CLEVELAND -- A batter doesn’t often call timeout before his plate appearance begins. But Steven Kwan had an excellent reason to do so in the Guardians’ 3-2 win over the Yankees on Tuesday -- when he took a moment to do a gender reveal for teammate David Fry.
Kwan dug into the box in the first inning and immediately asked home-plate umpire Vic Carapazza for time. He pulled a pink wristband out of his back pocket and put it on his left forearm, which is how Fry and his wife, Rebekah, learned they’re going to have a baby girl.
“He was excited,” Kwan said. “... His whole family was watching. He was hype, so that was really cool.”
The Frys have a 2-year-old daughter named Evelyn, and with baby No. 2 on the way, Rebekah and Kwan’s wife, Samantha, were brainstorming ideas about a potential gender reveal. Rebekah and Samantha are very close.
Samantha asked Kwan if he wanted to help do something at the ballpark, because Fry is currently rehabbing from a November surgery on his right elbow and is not with the Guardians in Cleveland.
“I was like, ‘Hell yeah, I think that'd be super cool,’” Kwan said. “Anything to involve David, because he's obviously going through some rehab stuff, and we wish he was here.”
The wristband was Samantha’s idea, Kwan said. They found out the baby’s gender ahead of Tuesday’s game, and they were the only ones who knew it. Kwan kept it a secret until game time.
Kwan and Fry have a close relationship, and the two caught up after Tuesday’s big reveal.
“Just to be able to involve him [was important]. I know that every day the monotony of rehab is so brutal,” Kwan said. “I know he watches every single game. So I thought it was a cool way to involve him.”