Baseball Buddies

Written by Patrick Murphy for the Mac Weekly

This year’s baseball team is led by a close-knit group of seniors. Four of them—Mitch Glasser (Chicago), Graham Brown (Annandale, Minn.), Robert Williams (West Covina, Calif.), and Garrett Salzman (Glendale, Calif.)—were recently profiled in The Mac Weekly to kick off the season.

“You want to be able to leave a program better than you found it.”

Each has balanced a dedication to baseball with activities such as study abroad and research, and those experiences will guide their post-Macalester plans. Brown, who studied abroad in London and spent last summer researching a potential treatment for Sickle Cell Disease (SCD) at the University of Minnesota, will continue his research there after he graduates. Williams will be attending Basic Combat Training this summer and then attending Minnesota State University, Mankato, to complete a graduate program while completing ROTC to earn a commission in the US Army. Glasser lined up a summer job coaching youth baseball. Salzman plans to attend medical school.

In addition to preparation for their next steps, this group of seniors helped drive their baseball team to unprecedented levels of success. Their work has translated into an upward trajectory for the team, from 19 wins in 2009 to tying Macalester’s single-season wins record in 2010 with 22 to finishing last season with 25 wins. That was good enough for a share of first place in the Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (MIAC), Macalester’s first baseball championship in 61 years.

What are the seniors aiming for this season?

“Back to back conference championships, at the least,” Salzman told The Mac Weekly. “It took us 61 years to get the first one, but now we tasted the success and we don’t want to give it up. You want to be able to leave a program better than you found it. That’s something we’ve definitely already accomplished, but we want more than that.”