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Khadim Diaw seeks to become the first big leaguer of Senegalese descent
The mother of the Cedar Rapids Kernels catcher-outfielder played softball at Yale, while his father is working to help kids in his native West African country get introduced to and involved in baseball

May. 3, 2025 12:59 pm, Updated: May. 6, 2025 10:39 am
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CEDAR RAPIDS - As he stands on the concourse at Veterans Memorial Stadium, Isma Diaw looks out at the field and spots his son.
Khadim Diaw is the starting catcher this night for the Cedar Rapids Kernels. He’s in his first full season of professional baseball, and this is the first time Isma has seen him play as a pro.
Like most any parent in this situation, Isma is overwhelmed with pride.
“It makes you feel that all of the work that was put into it is showing up,” he said. “I’m very glad for him because he is very focused, very disciplined on everything he does. He is very ambitious. All to the point where I question myself ‘Is that really my son?’”
Khadim Diaw was a third-round pick of the Minnesota Twins in last July’s MLB Draft out of Loyola Marymount University. He never had a Division I college scholarship offer in high school, walking on at the Los Angeles school.
But this isn’t just about a walk-on college player who made good. It’s not just about a guy who has the ability to catch one night and play center field or right field the next.
“KD is a really good athlete,” Kernels Manager Brian Meyer said. “You can put him anywhere defensively. If you told him to go play shortstop, he could probably go play shortstop.”
“I like them all,” Khadim Diaw said. “I think being able to play all three positions should help me out. There’s not too many guys who can do that. I’m just trying to be as good at each individually as possible.”
The defensive versatility and rags-to-riches background aside, the main part of this story is about the first player of Senegalese descent to be a major league draft pick. Someone who hopes he can be a baseball role model for kids in the West African country.
Whose father is working hard to grow the sport in his native land.
“It’s early in the process,” Khadim Diaw said. “He’s mostly just trying to figure out a way to create infrastructure so the kids over there can play baseball, learn how to play baseball. This is just the primary beginnings of it.”
Khadim Diaw was born in New Jersey and grew up idolizing Derek Jeter. He was a high-level soccer player as a youngster and has a namesake who is a well-known international player from Senegal.
Baseball ultimately won his heart, though.
Some of the reason for that might be Khadim’s mom, Dr. Suzanne Scheld, who was a softball letterwinner at Yale University in the 1980s. She is department chair of anthropology at Cal State-Northridge.
“All that he has, I think he took some from me, some from mom,” Isma Diaw said. “He has seen what mom has accomplished in life, what I have accomplished, and he is like a combination ... But when it comes to baseball, I give most of the credit to mom.”
Isma Diaw has spent 30 years in the United States as a post-graduate student and product engineer professional. He fairly recently began his own consulting company, one that has him splitting time here and in his hometown of Dakar, Senegal.
Those international ties have allowed him the opportunity to make slow-but-sure progress on his goal of introducing full-fledged baseball to the country. Senegal has a national program for Baseball5, which is a new “street” version of the sport.
It is played with five persons a side, players using their bare hand to hit a small rubber ball onto the field, which is about 70 square feet and can be of any composition: dirt, concrete, whatever. There are no pitchers and no gloves or bats are used.
That’s a start toward getting youths introduced to the real thing, which is where Isma Diaw comes in. He and others, including the U.S. Embassy in Senegal, worked to get a license for an official Little League Baseball program in the country.
Uganda is the only other African nation to have one. It has qualified multiple times for Little League World Series in the last dozen years and even has a player who has signed professionally in MLB pitcher David Matoma, a 19-year-old playing in low-Class A for the Bradenton Pirates.
There has been only one African player ever in the major leagues: Gift Ngoepe, an outfielder from South Africa who played 28 games in 2017 with Pittsburgh and 13 games the following season with the Toronto Blue Jays.
“We’re just kind of taking baby steps with this,” Isma Diaw said. “We are trying to secure some land right now.”
That land is just outside Dakar, Diaw said, and would house a complex with four fields, three for baseball and another for softball. There would be four official baseball programs in Senegal: tee ball for 5 and 6-year olds and regular baseball for 7 and 8-year olds, 9 to 15-year-olds and for those older than 15.
Diaw said a new government regime has emphasized teaching English to children in schools, and the country’s baseball program would help do that as well.
“We plan on having housing,” Isma Diaw said. “We want to see if we can eventually create a program where we can have kids here (in the United States) training kids over there in Senegal. That’s what our plan is.”
Perhaps some day Khadim Diaw can be one of those trainers. He and his younger brother Assane have visited the country a handful of times.
At the very least, he can be a poster boy for baseball in Senegal, an inspiration for its kids.
“To show that you know what, you can actually do this,” Isma Diaw said.
“If I can make the major leagues, it definitely would be impactful to bring baseball to Senegal,” Khadim Diaw said. “To allow kids to learn the game, for sure. That would be great.”
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