In November 2008, Greg Schwarber accidentally shot himself.
The father of unexpected Cubs sensation Kyle, Greg was a decorated police chief in Middletown, Ohio, the one whose humble, hard-working ways over a three-decade career caused everyone from city managers to records-department clerks to lament his 2011 retirement.
Greg Schwarber had navigated tense situations and dangerous encounters countless times with limited scratches. But cleaning his Glock .45-caliber pistol at home one day, he lost focus while talking to his daughter and figured the bullets on his end table that he had emptied from the magazine represented the entire group.
When he pulled the trigger, which is part of the disassembly and cleaning process, the bullet left in the chamber tore through his left thigh and lodged in a wall. His wife, Donna, a registered nurse, attended to his physical wound en route to the hospital.
Greg handled the mental anguish.
"I had two choices there: I could run and hide my head, which I really wanted to do because I was totally embarrassed," Greg said by phone from Ohio. "Or I could let everybody know that if you don't think it can happen to you, you're a candidate. Because I could've sworn that would never happen to me. And it did."
So Greg Schwarber looked every member of the Middletown Division of Police in the eye, from dispatchers to jailers to detectives, and used his atypical carelessness as a teaching moment.
Kyle Schwarber's rise from lightly recruited high school senior to slugging mainstay in the Cubs' playoff push has been nothing if not meteoric. If you're looking for how Schwarber is staying grounded, his father _ and his quintessentially Midwestern-named hometown _ are as good places to start as any.
"That shooting shows his personality and how to handle adversity," Kyle said quietly inside a lively Cubs clubhouse. "People were railing him all over the country. It's easy to make excuses. But he didn't do that. He owned up to his mistake and used it as a teaching moment."
Such lessons of accountability and service to others have filled Kyle Schwarber's upbringing in a town that is watching most every at-bat of his ascension.
Middletown is where you'll find Fred Nori, a longtime area coach who has worked individually with Schwarber and recently called him during his mini-slump.
"I told him, 'I'm not staying up until 1 a.m. to watch you go 0-for-4,' " Nori said by phone. "You gotta get your stuff together."
It's where you'll find Jason Cave, Schwarber's high school coach, who talks about Kyle's work with underprivileged youths as proudly as he does Kyle's blink-and-miss-it transition from Double-A ball to the Cubs.
"It's amazing what he has done," Cave said by phone. "But Kyle is still Kyle. He's got a level head."
It's where you used to find Tracy Smith, who recruited Schwarber to and coached him at Indiana University thanks to Nori's tip and Smith's wife hailing from Middletown.
"With spring training here (in Arizona)," said Smith, now the coach at Arizona State, "he'd come over and hang out in the yard, check on me. He's always looking out for others."
Of most significance, the Middletown area is where you'll still find Greg Schwarber, whose athletic background and steady commitment to service and fairness formed the foundation from which Kyle starred.
"Kyle's a very gifted athlete. But he's humble, grounded and always trying to get better," Smith said from his office at Arizona State. "That's the mindset that was instilled in him growing up in that household."
Greg Schwarber hails from a family of 13 kids raised in nearby Cincinnati. His placekicking skills at the University of Dayton were true enough to receive a training-camp invitation from the New York Giants. One brother, Tom, played with Ken Griffey Jr. in high school and got drafted by the Tigers. The Indians drafted another, Mike. A third brother, Dave, played football at Notre Dame.
"That's a pretty good genetic background," Cave, the high school coach, said.
Of his nine sisters, Greg tabbed Jenny as the most athletic _ "Boy, you're trying to get me in trouble," he said, laughing _ because of her volleyball scholarship to Miami of Ohio.
Middletown produced basketball Hall of Famer Jerry Lucas. Cris Carter, another Hall of Famer, and late Bears safety Todd Bell are two of the many examples of the town's football pipeline to Ohio State and the NFL.
The town of about 50,000 is not known for baseball.
Perhaps that's why then-Indiana coach Smith, finally scouting Schwarber in person with his wife by his side in her hometown, encountered bewilderment from a coach from another Division I school who also attended that game.
"He asked me who I was there to see, and I said the catcher," Smith said. "He said, 'The opposing team's catcher?' I said, 'No, the Middletown kid.' His look was, 'Wrong catcher.' "
Schwarber proceeded to fly out deep to center field before crushing three straight homers to all fields.
"I was running around in the sixth inning trying to find that guy to say, 'Wrong catcher, huh?' " Smith said. "And I called Kyle on the way home and offered him a scholarship immediately."
Indiana, rightly so, is known for basketball. Just like with Middletown and football, Schwarber is damaging the stereotype.
