This story was excerpted from Tim Stebbins' Guardians Beat newsletter. To read the full newsletter, click here. And subscribe to get it regularly in your inbox.
CLEVELAND -- A package from Rawlings greeted Shane Bieber when he arrived home recently. His wife, Kara, had gotten in touch with one of his reps from the company, and with its help, she commissioned a surprise for the Guardians’ ace.
The surprise -- a light blue youth baseball glove -- was an early Father’s Day gift to commemorate Bieber’s first time celebrating the day as a dad. He and Kara welcomed baby boy Kav McClain into the world on March 14, and the glove has each of their names stitched on it.
“I’ve got, like, three years to break it in for him. I’ve got some time,” a beaming Bieber said.
In the meantime, Bieber is cherishing fatherhood and the memories he and Kara are already making with Kav, while looking forward to the memories they will make. Kav turned three months old this weekend and is doing well. He’s started to smile “a whole bunch,” especially in the morning, and giggle. Bieber quipped that Mom and Dad are sleeping OK, and that he always tells people how Kav “is trying his hardest to take it easy on us.”
Bieber acknowledged it may sound cliché, but hearing him talk about fatherhood, his words ring true. Being a dad means everything to him.
“Even though it was three short months ago, I can't imagine not having him in our family,” Bieber said. “He's really allowed us to grow and step up as adults, obviously. It's quite the responsibility, but we were ready for it, and he just gives us a lot more meaning. I’ve always wanted to work as hard as possible for the future of my kids, even when we were just planning it. Now that he’s here, it just means that much more.”
That work has continued while Bieber has been on the comeback trail from April 2024 Tommy John surgery. He is soon set to resume his throwing program after he had a minor setback due to some elbow soreness. But he was in the earliest days of his recovery when he and Kara learned that Kav was on the way.
That news helped keep his spirits up and uplift him in his recovery.
“It really helped push me through a lot of those harder points in rehab,” Bieber said. “Not being able to throw, still being in a sling, or just coming out of it and recognizing that this was a huge season of growth. Not just for me as an athlete, trying to get back onto the field as soon and as strong as possible, but as a husband and a soon-to-be father.”
Kara, Bieber said, has been “incredible,” and he recently was telling her that she blows his mind every day -- going back to when she found out she was pregnant to now as a mother.
“She's handled it with, honestly, grace, but [also] professionalism,” Bieber said. “She knows exactly what to do, and she's following her motherly intuition and instincts. I'm a lucky guy.”
While Bieber’s return to the mound at Progressive Field will come later, the family has already enjoyed an experience together at the ballpark. They took in a fireworks night after a recent home game.
“He had his headphones on and everything,” Bieber said of Kav. “He was dialed in.”
Making more memories is something Bieber looks forward to. He and Kara are excited that Kav will grow up remembering that his dad was pitching in the big leagues, and Bieber looks forward to his pitching in front of his wife and son.
One day, perhaps, Kav will follow in dad’s footsteps in taking up baseball, and have that light blue glove as a first memory of his experience with the game. Bieber, of course, hopes he’ll give the game a try, but if not, he’ll support Kav in wherever his passions may lie.
“Even if I don't know much about whatever that is, I'm excited to learn with him,” Bieber said. “I was thinking that, for example, my brother understands car engines and all that stuff way, way better than I do. That's what he does for a living, and my dad's pretty good as well. I'm not as crafty or handy, and so I'm like, ‘Oh, man, if my son gets into that, I would just love it.’
“We can dive in and learn together. He can teach me things that he's passionate about. So either way, I'm excited to just grow up with him.”