While one ex-Yale pitcher has moved on to medical research, his old lab partner vies for a spot in the Red Sox bullpen
FORT MYERS, Fla. -- What do you do when pitching a baseball, the thing you love to do more than anything else, is taken away from you?
On the day when summer ended for Craig Breslow -- the Fourth of July, no less -- when his minor league pitching coach pulled him aside to tell him the bosses in Milwaukee were releasing him, Breslow called the guy trying to catch fruit bats with a volleyball net in central Africa.
If Matt McCarthy was not the one person in the world who might know how Breslow felt at that moment, he didn't have much company. Clones? These guys came out of the same laboratory, literally. Both were lefthanded pitchers. They entered Yale the same year, as members of the Class of '02. They shared not only the same mind-stretching major, molecular biophysics and biochemistry, studying under the renowned Dr. Joan Steitz, they were lab partners for four years, trying to unlock the mysteries of RNA.
They were drafted by big-league teams on the same day, McCarthy in the 21st round by the Angels, Breslow in the 26th round by the Brewers. Breslow, who had heard the news on an Internet broadcast, had called McCarthy before the Angels did. They both were assigned to minor league teams in Utah, and actually crossed paths at the airport in Phoenix going to their new destinations. Their pro careers began with them pitching in games against each other.
And McCarthy already had been released, a year earlier. He'd chosen to move on, which is why he was in Cameroon, with a research team from Harvard, trying to discover whether fruit bats were carriers of the deadly Ebola virus. If he couldn't pitch anymore, he would try to save the world. And now here was Breslow, calling him at the house in which he lived in Yaounde, the capital of Cameroon, asking him what he should do.
''I said, 'Go to medical school, if you're comfortable with the idea that you'll never be able to watch a baseball game without wondering if that could be you out there,' " McCarthy said.
''We both knew he wasn't ready to hang up his spikes. I could tell it in his voice that he wasn't ready to give it up."
He was right, of course, which only begins to explain how Breslow improbably made it to the big leagues last summer with the San Diego Padres -- who paid the grand sum of $1 to acquire him -- and now is in camp with the Red Sox, a candidate for the bullpen. Meanwhile, McCarthy is in Boston, still trying to save the world as an aspiring physician/scientist in the Harvard Stem Cell Institute, researching childhood blood diseases, including leukemia.Continued...
''Three years ago, I was asking him how to get out Harvard's best hitter," McCarthy said. ''Now I'm asking him how to pitch to Barry Bonds. Not many stem cell biologists get to have that conversation.
''But what's great is he can tell me about striking out Jason Michaels and I can tell him about my research, and he actually understands it."
Breslow, whose Yale jersey now hangs in the school's trophy room alongside that of former Mets pitcher Ron Darling, said that if the Brewers had released him after the season, he might have elected to go to medical school.
''For a while, to be honest, I did think that while I was struggling in A ball, I felt like this just wasn't for me," he said. ''I had a great education, and I felt there was a lot more I could be doing, a lot more I could offer. I mean, I had a 7 ERA in the California League, 2,000 miles away from home. This probably wasn't the best thing to do with my education and my abilities.
''But Matt had always told me it will be abundantly clear when it's time to move on. I was like, 'Well, if that's the way you feel, it's not right now.' I felt like I hadn't pitched as well as I was capable of. I felt like I could still get people out, and on top of that, I mean, it was the Fourth of July and I had nothing to do for the next two months, anyway."
Breslow pitched well enough to be named to the Southern League All-Star team, but the saga took its most remarkable turn last July, when the Padres suddenly found themselves in dire need of a reliever, fast. Rudy Seanez (now with the Red Sox) had shoulder tendinitis, and former Sox lefty Chris Hammond had a pinched nerve in his neck. Kevin Towers, the Padres' GM, happened to be with the Mobile club in Jackson, Miss., when the call for help came from manager Bruce Bochy, with the Padres in Philadelphia to play the Phillies.
''We didn't have time to get a relief pitcher in from Portland and the West Coast," said Towers. ''So I asked [Mobile pitching coach Mike] Harkey, 'Who is the freshest arm you have? Preferably a lefthander who throws strikes.' "
So Breslow found himself boarding a Philly-bound plane at 6 a.m.
''The first thing I remember is showing up at the stadium having no idea what to do," Breslow said. ''I had my [equipment] bag, I had my luggage with me. I had no idea if I was in the right place. I'd gotten no sleep. I waited outside, just hoping somebody could help me. [Padres pitcher] Adam Eaton walked by and recognized my bag. He said, 'Are you a player trying to get in?' I said, 'Yes, thank you.'
