Former NAG Record Holder Seth Beer Hits Home Run in First MLB At-Bat

Torrey Hart
by Torrey Hart 25

September 11th, 2021 National, News

Seth Beer, a former national age group record holder in swimming, hit a home run in the first at-bat of his Major League Baseball career.

An outfielder currently with the Arizona Diamondbacks, Beer was drafted by the Houston Astros out of Clemson in the first round in 2018 (No. 28 overall). The Diamondbacks officially added him to their roster Friday afternoon and he was called on to pinch-hit in the eighth inning against the Seattle Mariners that night.

With two outs and no one on base, Beer took Mariners pitcher Diego Castillo deep to right field, getting a dream start to his MLB career.

Beer, 24, was leading all Triple-A players with 73 runs scored this season before his call-up, batting .287. Across his three seasons in the minor leagues, he hit .292 with a .901 OPS.

A former Swim Atlanta member, Beer stopped swimming full-time to focus on baseball at age 13 — but even with limited training, he found success swimming for his high school team. He was even offered the opportunity to both swim and play baseball at top schools including Auburn and Georgia, according to The Athletic.

He decided to dedicate himself to just baseball, however, and Clemson had recently cut its swim team. After finishing high school a semester early to enroll at Clemson in January 2016, Beer emerged as one of the best players in college baseball, amassing a .321 batting average and a .489 on-base percentage in 188 games (all starts) in his three seasons.

Beer still owns multiple top-five long course times in the 11-12 age group. His former NAG record of 28.49 in the long course 50-meter backstroke ranks No. 3 and his former record of 1:01.35 in the 100 back is No. 4 all-time (that swim broke Olympic gold medalist Ryan Murphy‘s previous record). That 50 back record stood for seven years before it was broken by Kevin Kyi in 2016 (and then was broken again two weeks later by Ronald Dalmacio). Vinny Marciano broke the 100 back record in 2o14.

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mds
2 years ago

So many miss the elephant in the room. Money is NOT not the only measuring stick in choices made.

Fritz Weatherbee
2 years ago

I thought Ryan Seacrest had a NAG when he swam within Dynamo ?

Last edited 2 years ago by Fritz Weatherbee
Mark Nedza
2 years ago

Seth swam Summer League in the Atlanta Swim Association with the Grand Cascades Rapids. I happened to be at a meet one night when the coach told me to watch this 15-18 year old swim. I don’t remember what he swam or what his time was but it was impressive. I asked the coach where he swam and he said he doesn’t….he plays baseball! And now you know the rest of the story. Seth has the physical ability and the mental toughness to probably be good at whatever he set his mind to. It all starts in Summer League?

SwimPhan
2 years ago

Must be something in that desert atmosphere in Phoenix to have Beer hitting a home run in his first at bat. A few weeks ago pitcher Tyler Gilbert (former USC pitcher) threw a no hitter in his first start.

Ol' Longhorn
2 years ago

Murph lucked out.

Ol' Longhorn
2 years ago

Reminds me that Kiki Vandeweghe, the NBA player then exec, was like an MA level NAG record holder through 11-12 before he switched sports. His 10 and under 50 LCM fly record from 1969 wasn’t broken for 16 years. Oh, what could’ve been. His sister Tauna went on to do alright in swimming. His uncle Al won the 100 back in the ’36 Olympics.

erik
2 years ago

The real question is when will he get traded to Milwaukee and live out his namesake?

DCSwim
2 years ago

Kris Humphries vibes

About Torrey Hart

Torrey Hart

Torrey is from Oakland, CA, and majored in media studies and American studies at Claremont McKenna College, where she swam distance freestyle for the Claremont-Mudd-Scripps team. Outside of SwimSwam, she has bylines at Sports Illustrated, Yahoo Sports, SB Nation, and The Student Life newspaper.

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