ARLINGTON -- Sean Campbell was watching the proceedings of the Home Run Derby from a suite in the upper reaches of Globe Life Field on Monday night when one of his most unique pupils in the MLB Draft League, Dennis Kasumba, came running in.
“Hey, Salvador said we could come down to the clubhouse!” Kasumba yelled.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">20-year-old Ugandan baseball player Dennis Kasumba has gone viral multiple times for his intense training videos.<br><br>His hero is Salvador Perez and not only did Kasumba get to meet Salvy, but Salvy gave him his <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/AllStarGame?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#AllStarGame</a> catchers gear 🥹❤️ <a href="https://t.co/Q7XlDE3bRj">pic.twitter.com/Q7XlDE3bRj</a></p>— MLB (@MLB) <a href="https://twitter.com/MLB/status/1813276399324852355?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">July 16, 2024</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
Perez immediately whisked Kasumba out to the couches on the American League sideline during the Home Run Derby and had him take a photo with several of the players. Then, Perez took Kasumba to the tunnel, where he unzipped a bag and gave the younger catcher one of his sets of gear -- mask, chest protector, shin guards -- along with two bats.
“I was very, very happy, because that's All-Star catcher's equipment,” Kasumba said. “Mine was very, very old. I got new catcher's equipment from the best catcher in the world. He's the best catcher in the whole world. Now, I have to be the same catcher, the same person. I'm very, very happy.”
“It meant a lot to me, given that I'm his favorite player,” Perez said. “I'm super excited for that. I thank God that I had the opportunity to meet him.”
Soon, Kasumba and fellow Ugandan player Sempa Shawali Sherican will return to Uganda, where Kasumba will go back to training with the makeshift materials at his grandmother’s home in Kampala, working out tires and empty oil barrels in the muddy alley beside his grandmother’s house in an effort to become a professional catcher.
Viral videos of his workouts are why Campbell -- president of the MLB Draft League -- found a way to get Kasumba and Shawali Sherican to the roster of the Frederick Keys, where they’ve learned for two years under managers René Rivera and Jacque Jones.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Focused on improving my self... Eat, Sleep and breath Baseball. <a href="https://t.co/sEcKd6h5AO">pic.twitter.com/sEcKd6h5AO</a></p>— KASUMBA DENNIS (@KASUMBADENNIS4) <a href="https://twitter.com/KASUMBADENNIS4/status/1638530866811895810?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">March 22, 2023</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
Kasumba lives with his grandmother because his father went missing during the Ugandan Civil War. His mother deserted him when he was two months old. He worked in a slaughterhouse before baseball coach Paul Wafula gave him an opportunity by telling him that food would be provided at the baseball field, as detailed last year by MLB.com’s Matt Monagan.
Wafula told him that the catcher is the leader of the team on the field, which led Kasumba to gravitate to that role. He grew to love and idolize Perez as he searched for videos of catching techniques.
“Many people said that Salvador is the best,” Kasumba said. “I wanted to think about that and I searched for him. I saw that he was the best, and I wanted to learn about him. He has a passion. He's a good guy. He's the best in throwing and blocking and with pitchers throwing faster, he can react to the balls and he can throw runners out at second. That's why I wanted to be like him. I was so very happy when I met him.”
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">I’m so grateful 🙏 thank you so much Mr <a href="https://twitter.com/SalvadorPerez15?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@SalvadorPerez15</a> for giving me new catchers equipment and the two bat using in my games. My words can’t explain how much I was happy to meet you sir. I CAN DO EVERYTHING THROUGH CHRIST WHO STRONGER THAN ME🙏🙏 <a href="https://t.co/HySzovkr0q">pic.twitter.com/HySzovkr0q</a></p>— KASUMBA DENNIS (@KASUMBADENNIS4) <a href="https://twitter.com/KASUMBADENNIS4/status/1813073493329867142?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">July 16, 2024</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
With Perez’s help, Kasumba’s skills have improved behind the dish. Campbell remembers with a laugh how after Kasumba came over from Uganda, where pitchers won’t hit 90 mph, he tried to catch a pitch from Taiwanese prospect Chen-Wei Lin. He tried to emulate Perez’s technique of starting with the mitt down and raising it to the pitch, but ended up taking a fastball off his facemask.
Now, he’s able to catch pitches in the high 90s, he says -- and on Tuesday, at Globe Life Field, surrounded by his idol and the stars of the sport, Kasumba’s dreams felt closer than ever.
“I want to thank Mr. Sean Campbell of the MLB Draft League for giving me this opportunity, and MLB, because sometimes, I think about my future,” Kasumba said.
“If not baseball, I think I'd be in the slaughterhouse again -- and in the slaughterhouse, they use drugs, they use many things. Some kids in Uganda, they go mad because of drugs. But I thank God that Mr. Sean Campbell gave me this opportunity.”
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Step by step process…. <a href="https://t.co/NAj6QEc9mV">pic.twitter.com/NAj6QEc9mV</a></p>— KASUMBA DENNIS (@KASUMBADENNIS4) <a href="https://twitter.com/KASUMBADENNIS4/status/1810878899892416587?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">July 10, 2024</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
But the Derby experience wasn’t all before Kasumba’s return to that situation in Africa.
On Tuesday, Perez took Kasumba, Shawali Sherican and Campbell’s young son around the field with him to meet the All-Stars and shag fly balls together during batting practice, with Kasumba nearly snagging a ball in right field while the left-handed hitting Jarren Duran took some batting practice hacks.
“[I wanted to tell him] that I love him,” Kasumba said. “To help me with my catching skills, because he's the best. Of course, I want to be the best like him.”
But Kasumba didn’t seem to mind that no baseballs came his way; he was too busy animatedly going through throwing motions, which he said he did to mimic one of Perez’s defensive highlights from one of his eight previous All-Star games.
Kasumba wanted to know of Perez’s thought process and mechanics through that play -- and after Perez responded, he grinned and pulled Kasumba into a bear hug. He’d already shown the crew around the star-studded first group of batting practice -- Shawali Sherican really wanted to meet Aaron Judge -- and finally said his goodbyes at the end of batting practice.
“He could really think to play this game,” Perez said. “It's amazing, you know? To get a guy like that, with his history. I thank God. I had to meet him to give him a gift.”
“The generosity that Salvador showed last night, just the compassion, it was unbelievable,” Campbell said. “It's been a great experience, just all-encompassing.”
Perez hopes that this opportunity for Kasumba can lead to far more than just a cameo at this stage sometime down the line, which Campbell says will involve following up with next steps like getting his high school diploma and thus qualifying for the junior college programs that Campbell hopes can be the Ugandan players’ next step towards professional baseball.
“All the sacrifices he's made to try to be a professional baseball player -- it’s something that people have to respect that,” Perez said. “When you think you do something -- when you think you've gone through some bad things, there are people worse off than us.
“When I feel tired and I remember him, it gives me more energy.”
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