Shirley brothers would be part of ‘something great’ if selected in same MLB draft

Brandon and Dustin Shirley grew up in Ladera Heights, where many of their friends chose to play basketball and football.

The brothers would have joined them, except when Brandon was 8 and Dustin was 6 a family friend signed them up for Little League baseball after seeing them constantly hitting Wiffle Balls at home.

“It was only because we had a family friend living down the street and saw how active we were in the backyard,” Brandon said. “Ever since, we played baseball.”

Brandon, 23, and Dustin, 21, graduates of Los Angeles Loyola High, could become one of the few sets of African American brothers to be drafted by Major League Baseball in the same year.

The draft begins Monday, and while the Shirleys are not likely to be taken until the later rounds on Tuesday or Wednesday, their selections would be significant. The numbers of African American players at the sports highest level has been declining for many years.

“It would be something great for major league baseball,” said their father, Jacque.

The most recognizable, and last, set of African American brothers to be drafted in the same year were the Reynolds brothers, Harold and Larry, chosen in the sixth and fourth rounds in 1979.

Roger Stewart, a Loyola assistant coach, used a Family Ties baseball database to do his own research and found 65 sets of brothers who were drafted in the same year — but only the Reynolds brothers were African American.

“Oh man, it’s been their lifetime dream — they’ve wanted to play professional baseball,” Jacque Shirley said of his sons.

Brandon is a 6-foot senior center fielder for UC San Diego, which made it to the NCAA Division II World Series. Dustin is a 6-5 junior second baseman at Dartmouth.

Their father played football and basketball growing up, and their mother ran track.They were participants at baseball’s Urban Youth Academy in Compton. And that’s where they first met a young Hunter Greene, also African American, who could be the No. 1 player taken in the draft out of Sherman Oaks Notre Dame High.

“We used to work out together when he was super young,” Brandon said. “We always knew he’d be good. The fact he turned out the player he has become is crazy. He was always good enough to work out with the older guys.”

The Shirley brothers exchange text messages or speak with each other over the phone almost every day. Each has been talking to major league teams.

Dustin batted .281 this past season with three triples and 24 RBIs. Brandon batted .343 with six home runs and 50 RBIs.

Dustin was a youth football quarterback. He was cut from Loyola’s baseball team during the summer after his sophomore season, missed fall and winter ball, then tried out again and made it.

“We had no choice but to keep him because he worked so hard to improve,” Stewart said.

By his senior year, Dustin was in the middle of a growth spurt and was chosen All-Mission League for his contributions to a league championship team.

Both Dustin and Brandon understand baseball’s push to attract more African American athletes.

“I feel baseball isn’t really the sport a lot of African Americans want to play,” Brandon said. “I feel basketball and football are more popular in the inner city.”

Brandon used to carpool to Loyola with neighborhood kids Julian Harrell, who went on to play basketball at Eastern Washington, and Kodi Whitfield, a football player who went to Stanford.

Stewart said the Shirley brothers can be positive examples to the African American community with their academic and athletic success.

“At Loyola, we talk abut being men for others,” Stewart said. “It would be an acknowledgement of hard work and participation at a school where we don’t really get many African American people who play baseball. They’ve absolutely beaten the odds.”

Said Dustin: “It would be an amazing feeling to be in same draft, and something we’d remember for the rest of our lives. I’d be grateful to be even drafted, but to share it with my brother would be sensational.”

eric.sondheimer@latimes.com

Twitter: latsondheimer