Inspiring Their Confidence: Chemistry teacher’s relationship with his professional baseball pitcher brother impacts his teaching style

Hidden among the stray Meteorology worksheets and Chemistry textbooks in science teacher Steve Appier’s classroom sits a Kansas City Royals pitcher bobblehead. Not many of Steve’s students notice the figurine tucked away on the shelf beside the pencil sharpener. Even fewer are aware that the figure isn’t just player #55 — it’s Kevin Appier, Steve’s little brother.

Steve doesn’t bring up Kevin around his students. The bobblehead — a six-inch player winding up for a pitch — is the only trace of Kevin in Steve’s classroom. Steve isn’t embarrassed of Kevin, he just doesn’t want to come off as full of himself. “My brother was a professional baseball player,” isn’t his favorite conversation starter.

Don’t be misled by Steve’s modesty and the singular token of his brother in his classroom. Kevin’s impact on Steve’s life is much larger than the palm-sized bobblehead that honors him. Without Kevin, Steve wouldn’t be at East. 

Or even teaching at all.

Long before Steve was balancing chemical equations, he was playing catch at the neighborhood park with Kevin. Their parents were divorced, and the two lived with their mom in Lancaster, CA. Their dad’s absence and the eight-year age difference between the pair made their relationship more father-and-son than brother-and-brother. 

Steve remembers being shocked to see Kevin throwing and hitting a ball with a plastic bat before Kevin turned one. It was clear that Kevin had exceptional hand-eye coordination. While Kevin dreamed of becoming a professional baseball player when he grew up, Steve wanted to be a doctor — his favorite subject was math.

To friends and teachers, Kevin was just another young boy in a sports phase who would grow up to work a 9-to-5 office job. But not to Steve, who regularly took Kevin to the park to practice throwing after school and on weekends. By age four, Kevin was pitching. Steve drilled him relentlessly, always reminding him, “You can be a professional baseball player, you can be a professional baseball player.”

“He always believed because that’s what I told him,” Steve said. “That he could do this.”

Steve got Kevin signed up for a little league team after Kevin turned eight. 16-year-old Steve went to game after game, arguing with coaches about Kevin’s technique, cheering loudly — known infamously as “that guy.” 

“If he becomes a professional baseball player, how is my heart going to handle that?” Steve would tell his mom. “If I’m this stressed out over little league games?”

​​Professional coaches soon took over, and Kevin made his Major League pitching debut for the Kansas City Royals in 1987. Steve was no longer coaching Kevin, but he wasn’t done teaching. After realizing that medical school wasn’t for him, he began working toward a masters in teaching at Chapman University. 

Steve brings the skills he learned while coaching Kevin into his classroom. Looking back, Steve admits he may have been too demanding with Kevin. Their sisters would complain that Steve was “too mean” and “should give Kevin a break.” He keeps this in mind in his classroom, making sure to encourage behaviors instead of forcing them. 

He loves those moments when students finally grasp a new concept. It reminds him of days when Kevin would be a little off while pitching. Steve would ask him, “What should you do to fix this? What are you doing wrong? Why?” His students hear the same things while calculating significant figures. He makes sure that they learn by struggling, like Kevin, instead of simply being handed solutions.

“When you guide someone and they figure it out, that’s hard to beat,” Steve said.

After visiting Kansas City, Mo. several times to watch Kevin’s Royals games and liking the area, Steve left his first teaching job at Quartz Hill high school in California to teach at East in 1995. 

While Steve remains at East, Kevin is now retired and spends his time doing home improvement projects at his 80-acre ranch in Michigan. Despite only visiting each other twice a year, the brothers’ lifetime bond has endured.

“The only person who hates talking on the phone more than Kevin does is me,” Steve said. “But, on that rare occasion that we talk, for some reason, we’ll talk for hours.”

Steve’s room is regularly full of Chemistry students asking questions and hanging around to chat before and after school. He continues to inspire and encourage students today, the same way he did for Kevin. In fact, his encouragement is what led him to win the prestigious Wolfe Teaching Award in 2020 after being nominated by a student.

“People will tell you ‘you can’t,’” Steve said. “You’ll hear it all the time. But you have the will and gift to do this.”