hits and 44 stolen bases as a senior. Usher spent one season at Kirkwood Community College and was selected by the Los Angeles Angles in the 37th round of the draft.
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But Usher passed on signing with the Angels and attended Louisville, where he solidified himself as a strong hitter and an elite outfielder. During the 2022 season, Usher hit .285 with 15 doubles, three triples and seven home runs.
One of the biggest moments of his season came with the leaping grab over Clemson. The play was No. 1 on SportsCenter. And Usher became a social media star around the college baseball world for his highway robbery. It’s a play that has continued to get brought up to Usher months later.
Usher thinks it may have even contributed to his draft stock potentially taking off.
“Sometimes it only takes on play or just one thing to really kind of get the ball rolling,” he said. “I think that publicity didn’t hurt. I think with social media now and everything, it fell into a lot of people’s laps.”
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But Usher is more than just a great glove and his career has more than one big play to it. He's so good in the outfield that he was a 2022 ABCA/Rawlings Gold Glove Winner. That's why the Royals selected him. Usher wouldn't disclose details of his plans to sign, but the allotted slot value for the pick is worth $153,500.
Usher, who is back in Iowa, spent part of the summer playing with the Waterloo Bucks in a college wood bat league. Getting drafted was the perfect way to cap off a memorable year. The year isn't even over, though.
"It's not going to slow down," Usher said.
Tommy Birch, the Register's sports enterprise and features reporter, has been working at the newspaper since 2008. He's the 2018 and 2020 Iowa Sportswriter of the Year. Reach him at tbirch@dmreg.com or 515-284-8468. Follow him on Twitter @TommyBirch.
This article originally appeared on Des Moines Register: Kansas City Royals take Iowan Levi Usher in 10th round of MLB Draft
