Danny Kerr came to his first baseball camp in 2006. We had no idea the tremendous career Danny was about to embark on. As an organization, we have preached education, citizenship and ultimately baseball. Danny took this all to heart and became the model for everything we can hope for in a student-athlete. Danny has decided to hang up his cleats after his 3rd year of minor league baseball. His accomplishments are so incredible, we thought you and your kids would like to see what is possible. The photo on the right was Danny’s swing at 15 years old.
High School Days
During his high school career at L’Anse Creuse High School North, here were some of his accomplishments while graduating with a 3.5 GPA
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Sophomore Year – Academic Excellence Award, First team All-Conference and Honorable Mention All-District
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Junior Year - Academic Excellence Award and First team All-Conference
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Senior Year - Academic Excellence Award, First team All-Conference, All-County, All-Region, All-State and 2014 MHSAA Dream Team, Recipient of the LCN Bobby Moore Baseball Scholarship
After graduation, Danny spent a year at EMU and Macomb Community College attaining a 3.0 GPA and a 3.8 GPA
Upon completion of his sophomore season at Macomb Community College, Danny took a chance on a new program at University of Michigan-Dearborn. He could not have made a better decision. Danny has an Electrical Engineering Degree with a final GPA of 3.87. His academic achievements were rivaled by his athletic accomplishments. In 2019, Danny earned Second Team Academic All-American, was the First Team All-Conference Catcher and he earned the UM Dearborn Chancellor’s Award. In 2020, Danny earned the prestigious UM-Dearborn Campus Wide Difference Maker Award.
Danny’s Baseball Numbers are astounding. In his career at UM Dearborn, Danny batted .394 with an OPS of .999.
College Days
Professional Days
Soon after completing his college career, the High Desert Redbirds came calling. In 2019, Danny completed his college season batting .413 and finished his first professional season at .398. From 2019-2021, Danny batted .386, hit 14 HR’s and he drove in 106 in just 389 ABs. In 2020 and 2021, Danny’s team the Tucson Saguaros won the Pecos League Championship in back-to-back years. We are so proud of everything Danny has accomplished on and off the field. When you see him working at baseball camp, congratulate him on an incredible career! Here is the link to Danny’s Career Stats.
https://www.baseball-reference.com/register/player.fcgi?id=kerr--002dan
What Danny's College Coach Matt Cunningham Had To Say
It's hard to put into words how much Danny Kerr has meant to UM-Dearborn baseball. As a start-up program without much in terms of resources, like any good company, getting good people in the program was going to be vital to our success. Regardless of talent, I had hoped we would be able to find upperclassmen that could help mentor our many young players on being collegiate athletes.
What Danny did was not only show how to be a collegiate athlete, but what the very best looks like. Not many programs get to start with one of the best players in the nation at their position. Even more rare would be to find someone that talented that embraces the leadership required to elevate those around him. Danny did just that. His work ethic and approach was "professional". His mindset and mechanics made the game look simple - something that we as coaches strive for in trying to make a difficult game of failure more simple with less wasted thought and movement. The bigger the moment, the more certain we all were that Danny would come through. He simply never flinched in the face of adversity. His performance led to many accolades and got his team on the brink of the postseason, but above all, it led to admiration and respect from his teammates, coaches, and competitors.
And it didn't stop on the field with Danny. He mentored his fellow teammates academically as well. We have many kids that take challenging coursework and inevitably I would see Danny helping many of them understand difficult concepts in advanced math and engineering classes. He would become the school's first CoSIDA Google Academic All-American from a team sport - a recognition of academic and athletic excellence.
His impact resonates today not just because he continues in our program as a coach, but because some of the guys still in the dugout got to witness firsthand what an All-American looks like day in and day out. He could have gone to many colleges to play baseball and would have been successful. He could have gone places and been closer to championships. He took a chance on us and I maintain he could not have had a bigger impact on a program as he did for UM-Dearborn baseball. For that, Danny's legacy is cemented as one of the most important and influential student-athletes in the history of UM-Dearborn and we are proud to call him our own.
What Danny's Professional Coach Sean McNeill Had To Say
As I sit here, thinking of Kerr’s career, I can honestly say I loved being a part of it in some way or form. When I got Kerr’s phone number to invite him to spring training three years ago, on my end, he seemed like he wasn't interested in coming. I can honestly remember thinking and telling my girlfriend Stephanie, he’s not going to come.
Maybe a few days later he agreed to come to spring training but even then, I was unsure if he would actually show up. When spring training came along, he was there and after day one you could tell he was an exceptional player. By day three I knew he would be my starting catcher. When we started the season, Kerr came up to me after the first couple games and said he needed to go home and get his car. I remember thinking, he’s going to leave and not come back. Even though I thought he wasn’t going to come back, I allowed him to go home to get his car.
To my surprise, he came back and once he did, he was a force to be reckoned with. From then on out, you could see the type of person Kerr was. He was honest, dedicated, competitive, and knowledgeable. As his first season came to the end, I knew if there was a chance to get him back for next season, I needed to do everything in my power to get him back.
I was lucky enough to get Kerr back for a total of three seasons and win two championships with him. I would say he was a big contributor to the team’s success for both championships. He was a guy I could lean on to the point that I would take a lot of his opinions into consideration about pitchers, hitters, and the other teams. I literally thought of him as a second coach even though he was a player. I know a lot of players viewed him as a leader and someone to talk to and get advice from. You could say, he was very helpful helping college guys become professional and really showing them the ins and outs of professional baseball.
Kerr has easily become one of my favorite baseball players to watch. His silky-smooth lefty swing was a thing of beauty. Watching him behind the plate day in and day out was a testament to how tough he is when he was playing every day. The only time I can remember him needing a second was when he got hit in the throat from a wild pitch in his first season and I made a comment and he sent me back a few choice words to the dugout (Inside Joke). Kerr will forever be a guy I compare to all my future spring training invites to.
While writing this, I really hope he changes his mind and gives me one more year behind the plate but wherever he goes, the organization or school is getting a great baseball mind but more importantly an outstanding person. If this is really it for you Kerr, I want to tell you that it was a pleasure and honor to have you play for me but more importantly I’m glad you came out to spring training three years ago so I could ultimately make a new lifetime friend. Best of luck with whatever you decide to pursue, but expect a few texts/calls from me to try and bring you out of retirement.
