This story was excerpted from Mandy Bell’s Guardians Beat newsletter. To read the full newsletter, click here. And subscribe to get it regularly in your inbox.

A young Steven Kwan could’ve used someone like him to look up to when he was a kid.

As a baseball fan, it was rare for him to see someone who looked like he did in the Major Leagues. A smaller-sized Asian American was never popping up on his television screen. Someone like Ichiro Suzuki, a shorter, scrawny Japanese player, was the closest he could get to an Asian-American player. And because he was always on the television at Kwan’s grandmother’s house, it was easy for him to start idolizing one of the greatest players in the game’s history.

But still, Suzuki wasn’t exactly like Kwan. And now, Kwan is hoping he can help fill that demographic.

“I think representation is important,” Kwan said. “Hopefully, there’s somebody out there watching that can see an Asian American and think, ‘OK, maybe it is possible, shorter size, smaller size and then Asian,’ and I think that’s really cool. And I think it’s important. If I had seen that when I was younger, I think that would’ve helped my confidence.”

Kwan was never immersed into his Asian heritage growing up. He said his parents wanted him to focus on living in America and prioritize fitting into this culture. He was given an American name, “Steven,” to help his chances of being even more successful in this country. But the older he’s gotten, the more he’s wanted to represent his roots.

“I think that was planted in me early to kind of just conform as soon as possible,” Kwan said. “But I think if I could’ve had some, like, uniqueness and really own my Asian heritage, I think that would’ve been really cool.”

Even if it’s something that wasn’t top of mind for him growing up, it’s important to him now and the Guardians know that. The club wanted to support him this month, as May is Asian American Pacific Islanders Heritage Month. In honor of Kwan’s bloodlines, the Guardians were even more inspired to host an AAPI night at Progressive Field last week when the Angels were in town.

The organization got specific t-shirts made for the players that had cherry blossoms and waves inside the “C” logo, as a nod to Asian culture. The team invited Asian-Americans from the local community to sing the National Anthem, throw out the first pitch and deliver the game ball to the mound before first pitch. And the team had special in-game content posted on the scoreboard to highlight AAPI resources.

With this type of support and recognition, Kwan knows that he and the handful of other Asian-American players are helping fill a void in the game.

“[The Yankees’ Anthony] Volpe’s coming up. I think he’s Asian heritage,” Kwan said. “[The D-backs’] Corbin Carroll. He’s the same thing. Just kind of seeing little pockets here and there, you can stick out your chest a little more and feel like, OK, there’s multiple of us out in the big leagues instead of just kind of being that sole factor. But yeah, I think it’s really cool.”

This way, if any young Asian-American child is watching baseball on any given night, there is a better chance than Kwan had that the child will see someone who looks just like them. And if that child uses Kwan as a role model? That’s something the 25-year-old Guardians outfielder can’t even process.

“That would be awesome. I can’t even put that into words,” Kwan said. “I think we need that person. Maybe not baseball, but just anything. If you believe in something, if you love something, then I think you should pursue it. I don’t think a lot of people hear that enough, especially in this day and age. Yeah, if I could be that inspiration to anybody, I think that’d be really cool.”