‘A surreal feeling’: Livermore native, De La Salle alum signs with Kansas City Royals after MLB Draft

A baseball player from Livermore was drafted this month by the Kansas City Royals.

Centerfielder Tanner Griffith, 21, was selected in the 11th round at pick No. 329 on July 12. He signed with the Major League Baseball team one week later.

“It was a surreal feeling. This is something I’ve dreamed of since I was a little kid,” Griffith said of learning he was set to be drafted. “To make that dream come true is something special.”

The De La Salle High School graduate most recently played ball at Saint Mary’s College in Moraga. But Griffith said he has played baseball for as long as he can remember. 

“Since I was young, I always had a bat or a ball in my hand, just going around the yard, hitting or playing catch with anyone who would take the time to play with me,” he told Livermore Vine.

Griffith played locally on the Livermore Longshots, De La Salle team and Diablo Valley Oaks through De La Salle, and he participated in the Little League Intermediate World Series hosted in his hometown Livermore.

Griffith attributes his athletic ability in part to playing an array of sports during his youth.

“My parents put me in every sport I wanted to play growing up,” he said.

Griffith played basketball, volleyball, soccer and of course, baseball.

“Anything he tried, he excelled at, so we knew that he was gonna be something someday,” his mother, Donna Griffith, told Livermore Vine. “I don’t know how far we actually thought, but he’s a super athletic kid.”

Since being drafted, Griffith has traveled to the Royals organization’s offseason base in Arizona to begin practice routines. 

“I’m looking forward to the journey that comes ahead,” he said. “You get to play in a ton of different cities, a ton of different ballparks, with a ton of different guys from all over the country.”