NEWS

By Don Leypoldt

(Photo courtesy of Matt Houde/Northeastern University)

Maybe we should all be like Luke Carlin and take our fun seriously.

Carlin, a former Keene Swamp Bat and the current catcher for the Columbus Clippers, is midway through his 13th season in professional baseball.  Carlin spent parts of four seasons in the Big Leagues.  In his Major League debut in May 2008, Carlin caught Greg Maddux’s 350th career win. 

“Most importantly, I think that if you don’t have fun in anything you do, you won’t be any good at it.  The key to playing this game for as long as I have is to have fun,” noted Carlin.  “You really have to.  You have to enjoy the people that you’re around and understand that it is about relationships and how much fun you can have while doing it.”

Carlin still puts in plenty of work so that he can have fun.  He outlined a typical game day: “I show up at the field between 1:00 and 2:00.  I usually watch some video the day before.  I have a game plan of what I want to work on that day and that changes from day to day.  Sometimes there is team stuff.  There are always individual things that I need to work on,” he described.  

“There is definitely preparation involved physically whether that is treatment or stretching.  And then there is definitely a ‘play’ focus.  There is a set time to do certain things.  They aren’t necessarily the same things every day but it is very structured and you find comfort in that structure knowing that you can control those things.  And come game time, it’s time to have fun.  You compete, you stay in the moment.  Afterwards, you reflect on it.  You write some things down that you did or did not do so well and how you’d like to improve the next day.  And press ‘Repeat’.  Day after Day,” he smiled.

He works hard at baseball.  He also works hard at his family- Carlin is married with two daughters- and hard at his Christian faith, which is important to him.  He works hard at giving back to the community.  The Portland Beavers, then San Diego’s Triple-A affiliate, once honored Carlin with their Community Player of the Year in consecutive seasons.

“Obviously my faith has a lot to do with that.  I think that God made me who I am and He let me play some baseball.  Any time that you can have a platform,” Carlin feels, “it is your responsibility to tell your story, share your experience and encourage others anyway possible.  Ultimately, I’d love to leave behind a legacy of that nature rather than ‘Hey, he played however many years of baseball.’”
 
The fact remain that Carlin has played many years of baseball.  Born in Maryland, he grew up in Quebec near the Ontario border.  Longtime Northeastern baseball coach Neil McPhee, recently honored by the NECBL at their November Hall of Fame dinner, noticed the backstop when Carlin played a Fall Ball tournament in Boston.  Soon, Carlin was bound for Northeastern. 

“Neil was great.  I was a lot younger back then, and he was definitely that father figure who kept a lot of us in line when we were doing things we probably shouldn’t have,” Carlin admitted.  “But it was his connections to the NECBL that Omar Pena and I were able to go there that summer.  I’m forever thankful for his wisdom and leadership.”

Pena and Carlin both suited up for Keene in 2000; Carlin had an on base percentage of .340 and made 31 starts for a Swamp Bat squad that won that summer’s NECBL championship.

“Luke Carlin was one of the most versatile players to ever don a Swamp Bat uniform.  He came to us as a switch hitting catcher,” remembered Swamp Bat president Kevin Watterson.  “Even as a young freshman, he had a major league arm.  He also played second, third and short stop for us that season.  

“Luke was a hitter that showed early signs of being ‘special’.  The better the pitching, the better Luke hit.  He was one of the true great Swamp Bat players in our history,” Watterson concluded.

“It was good competition,” recalled Carlin.  “It was my first taste of summer baseball at the collegiate level.  Obviously it was the wooden bats.  The summer in general was a whole learning experience.”

The Tigers selected Carlin in the 10th round of the 2002 Draft after he posted an outstanding junior spring for Northeastern.  Carlin rose up the ranks of the Minors.  His defense- Carlin gunned down 48% of would be base thieves at Double-A in 2005- was always there but his breakout season offensively came in Portland in 2008.  His .396 on base percentage and .432 slugging percentage were career highs at the time, and they helped him earn the promotion to San Diego. 

Carlin reflected on having played at every level of baseball, from Little League to the Majors.  “I think anytime that you get life changing money, that can certainly be a learning experience for most professional athletes.  If you don’t have a good foundation, you probably are not going to have a whole lot after your career is done.  Anytime you leave home, it’s a struggle.  College was a big jump for me, so I learned a lot of life lessons in college,” he observed.  “From a competitive standpoint, some people say from A-Ball to Double-A is a big jump.  I don’t know.  

“A couple of things have tried to help me.  I’ve always tried to learn from as many people as I possibly can.  I think that is key when you are younger,” he continued.  “You want to have confidence in your ability but understand that there are people who have been doing it a lot longer and might have some other stuff to share.  That being said, there is also some discernment where you have to know what works for you and what doesn’t.”  

Carlin started 2009 in Triple-A Reno, where he not only hit .321 and slugged .481, but he also played errorless defense behind the dish.  That performance earned him another promotion, this time to the Arizona Diamondbacks.

“My wife and I got married during a baseball season.  That was a pretty proud moment for me,” Carlin replied when asked about his proudest baseball moment.  “Obviously my big league debut and some of the pitchers I was able to catch were pretty cool.  Your first hit.  Your first home run.  Seeing the different fields.  I think that all of that stuff is…awesome.  

“But being able to find my identity outside of baseball has helped a lot because once you reach the top, then if that is who you are, you’ll find that you are not satisfied,” he warned.  “The awe of the Big Leagues -you might think this sounds silly and that it never wears off- but it does.  It becomes like any other game you’ve ever played.  Whatever your angles and motivations may be, they don’t change once you reach the Big Leagues.  I think that being able to find an identity outside of baseball is tremendously important and one of the proudest moments of my career.”

Carlin has been with the Cleveland Indians’ organization for four of the last five seasons.  In late September 2010, he joined Travis Hafner and Matt LaPorta in slamming back-to-back-to-back home runs for the Tribe.

Needless to say, Carlin knows how to handle the daily grind of professional baseball.
“You have to love what you do.  You have to know that baseball doesn’t define you,” he noted.  “I read a quote the other day from Julius Erving that said ‘Being a professional is doing the things you love to do, on the days you don't feel like doing them.’  Follow the right habits and enjoy the process more than focusing on the results.  I think that is huge, especially for young kids.  They want the results right away and although they are gratifying, they help motivate the process.  You really learn your lessons through your failures so if you can embrace your failures, you can get a lot better a lot quicker.”

The night of this interview- 14 summers after playing for Keene- Carlin caught Indian ace Justin Masterson, going out to the mound to calm him down in the second inning when Masterson started to get wild.  

There is a paradox worth paying attention to with Carlin: in finding yourself outside of baseball, you just might extend your baseball career.