Royals prospect is dating beauty queen Kelsey Miller

You often hear about the travails of minor-league baseball: the long bus rides, the low pay, etc.

But Royals prospect Jason Adam’s time in the minor leagues includes dating a beauty queen. That’s because Adam’s girlfriend, Kelsey Miller, was crowned Miss Delaware USA last week.

“I’m a lucky, lucky man,” Adam said in a phone interview.

Adam, who was the Royals’ fifth-round pick in the 2010 draft out of Blue Valley Northwest, pitched at low Class A Kane County in 2011 and the following year he was promoted to high Class A Wilmington in Delaware.

Miller’s sister, Kayla, is something of a celebrity at Blue Rocks games. She sells souvenirs with a trademark “AW YEAH!!” scream. Kayla introduced Jason and Kelsey, and it was a match made in heaven.

“We just hit it off right away,” Adam said.

Adam said it was easy to support Kelsey’s desire to enter the pageant.

“She’s passionate about it,” he said. “She really feels like she’s going to make a big difference in people’s lives through it. I was all for it.”

As a professional pitcher, Adam is used to being in high-pressure situations. But nothing prepared him from viewing the pageant from the audience.

“Watching the pageant, it was the most nerve-racking thing ever, because it’s subjective, I know how hard she’s worked and how badly she deserved it,” Adam said. “I was sweating out there.”

But for Miller, the pageant had a happy ending. She will take part in next year’s Miss USA pageant.

“She’s all big time now,” Adam joked, “so she’ll probably just leave me on the bus.”

This story was originally published December 4, 2013 at 7:18 AM with the headline "Royals prospect is dating beauty queen Kelsey Miller."