Once an Ozaukee Warrior, now a Cleveland Indian

Tom Miller taught his son the fundamentals of baseball when he was a child. Owen, like many little boys, dreamed of becoming a professional ballplayer.

On Sunday, that dream became a reality, and his family was there to cheer him on.

Tom took a phone call from his oldest son around 8 p.m. Saturday, minutes after Owen was told by Triple-A Columbus Clippers manager Andy Tracy that he would be the designated hitter for the Cleveland Indians the next day.

Dad had to keep the news quiet.

“He wanted to call grandma and grandpa and his uncles,” Tom said of Owen.

“It was a lot of excitement in our household. He has worked hard,” Tom said.

The Fredonia family was naturally ecstatic, but there was a tidbit of a scheduling conflict. Owen’s younger brother Noah was set to graduate from Ozaukee High School Sunday afternoon.

The graduating senior ended that dilemma.

“Noah insisted he wanted to go watch his brother,” Tom said.

“Pretty easy decision,” Noah said with an ear-to-ear smile after he helped Ozaukee High’s baseball team clobber Oostburg, 11-2, on Monday.

Owen, a 2015 grad of Ozaukee High, isn’t the only one with realistic Major League dreams. Noah, who plays shortstop just like his older brother grew up doing — Owen has since added other positions to his repertoire — has a scholarship to play baseball for the University of Alabama and has Major League scouts watching him at many games this summer.

The brothers talk three to four times per week on the phone or over video chat and text each other, Noah said. Discussions often entail the finer points of hitting and psychology of it — “It’s a huge mental game,” Noah said — but they also act like typical brothers.

“Sometimes some stupid stuff,” he said. “We screw around a lot.”

“They played together and worked out together for so long,” Tom said.

The family agreed with Noah’s decision and got up a 2 a.m. Sunday. They were on their way to Cleveland before 3 a.m., and they weren’t the only Millers making the eight-hour commute. Owen and Noah’s Uncle Tim and Aunt Pattie Miller and their daughter Natalie, who starts at second base next to Noah for the Warriors, also made the trip. So did Owen’s girlfriend and his best friend and teammate from Illinois State.

“It was like, unreal. It was crazy to go watch him, to be there for his first big league game,” Natalie said.

The Indians got wind of their new player’s sibling’s milestone and wanted to do something special. Around the fifth inning, the team put up a congratulations message on its video board along with a Miller family photo. But Noah missed that too.

“I wasn’t even there. I was gettin’ hot dogs,” he said. “They sent us a picture and we’re like, what?”

The family sat in the second row behind the Indians’ dugout. Watching her son bat in the pros, Owen’s mother Rose said, was “a surreal moment.”

“It was an exciting day for him too,” Tom said of Owen, adding he got to Cleveland late at night and didn’t get much sleep.

Owen went 0-for-5 in an 8-5 loss to the Twins in 10 innings. He had a chance to win it in the bottom of the ninth but flew out to center.

The family got to talk with their favorite pro baseball player for about a half hour after the game before Owen had to join the team on a flight to Detroit.

Noah laughed and said he and Owen mentioned “how it would have been cool if he would have walked off in the ninth.”

“It was awesome, a really good time. I wish he would have got a hit, but at the same time he had a lot of nerves. Little hectic for him,” Noah said.

Against the Tigers on Monday, Owen got his first hit. The next night, he got his first RBI and scored his first run.

Natalie’s brother Matt, a junior at Ozaukee who starts on the other side of Noah at third base, had to stay behind since he was volunteering for the graduation ceremony.

“I wish I would have gone,” he said. “I had my phone and I was watching (the game) the whole time.”

Tom, who works as a plumber, took Monday off since the family arrived home late at night. Rose works from home and had another matter to attend to. Her kitchen was prepped for a graduation party.

“It’s all clean. Lots of food in the house, though,” she said with a laugh.