Life After MLB: Levi Kelly’s Raw Path from Pro Baseball to MMA Fighter
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What challenges did Levi Kelly face in his baseball career?
I remember I got hurt and the pitching coordinator, he started talking to me different. So I was like, I had this little bit of like, I can fuck you up. And I wasn't afraid to voice that. I remember when I got hurt, he came into the dugout and was like, what the fuck are you doing? Like this shit doesn't even play an A ball. And I'm like, dude, who the fuck do you think you're talking to? I'm from West Virginia, bro. I don't give a fuck if you're the coordinator or not. I'll fucking smack you right across the face, right? Like, at the end of the day, take all this bullshit off. Like, bro, I'm from West Virginia like the sticks. People look at me like I'm some Florida boy or whatever, which is cool. But in West Virginia, John can be our fucking dog. Oh, sure.
Like, I'll smack you right across your face. He came at me like that, and I was like, bro, what the fuck are you talking to? And I just remember that being a moment like, dude, you're just a number. Like you built a relationship with this guy and you think he's your friend. He's not your fucking friend. No, it was your base on your value. Right. Sharp French, what up? This one's luck, I let the pain inspire me. I put my all in everything I'm doing. Up until it's done, I mean for the entirety. I put in overtime. I be working. Just know I'm a gopher, man, because I earned it. They watching. I know it's time. I confirmed it. The whole society determined. What's up, everybody? Welcome back to another episode of The Determined Society. I'm your host, Sean Fritsch. If you haven't watched or listened to the episode, hit subscribe, follow along. Today I have with me an amazing guest, former baseball player. Shocker, I know. I don't have many baseball players on here. But Levi Kelly played at IMG, also local here in Fort Myers at Bishop Row for a cup of tea.
A brief little step. Yeah, yeah. Had a brief commitment to LSU. Go Tigers. And then into the Diamondbacks organization in eighth round. And now he's doing some amazing things in MMA. So I'm excited to get into it, man. Welcome to the show. Appreciate you having me. It's a sweet setup. Watched a couple of episodes. It seems sweet. So congrats. Yeah, I mean, we try, man. We try, right? We're not perfect, but we're fucking doing it, man. We're out here doing it. So I'm grateful to have you on the show. So walk the audience through your background a little bit. I think you're from up north a little bit, right? Yeah. So born and raised small town, St. Albans, West Virginia. Like super small town. I think the biggest high school was 3A in the whole state. Maybe 4A now, but when I was coming up 3A. Went to Nitro High School my freshman year. I don't know if you know J.R. House. Yeah. So J.R. House was like the phenom of West Virginia. Okay.
And he would play baseball in Florida, transfer back to West Virginia and play football. No shit. So that was like the model for me, at least growing up. Wow. Um, and then his dad was kind of like, Hey, you need to get to Florida. So I played travel ball in Florida and then freshman year after freshman year transferred to IMG. And that's what kind of got me, got me here. And, uh, Yeah, I was at IMG sophomore year and then family moved to Cape Coral and we were like, hey, we're in Florida, like baseball is good in the entire state. I don't necessarily need to be at IMG living away from home and all that. So I went to Bishop Rowe. for a little bit, played my junior year there, and then got in a car accident at the end of my junior year spring, and didn't want to get rehab, like at a typical PT, whatever, because I didn't want it on the medical stuff for the draft. So my dad was like, let's go back to IMG. You can rehab on the down low there. And so I went there and then drafted out of there.
When you were here at Bishop Vero, who was your coach? Was it that stint where, what was his name? Flores. Flores, that's right. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I remember that. Yeah. Cause it wasn't Casey Scott yet. It definitely wasn't David Nelson.
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Chapters
6 chapters
1
What challenges did Levi Kelly face in his baseball career?
0:00–4:32
2
How did Levi's upbringing in West Virginia influence his mindset?
4:32–15:04
3
What led Levi Kelly to transition from baseball to MMA?
15:04–28:03
4
How does Levi cope with fear and nerves before fights?
28:03–32:58
5
What lessons can athletes learn from Levi's journey?
32:58–46:25
6
How do societal pressures affect young athletes today?
46:25–46:39
Speakers
1 identifiedMore from The Determined Society with Shawn French
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