As Jarred Kelenic goes through life, on or off the field, he wears a necklace that means everything to him. It is a chain attached to a ring – and not just any ring. It is his late grandfather’s wedding ring, a physical reminder of the man Kelenic loved so much.
“I never take it off,” Kelenic said. “I try to go out here and play each and every day like it’s gonna be my last because you never know.”
This is, after all, the lesson Kelenic learned from his grandfather’s death: Life can end at any moment. You must cherish each day.
In 2016, Bob Leibhan died suddenly and unexpectedly at age 72. The family never got an autopsy, but they believed he died of a heart attack. This was surprising, Kelenic said, because Leibhan ran every morning, worked out often and was in great shape. The heart attack came out of nowhere.
At 16 years old, Kelenic was left to process this.
“Everything went silent for the longest time,” Kelenic told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. “Trying to wrap your head around that situation is tough. And immediately, I just went to my family and leaned on them, and we learned on each other to get through it. And that’s why I talk about (how) one of the most important things in my life is my family, and it’s for situations like that. That is the hardest thing I’ve ever had to go through, and I got through it with them. That’s the reason why I do what I do each and every day, is to help take care of them and help represent our family.”
Two years ago, Kelenic’s grandmother, Carol Leibhan – Bob’s wife – gifted Bob’s wedding ring to Kelenic for Christmas. Kelenic purchased a chain to attach to it, and it became a special necklace. Each day, Kelenic, wearing the necklace, tries to live life to the fullest, with the acknowledgment that tomorrow isn’t promised.
The necklace – and the ring on it – symbolize this attitude and keep Leibhan’s memory alive.
‘Came from nothing and worked his tail off’
Bob Leibhan grew up in North Dakota – where he lived when he died – and, as Kelenic put it, “came from nothing and worked his tail off, just to provide for his family.” Kelenic remembers his grandfather driving a school bus and working on a golf course.
In his younger days, Leibhan worked on a farm, Kelenic said. He played in a fast-pitch men’s softball league, but not on his own dime. He couldn’t afford to pay for the trips, but he was so good that other guys would pay his way to help them win tournaments. Kelenic said Leibhan worked multiple jobs to support his wife, Carol, and his kids, Lisa (Jarred’s mother) and Lori.
“I think he never had any expectations for anything,” Kelenic said of how his grandfather lived life. “I think he was just thankful and glad for whatever came his way. And especially in this game, I think you can get caught up in – there’s a lot of attention, there’s a lot of spotlight stuff, there’s a lot of things that are expected. And I think that I never want to get to that point just because I know how happy of a life that he lived and how hard he worked each and every day because he had no expectations, and that he was just gonna show up, clock in, and he was gonna give his best effort in whatever he had that day. That’s just something that I truly admire and want to be like.
“Just to lose him unexpectedly like that, for me, it’s understanding that you don’t know how long you have, regardless of your age or regardless of your health. It really makes me appreciate the little things a lot more, and ever since that day, I’ve appreciated them a lot more.”
Kelenic has tried to be intentional with his hobbies outside of baseball. Take his interest in land management, for example. He engages in that now. In years past, he always thought to himself that he’d eventually get to it.
Then he would remind himself that he doesn’t know how long he has in this life and what could happen.
“I want to make sure I achieve everything that I want to in this life,” Kelenic said.
And what is that?
“Family is the No. 1 thing for me,” Kelenic said. “I think family is the most important thing in everybody’s circle. I’ve been blessed with a really good family, and those are the people that, when times are hard and when stuff gets tough, those are the people you lean on. My goal is to just try to be a role model to everyone that’s in my family and to also help in any way that I can.
“But obviously being where I’m at right now, I’m at the selfish point in my life where I’m only 25 years old and I don’t have kids or anything like that. But there’s gonna come a time when I’m gonna have kids, and I’m gonna wanna be a dad, and it’s gonna change. Just teaching them the ropes and being a role model for them. Just being a good person is the biggest thing for me.”
‘It was one of the hardest things I ever went through’
To this day, Kelenic can remember how difficult it was to deal with his grandfather’s sudden death.
“It was the hardest thing I’ve probably had to go through, just because I saw just the hurt that was going on in our family, and that’s so not normal for my family,” Kelenic said. “I feel like I’m pretty blessed to have really good people and really happy people, and to see that level of hurt going on, it was tough.”
It really hurt his mom, Lisa.
“To see my mom like that, no son ever wants to see their mom that upset,” he said. “It was one of the hardest things I ever went through. Unfortunately, it’s just part of life. The only thing I can do about it is try to make him proud each and every day, you know?”
And this is what Kelenic tries to do. He wants to attack each day with passion. He knows he’s not guaranteed anything. He works hard. He doesn’t give up.
He’s also leaned on his faith in recent years. Kelenic, a Catholic, grew up with a strong relationship with God. A few years ago, he said, he got off that path, lost that relationship and went through tough times. He felt alone. He felt disconnected.
He turned to God.
“I feel like when you’re alone and you feel like you have nobody, God is always there, and he’s always there to listen,” Kelenic said. “If you’re in it and everything seems so loud and so out of control, if you just sit in silence and you just listen to what he has to say and his guidance, that’s something that I really leaned on. And I made it (a priority) to better my relationship (with him). Because without him, I wouldn’t be here. He gave me the ability that I have, and to honor him out here on this field, in front of all these people, is something that I’m extremely thankful for.”
‘Just the way I play the game’
While watching the Braves on television, you might’ve noticed Kelenic’s necklace. He wears it on the field, in the clubhouse and away from baseball. It goes everywhere with him. He’s not flashy about it. It’s a subtle reminder of his grandfather.
He also honors Leibhan in another way.
“Just the way I play the game,” Kelenic said. “Just going out there and playing as hard as I can because I never know when the last day is gonna come. I just try to go out and play as hard as I can.”
Leibhan watched Kelenic play baseball through some of his high school years before he died.
Now, Kelenic is a major leaguer.
“I think he would be really proud that I’m in the major leagues,” Kelenic said. “Unfortunately, he never saw me in the big leagues. But I know he always told me that I was going to achieve a lot of things in this game, and I’m just gonna keep doing that.”
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