Kearney was drafted by the San Francisco Giants in the fourteenth round of the
1977 Major League Baseball draft out of the
University of Texas. He made his major league debut with the Giants late in the
1979 season, but returned to the
minor leagues for the following season. Kearney's strong throwing arm was made evident in a game against the Tacoma Indians in when, he threw
out five baserunners attempting to
steal second base. He was selected as the catcher for the 1981
Pacific Coast League Northern Division
All-Star team. Kearney began the
1982 season with the Athletics when regular catchers
Mike Heath and
Jeff Newman were sidelined by injuries but, would later be sent back to the minor leagues. In September, he was recalled to the major leagues after hitting for a .253
batting average in Tacoma. He shared catching duties with Heath in
1983, posting a .255
batting average with 8
home runs and 32
runs batted in. Kearney was named as the catcher for the
Topps All-Star Rookie Team and was also named the
Baseball Digest All-Star
Rookie Catcher Of The Year. Kearney was traded to the Seattle Mariners before the
1984 season, replacing
Rick Sweet as their starting catcher. Despite his strong throwing arm, he developed a reputation for poor
pitch-calling skills. During the 1984 season, Mariners pitchers
Salomé Barojas and
Mike Moore both demanded to have
Orlando Mercado as their catcher. This lack of pitch-calling skills along with his light-hitting caused the Mariners to trade for veteran catcher
Steve Yeager before the
1986 season. In
1987, he was displaced by
Scott Bradley as the Mariners' starting catcher and was released in July of that year after posting a .170 batting average in 51 games. ==Career statistics==