This will be Byrd’s seventh season of independent professional baseball and second with the Saltdogs, where he was one of the league’s most consistent leadoff hitters in 2021. Byrd enters with 300 career games and a .267/.405/.423/.828 slashline, and has a very sharp eye, with 102 walks in 1,289 career plate appearances. He has 32 homers and 132 RBIs, with experience in the American Association, Frontier League, Pecos League and the Pacific Association. Byrd attended both Cumberland University and San Jacinto College, and spends offseason as a baseball coaching specialist in the Dallas area. Byrd also has a successful modeling/acting career, which includes a role as a referee in the 2021 film “Twelve Mighty Orphans,” which featured Martin Sheen, Robert Duvall and Luke Wilson, among others. Byrd began modeling when a talent agent spotted him drinking coffee one morning in the middle of a Southern California coffee shop in the midst of his time in the Pacific Association.