''Then we went down to the clubhouse. I just sat in my seat. I didn't speak to anyone. I was trying not to make too much of a fuss. Robert Fick walked in and thought I was the batboy. He started to ask if I'd clean his shoes. The rest of the season when I walked in, they'd say, 'Hey, batboy.' It was kind of a running joke."
Gradually, other players came over and introduced themselves.
''I remember the conversation with the pitching coach [Darren Balsley]. He said, 'Get ready, because you're going to pitch tonight.' On the one hand, that was a good thing. I knew I could focus on baseball and not worry about anything else. On the other hand, for the next four hours, I knew I was going to pitch at some point that night.
''I remember the phone in the bullpen ringing and my heart jumping. It wasn't even me who got up the first time. The second time, it was me getting up, getting loose."
''You use like volleyball nets, but the netting is really fine, so the bats' sonar can't pick up the netting," he said. ''We set up the nets, follow the migration of the bats, catch 'em, put 'em in a bag, bring 'em to the laboratory and stick a needle in their hearts to see if the blood has Ebola virus."
Exhausted by the 30-hour trip home, McCarthy intended to go to Philadelphia but collapsed and went to sleep for 18 hours. This is what he missed.
''I remember standing up on the mound looking in and throwing my first two pitches, not really wondering how the ball crossed the plate," Breslow said. ''I went 0 and 2 to Jason Michaels, then struck him out. The next guy was Jimmy Rollins. I struck him out, too.
''That kind of took off a little bit of the pressure. I thought, 'Maybe I belong, at least for the day.' Then [Kenny] Lofton, a guy I watched growing up, grounded out. I had a 1-2-3 inning."
Just over a year after being cut in Single A ball in High Desert, Breslow had lived a dream. That night, he pitched another scoreless inning and the Padres sent him back to the minors after the game, but when Hammond went on the disabled list a few days later, Breslow was back in the big leagues. He wound up pitching in 14 games, and while he was not involved in a decision, he had a 2.20 ERA and held lefthanded batters to just one hit in 16 at-bats.
''I'd like to think my value exceeded a dollar," he said with a smile, ''and I think it worked out on both sides. I had a great experience in San Diego, and I think they got a little bit more than they expected in me."
That first night in the big leagues, he said, ''was beyond anything I could have ever imagined. I think anyone who talks about their debut speaks about it in similar sentiments. It's beyond your expectations. It's unbelievable. Things happen so fast, things happen in slow motion. It's kind of a great mix of emotions."
When it was over, Ann and Abe and the guys from Trumbull all stood and cheered. Trevor Hoffman, the Padres' great closer, noticed. He asked the kid from Yale if he had people at the game. Hoffman, like Fick and some of the other Padres, enjoyed teasing the Ivy Leaguer.
''It was all in good taste," Breslow said. ''Trevor Hoffman was the first guy to tell me it was all because he was jealous. Coming from a Hall of Famer, one of the greatest guys in the game, just an unbelievable character and a great mentor for me in the short time I played with him, that made me feel better.
''It's kind of funny. Guys think that just because I went to a school like Yale, I know everything there is to know about everything, from the weather to what words mean."
McCarthy, meanwhile, had left the Center for Health and the Global Environment at Harvard Medical School to join the Stem Cell Institute, where he remains engaged in controversial but potentially life-changing research. He is rooting for his buddy to make the Sox -- Breslow can crash at his place until he finds one of his own -- and he talks about the positive impact it could have for the institute, a Sox player drawing attention to the work being done there.
Breslow is a long shot to make the club -- he walked an alarming 13 batters and gave up 15 hits in just 16 1/3 innings last season -- but he's already covered the most improbable odds of all.
''There's something about him," McCarthy said. ''He throws strikes and he's unflappable. He just goes out there. He's not going to knock your socks off, but he gets it done."
Two roads diverging in a yellow wood? McCarthy said he knew his baseball days were numbered in a Triple A spring game when he gave up three of the hardest-hit balls in his life.
''The thing I can honestly tell you from the bottom of my heart is that I have not regretted the decision I have made for one day," he said. ''I know I'm doing what I should be doing and Craig is doing what he should be doing. I think we are both living the lives we should be."
Besides, McCarthy said, ''Nobody grows up dreaming of being a doctor. You dream of going to the big leagues."
There might have been a time, when he'd bottomed out in the desert, that Breslow felt he was putting his real life on hold. ''But I feel like this is my real life now," he said.
''There certainly are only a handful of people who could do what I could do in my field or what Matt is doing at Harvard, but there's at least that few who could be pitching in the big leagues, and I feel like right now this is what I need to be doing.
''I admire what Matt is doing. I appreciate the diligence and the intellect it takes, but I wouldn't change positions with him for the world."
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