Nunnally may return to big leagues with Cleveland Indians

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Jon Nunnally joined an exclusive club by belting a home run in his first major league at-bat.

The Pelham, N.C., native will belong to another one when he, Ben Kendall and Ronnie Belton are inducted into the Danville Register & Bee Sports Hall of Fame at 5:30 p.m. today at the Stratford Conference Center. Tickets are $20 per person and include a social hour, a catered dinner and the induction ceremony.

The utility outfielder played six seasons in the big leagues, from 1995-2000, posting a .246 career batting average with 42 home runs and 125 RBIs while spending time with the Kansas City Royals (1995-97), Cincinnati Reds (1997-98), Boston Red Sox (1999) and New York Mets (2000). He also played professional ball in Japan, Venezuela and Mexico — and clubbed a home run in his first at-bat with the Orix BlueWave in Japan’s Nippon Professional Baseball league, as well.

“I’m thinking I might be the first person to ever hit a home run in my first at-bat in two countries,” Nunnally said Sunday, shortly after flying home from Venezuela for today’s induction ceremony. He is in his first season an assistant coach with the Leones del Caracas, or Caracas Lions, of the Venezuelan Professional Baseball League and may have a shot at returning to the big leagues next year as the hitting instructor for the Cleveland Indians.

“I just finished talking with (Cleveland Indians manager) Manny Acta on Thursday for about three hours in Caracas,“ Nunnally said. “I think I have an upper hand on that job. It could look really, really well for me.“

Nunnally attended Hargrave Military Academy in Chatham and was drafted out of Miami-Dade Community College by the Cleveland Indians in the third round of the 1992 amateur draft. His major league debut came with Kansas City on April 26, 1995, when the righty, who batted left-handed, smacked a home run in his first at-bat.

“That was awesome. It was one of those things that you dream of and it actually comes true,” Nunnally said. “That was a big moment in my career. … I was going up to the plate for my first at-bat in the big leagues, and I was leading off the game. I started to walk up to the on-deck circle and left my helmet in the dugout. Just some nerves.”

After running the count to 3-0, Nunnally took a called strike.

“He threw the same exact pitch again on the outside half,” he said, “and I hit a home run out to center field. When I hit it I knew I hit it really, really well. I knew I had it.”

Nunnally produced his best statistical season as a pro that year, hitting .244 with 14 homers and 42 RBIs.

He has continued his professional baseball career as a coach with the Cleveland Indians organization, beginning as a hitting instructor with the then-Burlington Indians of the Appalachian League in 2006, choosing an assignment with the club’s rookie-level affiliate to be closer to home. He was the hitting instructor for the Triple-A Columbus Clippers of the International League, an Indians affiliate, last season and hopes to make it back to the big leagues with Cleveland’s parent club next year.

“Coming into next week, I think we’ll know something,“ Nunnally said. “To be able to stay in baseball and be at the highest level, as a player and a coach, that would be awesome.”