Cardinals present Series ring to Deric McKamey

As a Fairfield High School baseball player in the 1980s, former Leesburg resident Deric McKamey has applied his passion for sports to many areas of his life, including writing books on minor league baseball, founding a junior high softball program and working in various capacities within Major League Baseball.

Now, as a professional scout for the St. Louis Cardinals, McKamey has earned something that only a few people in Major League Baseball attain – a World Series ring.

McKamey graduated from Fairfield in 1984, where he played baseball all four years. His parents, John and Louise McKamey, still reside in the Leesburg area.

McKamey said that he never set out to have a career in baseball, despite having played the sport as a youth and being a lifelong fan.

He started working for a statistical analysis firm in 1994. He and a friend later began covering minor league baseball for the firm, which McKamey said eventually became the number-one fantasy baseball group in the country.

Through his position covering minor league baseball, McKamey went on to publish four “Minor League Baseball Analyst” books from 2006-09.

In 2003, the St. Louis Cardinals hired Jeff Luhnow, who read McKamey’s books and followed his writing online, and Luhnow hired McKamey as an adviser in 2005. McKamey said that both he and Luhnow quickly progressed in Major League Baseball.

“I worked as advisor for two years, then an associate scout for two years, and I’m in my fourth year as a pro scout,” McKamey said. “Since then, Jeff Luhnow is now the general manager of the Houston Astros.

“Everything just kind of gradually happened, more quickly than my timetable.”

McKamey is the father of three daughters, Megan, 23, Kristen, 21 and Shannon, 20. All three of his daughters played fast-pitch softball throughout high school, and his oldest two daughters have been 12U fast-pitch softball coaches. McKamey said that he founded the Bluffton Junior High School (Ohio) fast-pitch softball program and coached U18, U16 and U12 softball in northern Ohio.

“Megan’s been the head junior high coach at Bluffton for the past two years,” McKamey said. “I started that program and now my daughter’s taken it over.”

McKamey lives on Johnson’s Island, Ohio, on Sandusky Bay, where he currently works as a perfusionist at Sandusky’s Firelands Regional Medical Center in addition to his job scouting for the Cardinals.

While his job of running a heart-lung machine for open heart surgeries doesn’t seem to have anything to do with scouting baseball, McKamey said that they go together perfectly.

“They actually work out really well together,” McKamey said. “I’m on a week at the hospital, off a week scouting baseball.

“Eventually, I’ll probably travel full-time with the scouting, but right now, I’ve got the best of both worlds.”

McKamey works as a pro scout, covering major league and minor league teams in Minnesota, Detroit and Cleveland. He said that he usually attends 110-120 baseball games per year.

McKamey said that among the many things he loves about his job is that many of his fellow scouts are retired Major League Baseball players who he has watched throughout his life.

“A lot of the scouts that are former players are guys I grew up watching, and now some are not only colleagues, but friends,” McKamey said.

Through McKamey’s influence, the Cardinals acquired right-handed starting pitcher Jake Westbrook in 2010, who went on to pitch in games four and six (in which Westbrook was credited with the win) during the 2011 World Series.

“I [was scouting] the Indians when we made the trade for Jake Westbrook,” McKamey said. “They asked my opinion on it – I didn’t orchestrate the trade or anything, but my reports ... certainly helped with the trade.”

The Cardinals’ scouts were invited to the first two games of the World Series, held at Busch Stadium. McKamey said that he and his oldest daughter, Megan, attended both games.

“We had a blast,” McKamey said. “Just the atmosphere, being around all the other scouts, and we had the post-game party that the team put on … it was a really nice experience.”

Traditionally, World Series rings are presented to everyone who assisted with the organization for the season. McKamey said that he was “beaming” when he received his World Series ring.

“A lot of older scouts have been at this job 20-plus years and don’t have any rings, and here I’ve been one four years and I already have one,” McKamey said. “I’m very proud of it and don’t take it for granted. It might be my only one. I’ve got it, and to me, it’s priceless.

“I have to pinch myself that I’m doing this and that I’m getting paid for it. I feel blessed to work in two professions that I enjoy. I thank the Lord every day. I enjoy life, and that’s what it’s all about.”