Untold Athletes: Garrett Callaghan – Baseball

Garrett Callaghan is a senior outfielder from Franklin Park, N.J. and is majoring in finance and accounting. Callaghan has been named Empire 8 Second-Team All-Conference in 2019, as well as CoSIDA Academic All-District last spring. In the canceled 2020 season, Callaghan landed on the D3baseball.com Team of the Week in early March and was batting .448 through seven games. He has played summer ball in the Northwoods League, as well as the New York Collegiate Baseball League (NYCBL), and intends to play in the Cape Cod League this summer. Callaghan was named all-league with the Cortland Crush of the NYCBL.

My sport became a passion when I started playing baseball as a 4-year old. I remember the feeling of hitting my first home run in T-Ball, and every time I step onto the field as a college player, I get the same rush as I did when I was just beginning to play.

There are no words to describe how much baseball means to me; it has been tough dealing with this pandemic because it took away my outlet for any problems I might be dealing with off the field. Baseball has taught me that it is so important to never let singular failures define you as a person. Everyone deals with cold streaks in any sport, but baseball is the only game where failing 7-out-of-10 times makes you a Hall of Famer. Failure is a part of life, and baseball has allowed me to learn how to build off of failure on and off the field instead of letting it keep me down.

I was never any type of big-time recruit coming out of high school, and rightfully so. I didn’t work hard enough in high school, and college baseball quickly showed me how good some players are. After my freshman year, I looked at myself in the mirror and set a goal to work harder than anyone. There have been plenty of obstacles in the way, but if you told me as a college freshman that there would be a chance to play professionally, I would say that’s crazy. I attribute 100% of my success to my work ethic; I am certainly not the most talented player, but nobody will get in front of what I set my mind to.

There’s no specific moment that sticks out, but baseball is a game of failure. Nothing is guaranteed and a few bad games in a row can really hurt. There’s no worse feeling than striking out or making an error because you feel like you let your teammates down. Nobody cares about how many times you get knocked down on or off the field, however, people do watch to see how quickly you’ll get back up. 

Winning the conference tournament are two of the greatest highlights of my life, especially my sophomore year when we got to host it. It is a representation of all the hard work that goes into building a program as successful as ours. Winning a championship and getting to dog-pile makes all the tough workouts, long practices, and nagging injuries worth it.

A few bad games in a row can really get to you as a player. You feel like you are doing something wrong or you aren’t good enough. Failure can make you feel like a bad teammate even if everyone is there for you. My sophomore year I was dealing with some mental health issues off the field and a concussion really amplified those problems. I was so lucky to have my closest friends and family there for me during that time, but it was really hard to talk about it. Everything cleared up as I was able to speak my mind, but seeking the first bit of help is the hardest part. As athletes, we spend so much time preaching about how mentally tough we need to be, that sometimes we forget we are also human beings. We spend so much time talking with our teammates about the sport we play, however those conversations that have nothing to do with sports can sometimes be the most valuable and life-changing.

The new normal right now consists of doing everything I can at home to get ready for the spring 2021 season. Between working out, getting my swings in, and trying to get to know incoming players, I am doing what I can to make Ithaca Baseball as good as it can be. I have aspirations to play pro baseball and the opportunity is right in front of me. I think the nine months of not playing will truly show who got knocked down when last season was canceled and stayed down compared to use this opportunity to create the best version of themselves. I am beyond excited to represent Ithaca College on the field for one more season before I graduate and can’t wait to get started.