How Lyle Miller-Green became the 'Siberian Sultan of Swat'

MLB.COM ^ | 07/16/2024 | Anthony Castrovince

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When Stephanie Miller saw the baby boy, her heart melted.

In an instant, all the pain and frustration Stephanie and her husband, Richard Green, had endured in their inability to conceive a child went away. Because there, on a VHS cassette sent along by an adoption agency, was footage of a 6-month-old child in need of a loving family.

“He looked precious,” Stephanie says now. “I instantly fell in love.”

The only problem? He was in Siberia.

And so it was that, after a few months of patience and paperwork, Stephanie and Richard made the long, long journey from Virginia to LaGuardia to Moscow to Tomsk to meet their son.

Oleg Sergevich Kornev, by then 9 months old, was shy at first. The boy sunk himself into the nurse presenting him to his adoptive parents. But when Stephanie and Richard returned the next day, he brightened up, wrapped his arms around his new mom and wouldn’t let go.

With that embrace, young Oleg was opened up to a new life, a new country, a new identity. It was in that moment that he essentially shed his name and his Siberian self and began the process of becoming a naturalized United States citizen.

And, as it turns out, one of the more incredible MLB Draft stories you’ve ever heard.

When the White Sox selected a 23-year-old named Lyle Miller-Green with the 499th overall pick in the Draft in the 17th round on Wednesday, the young man who was saved from a Russian “baby house” by two loving Americans was embraced yet again. Should Miller-Green, a 6-foot-6 right fielder from Austin Peay, seize this opportunity the way he has his upbringing in the U.S., this Siberian Sultan of Swat is going to be something special.

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[gnickgnack2]

I sure hope they don’t mean radio hostess Stupidy Miller.