Meet Tyler Heineman: Professional Baseball Player and Sponsored Klean Team Athlete

I’m Tyler Heineman. I’m 26 years old and I’m currently a catcher in the Milwaukee Brewers organization. This past season I played with the Colorado Springs Sky Sox. I’ve played baseball for as long as I can remember. I can’t even begin to imagine how much time I’ve spent at baseball fields.

After high school, I had no scholarship offers to play college baseball. But instead of giving up I was determined to keep playing. I walked on at the University of California Los Angeles and made the team. While I got some at bats as an underclassman, I didn’t play a lot until Junior year when I became the team’s starting catcher. The decision I made to bet on myself paid off and my dream of becoming a professional baseball player was realized when I was drafted by the Houston Astros in the 8th Round of the 2012 MLB Draft.

While I had always said that being a professional baseball player was my dream, when you’re young you aren’t necessarily thinking about the parts of the job that aren’t glamourous. It takes work to do what we do and it is a never-ending grind.

Catcher is a thankless position. With runners on, I am the last line of defense. I must be willing to sacrifice my body to keep a wild pitch in front of me and stop a runner from advancing 90 feet. I’ve experienced it all: wearing the gear in 100-degree weather, getting hit with balls constantly and sometimes even bat. Being a catcher is not for the faint of heart. You have to be tough to play the position but it also requires you to be mentally sharp on every pitch.

I’m excited to join the Klean Athlete team because I know the importance of nutrition and recovery.^‡ After catching 52 games in Colorado Springs this summer, I’m currently playing for the Leones del Escogido in the Dominican Republic Winter League. By putting my body through so much, I need to be confident that the supplements I use will help me last for 100+ games in a season.^‡ The only way you can get better at baseball is by getting more reps. The only way I can do that is if I stay healthy. Klean’s supplements are something I can feel good about putting into my body. So many nutrition companies out there aren’t transparent about what is actually in their products.

As I continue to pursue my dream of becoming a big-league baseball player, I am constantly looking for ways to improve. Whether it’s shortening my offseason to get more reps in the Dominican Republic or something as simple as watching what I put into my body, every little thing counts.

You can follow Tyler on Twitter and Instagram.
Twitter: https://twitter.com/theineman13
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/theineman13/