"It's kind of nice to have a Hoosier baseball player take the Midwest by storm," Smith said. "Kyle was a Division I linebacker recruit. I just think people assumed he was going to go the football route."
But even with Greg Schwarber acknowledging football's role in shaping Kyle's leadership skills, baseball always ran deepest in his blood.
"He was hitting Wiffle balls at 3 years old and just crushing it," said Greg, who added Kyle would umpire games he watched on TV.
This youthful passion eventually folded into driven purpose. Cave recalled Schwarber taking a speed class after regular team practices because he didn't think he ran fast enough.
"That's what separates him from everybody else," Cave said. "He could see his weaknesses. And he would work on them all the time just to improve them. That comes from his competitive nature."
One of his uncles who reached the minor leagues points to Schwarber's preparation and poise.
"I see him getting even more focused, and in situations where other guys would get nervous, he's calm," Tom Schwarber said by phone. "Baseball is a game of failure. How do you deal with it? He has had great success this year because he's able to deal with the failure.
"And this truly is one of those stories where hard work paid off. It was all him, no one else."
This work ethic, maturity and poise is what led the Cubs to make Schwarber the surprise fourth pick in the 2014 draft. At the time, Jason McLeod, the Cubs' senior vice president of scouting and player development, said Schwarber ranked second on the team's list, well ahead of Baseball America's ranking as the No. 17 prospect.
Schwarber's bat, which produced for Indiana at big moments dating to the 2014 NCAA regionals, and experience with Team USA proved attractive.
"The Cubs, by far, were the most thorough team in interviewing him and doing their due diligence because he was a bit of an unconventional pick," Smith said. "Everybody knew he was going to go in the first round but not that high. I had people text me, 'Is this guy for real?' And I said, 'Just wait.' To their credit, they did their homework and ultimately got one of the best young players in baseball."
After striking out on three pitches in his first big-league at-bat, Schwarber has enjoyed several storybook moments. With a gaggle of friends and family watching a road game in Cincinnati, he hit a game-tying home run in the ninth inning and won it with a homer in the 13th.
Nine days earlier, he won MVP honors at the All-Star Futures Game in the same ballpark.
"Middletown was like a ghost town that night, I was told," Cave said. "Everybody was at the game."
Added Greg Schwarber: "I'm amazed how many people in town are following him. I went to the dentist (recently), and while they were cleaning my teeth, that's all my dentist talked about. The influence is a lot wider than I thought."
Whether he settles in at catcher or remains in left field, Schwarber's left-handed bat has become a cornerstone of the Cubs' youth movement. But if you think any of this _ the Futures Game MVP award, the sudden rise to prominence _ will go to Schwarber's head, think again.
"My parents taught me to remember where you come from and that you're never too good for anyone," Schwarber said. "As the police chief, my dad had to work with a lot of people and treat them fairly. You treat all people equally."
Greg Schwarber peppers several of his answers about his son with an almost embarrassed, aw-shucks quality. But in a steady voice, he emphasizes what he considers Kyle's best attribute.
"Kyle always plays from his heart," Greg said. "He doesn't play for himself. He plays for the team, the bigger picture. And it has always seemed he's been able to pick people up and make them play better. That's just him."
In that sense, the apple hasn't fallen far from the proverbial tree.
There's another story from Greg Schwarber's past that speaks volumes.
In January 2010, while off duty, he endured a harrowing, head-on, multiple-car crash that sent seven people to the hospital.
One week later, despite briefly losing consciousness in the crash, Greg left for a mission trip to Jamaica, where he helped rebuild a home. In that process, he discovered he had suffered a cracked sternum in the accident.
"It was life-changing for me," Greg says.
He's talking about the mission trip, not the injury, which he ignored to fulfill his work.
"That shows his strength and willingness to stay true to his commitment," Kyle said.
While in Jamaica, news of the devastating earthquake that hit Haiti spread.
"A lot of the people in Jamaica were living in shacks," Greg Schwarber said. "They didn't have much of anything. But a local pastor took up a collection and everybody in that church was giving. To this day, I think about that. And I'm touched by that. We take much for granted here.
"Growing up in this country and doing police work for 33 years, you think you've seen everything. Then you realize you haven't seen anything until you get into some of these other countries and see how they live. And yet their faith and family means so much to them. It's incredible."
As Greg Schwarber spoke, Kyle appeared on his TV.
"Look at that, he just got a single," Greg said.
The elder Schwarber said this matter-of-factly, in the voice of someone who keeps adversity and prosperity in the proper perspective.
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