Lane Tech junior Amaan Khan first picked up a baseball when he was a toddler.
That probably is fairly typical for a teenage baseball player. But what isn’t typical is that earlier this fall Khan pitched in the World Baseball Classic qualifiers for the Pakistan national team.
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The double-elimination tournament took place Sept. 30 to Oct. 5 in Panama City. Pakistan previously appeared in the 2017 qualifier but were eliminated after two games.
They were again eliminated after two games this year but not before Khan, 16, had an opportunity to pitch. In Pakistan’s second game of the tournament, a loss to Nicaragua, he gave up two runs on no hits with three walks in his one inning of work.
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Khan, the youngest member of the team by more than a year, felt a sense of familiarity with Pakistani players.
“It was a great experience,” he told the Tribune. “Not many 16-year-olds in general are able to do that. To be able to have that opportunity to take off and pick the brains of the older guys was awesome.
“You get that feeling like there’s more Pakistani baseball players out there besides me. It just felt very calming to know it. There’s other guys that did it too.”
Earlier this year, the 6-foot-4 right-hander and the Lane Tech junior varsity team won the city championship and he was awarded the team’s JV Cy Young award.
Khan’s fastball reaches 86 mph, but the pitch he goes to most is his curveball.
“I got it down at a younger age and I’ve kind of stuck with it since,” he said. “I’ll still stick with it no matter what. I feel really comfortable with it.”
Khan’s father, Azeem, wanted to pass along the game to his son.
“He had me start playing (as a toddler) and I continue to play now,” Khan said. “I grew up as a catcher and a first baseman, but with time I started getting on the mound a little bit more and I started feeling comfortable there. Now I’m doing it for real.
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For the elder Khan, it was a point of pride not only to see his son realize a dream, but to represent their family’s roots.
“It was surreal,” Azeem Khan said. “To watch my son play the game that he loves, that I also love, that we both came up playing.”
When Amaan Khan was 12, his father decided it was time to help get his son to the next level. Khan started playing for Elite Baseball Training in the summer, and after a game a video of him pitching was uploaded to Twitter. A father of a player on Team Pakistan saw the video and reached out.
“Working together to get him to play at a high level and then to actually see it come to fruition was amazing,” Azeem Khan said. “Most importantly, seeing him wearing Pakistan across his jersey was an honor, considering that’s where my mother and father were both born and raised. My wife was born there. We obviously have a very close tie to our extended family that’s over in Pakistan. So it was an honor to have him wear Pakistan across his chest.”
Though Pakistan did not advance to the World Baseball Classic, Amaan Khan is looking forward to the opportunity to play for them again.
Right now, though, he’s excited to take his experience back to Lane Tech to play for another championship.
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“I know we’re going to win it again this year and I’m positive the team only got better,” he said. “I’m just super excited for the high school season.”
