{"id":180740,"date":"2025-07-16T14:04:14","date_gmt":"2025-07-16T14:04:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/180740\/"},"modified":"2025-07-16T14:04:14","modified_gmt":"2025-07-16T14:04:14","slug":"former-blue-valley-sw-pitcher-comes-full-circle-with-love-hate-for-sf-giants","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/180740\/","title":{"rendered":"Former Blue Valley SW pitcher comes full circle with love\/hate for SF Giants"},"content":{"rendered":"

OVERLAND PARK, Kan. \u2014 Ben Bybee’s love for the Royals was evident when he was interviewed live on KSHB 41 during the 2015 World Series parade.<\/p>\n

“I learned not to give up until the end of the game,” 12-year-old Bybee told KSHB in front of Union Station.<\/p>\n

\"ben<\/p>\n

KSHB 41<\/p>\n

KSHB 41 interviewed Ben Bybee in 2015 during the World Series parade. <\/p>\n

Tuesday, Bybee once again appeared on television, this time as an eighth-round draft pick of the San Francisco Giants.<\/p>\n

“It’s a wave of emotions,” Bybee, now 21, said about his dream of being drafted coming true. “It’s a lot of hard work paying off. It’s a lot of sacrifices my parents have made.”<\/p>\n

VOICE FOR EVERYONE | Share your voice with KSHB 41\u2019s Mick Shaffer<\/a><\/p>\n

Back in 2015, Bybee kind of called his shot. <\/p>\n

“I’m a pitcher,” he said when asked what position he played.<\/p>\n

And sure enough, the Blue Valley Southwest High School grad was drafted as a pitcher out of the University of Arkansas<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Former Blue Valley SW pitcher comes full circle with love\/hate for SF Giants<\/p>\n

“I’m unpacking my college stuff and then repacking and then heading out tomorrow,” Bybee said.<\/p>\n

It’s not lost on the 6’6″, 230-pound right-handed pitcher where he’s going. <\/p>\n

After all, the year before the Royals won the World Series, they lost to … the Giants.<\/p>\n

\"Little<\/p>\n

Mike Buscher\/AP<\/p>\n

Arkansas pitcher Ben Bybee (40) in action during an NCAA baseball game against Little Rock on Tuesday, March 26, 2024, in Fayetteville, Ark. Arkansas won 11-0. (AP Photo\/Mike Buscher)<\/p>\n

“I was sitting in the nosebleeds on the first base side of Kauffman Stadium,” Bybee recounted of Game 7 of the 2014 World Series. “I watched Madison Bumgarner come out of the bullpen and get Salvador Perez to pop out. And I cried. So 12-year-old Ben did not like the Giants.”<\/p>\n

But time \u2014 and money \u2014 can heal all wounds.<\/p>\n

“I love them now,” Bybee said. <\/p>\n

\u2014<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"OVERLAND PARK, Kan. \u2014 Ben Bybee’s love for the Royals was evident when he was interviewed live on…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":180741,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2408],"tags":[7278,33429,5,5583,33430,162,2123,33431,4,17005,378,66,4343,4340,4344,4341,4342],"class_list":{"0":"post-180740","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-san-francisco-giants","8":"tag-2015-world-series","9":"tag-arkanasas","10":"tag-baseball","11":"tag-ben-bybee","12":"tag-blue-valley-southwest","13":"tag-giants","14":"tag-kansas-city","15":"tag-local-picher","16":"tag-mlb","17":"tag-overland-park","18":"tag-san-francisco","19":"tag-san-francisco-giants","20":"tag-sanfrancisco","21":"tag-sanfranciscogiants","22":"tag-sf","23":"tag-sf-giants","24":"tag-sfgiants"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@mlb\/114863293417633917","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/180740","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=180740"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/180740\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/180741"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=180740"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=180740"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=180740"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}