Dom Chiti, as Middle America as you can get

Dom Chiti's dad was the major league catcher Harry Chiti, who will forever be remembered not for his catching knuckleballs, but for being the only player ever traded for himself -- from the Cleveland Indians to the New York Mets, in 1962. Chiti, stuck working for the same club that had just traded him away, hung up his glove that same year.
Two decades later Harry's son, Dom, became a left handed pitcher for the Atlanta Braves in 1976, then the Baltimore Orioles in 1981. And then he retired, at the age of 23, perhaps because of injury, but details are scarce -- only the skeleton of his five years of pitching and running stats remain.
But he became a scout, then other functions within the infrastructure of the Texas Rangers. Now he is their bullpen coach, one of six under-coaches beneath the head coatch. He's the guy in the dugout who's job it is to psych up the relief pitchers. "I wan't you to pitch their asses off!", for instance.
Dom was born on the western border of Missouri, in Independence -- a holy city for Mormons. Harry was born in a bare patch of South Central Illinois, population is currently just over 1,000 beings. How more middle of America could one possibly get?