Carl Kekoa Keliipuleole
Carl Kekoa Keliipuleole (born January 17, 1966) is a former American baseball pitcher for the Cleveland Indians and Montreal Expos minor league teams. Standing at 6'0" and weighing in at 235 lbs, Keliipuleole was drafted out of BYU in the 4th round of the 1987 amateur draft.
Early life
Keliipuleole was born on January 17, 1966 in Guam where his father, who worked for the Hawaii-based Dillingham Hawaiian Dredging Company, was employed on a two year contract to repair Typhoon damage. His family returned to their home in Hawaii later that year. As early as six years-old he played T-ball baseball and flag football. As a 12 year old, he was on the bronco state champion baseball team with future Cleveland Brown running back Timoti (Tim) Manoa. Carl, who went by his middle name Kekoa while playing in Hawaii, attended Kamehameha high school where he lettered in Football, Basketball, Baseball,and Track. His senior year he was a first team state all-star in football and baseball and was a highly recruited football wide receiver and defensive back. He chose to play baseball at BYU, the only school to recruit him in that sport.
College
Carl played college baseball at BYU from 1985â1987 where he was named 1st team All-WAC in 1987. He still holds the school record for career pitching appearances at 75. Because of the difficulty most stadium announcers had with his last name, he began to use his English first name, Carl, to give announcers a break.
Carl was approached to play football for the #1 ranked Cougars football team but after his highly successful freshman baseball season, and suffering an undiagnosed broken rib, he opted to focus on baseball after off-season surgery.
Keliipuleole played semi-professional baseball in the Alaskan Summer League for the North Pole Nicks in 1986.
After college, he was drafted by the Cleveland Indians. While in the minor league system he was a top 10 prospect.
Professional career
Carl played 4 seasons in the minors , most of his time with the Cleveland Indians. In 1990 he was named to the preseason 40-man roster, but was unable to participate in spring training due to MLB's "lock-out". He was sent down to double A Canton-Akron and was traded to Montreal before the end-of-season roster expansion. While with the Expos' AA Harisburg team he re-injured his elbow and opted to retire from professional baseball.