Hun’s Garrison saved best for last year
By: Bob Nuse
Bill McQuade is going to miss being able to send Steve Garrison out to pitch for his Hun School baseball team.
But even more than that, McQuade is simply going to miss having Garrison around.
"He’s just an incredible kid," said the Hun baseball coach, who is also the Upper School Head at Hun. "He’s been that way since the first day I met him. When he and his mother (Patty, who teaches in the school’s Academic Learning Center) came to the school, we got two great people. The nice thing about Steve is that he has never changed, even with all of the success that he has had. Even this year, with all of the attention he received from the scouts and the success that he had, he was always the same kid he’s always been. When you see him walking down the hallway or anywhere around school, you would never know that he’s receiving this kind of attention."
On the field, Garrison capped off a spectacular career with his best season yet. A four-year starter for the Raiders, he finished this season with an 8-0 record and a 0.52 earned run average. He struck out 86 batters and walked just five. In addition, he batted .440, playing in the outfield on days he did not pitch.
Steve Garrison is the Princeton Packet Baseball Player of the Year.
"You hear it a lot in sports, but it really is true, the special athletes are the ones who can raise the level of play of the other players around them," McQuade said. "That’s true with Steve. When he pitches, the rest of the team just plays better. We field better. We hit better. He just makes the game look easy and effortless. He never pumps his first after an out. He just does his job and walks off the field.
"When he beat Peddie, 2-0, his freshman year to win the Prep A championship, I was never so calm in a close game. Once we got a run, I knew we were set because Steve was just in control of the game. He was on and there was no way they were going to score."
Garrison places a lot of faith in his teammates, which may be part of the reason they play so well behind him. His fastball has been clocked in the low 90s, and he’s a strikeout pitcher. But that doesn’t mean he won’t let opposing batters put the ball in play.
"I was usually pretty confident out there with the defense that I had behind me," Garrison said. "Mike Russo in center, Wellington Talpka at third, they’re both great defensive players. And we were real strong up the middle with Steve Diverio at second and Dan Grieco at short. In past years we didn’t have as good a defense as we had this year. We were real strong on defense this year. I was never worried about letting them hit the ball this year because I knew we would make the play in the field.
"We had a really good team. Our defense was very good this year and I think that helped me a lot. My catcher, Brian Scanlon, called great games. He knew how to get batters out and which pitches I should throw in different situations. My catcher the last three years, Tom Monfiletto, was the same way. This season was really not a drastic change at all going from Tom to Brian. They’re both great catchers who helped me a lot."
Garrison started the season having already committed to playing college baseball at the University of North Carolina next year. But his impressive senior season opened the eyes of pro scouts and last week he was drafted in the 10th round by the Milwaukee Brewers. He signed the next day and reported to the team’s rookie league headquarters in Arizona on Sunday.
"I really didn’t want to think about that at all during the season," said Garrison, who finished with a 23-4 career record at Hun. "We were all so close as a team this year that I didn’t want to think about myself. My concern was with the team and how we did as a team. We all worked hard in the off season and I think that made it easier for us. It was nice to know that I was going to be going to a good college no matter what happened. That made it easier, especially from a school standpoint.
"One of the things that’s in my contract is that they put money away for school. I have up until two years after I retire to start using it, so that’s good for me. That was an important part of it for me. I know that I have that to fall back on if I need it."
If he pitches as a pro anything like he did at Hun, he may have a long career in baseball. In four years, Garrison never walked more than seven batters in a season.
"You don’t get many chances to coach a kid like this," said McQuade, who just completed his 35th season as the Raiders’ coach. "I’ve been around a long time and he’s one of the special players. They come around once in a lifetime. He has so much little boy in him when he plays. Roy Campanella used to say that baseball is a man’s game, but you have to have a lot of little boy in you to play well. That’s true with Steve. He’s a bulldog on the mound, but he just loves the game.
"Some of the reports that were out there on him before the draft likened him to Jamie Moyer. But I like to compare him to Tom Glavine the way he can pitch away and change speeds at any time."
Garrison had been looking forward to pitching at UNC, but the opportunity to take a shot at pro ball was just too tempting to pass up.
"I’m definitely excited about it," the Ewing resident said. "I’ll miss all my friends and everything. We all thought we would be spending this summer together just getting ready to go to college. But now I can come back and see guys like Brian Scanlon because he’ll be a senior next year.
"One good thing is that I can bring my golf clubs because I won’t be hitting again until at least Double-A. I can work on my golf game a little bit. That was always my first sport when I was younger. My grandfather is the pro at a course in North Carolina and he taught me the game when I was young."
But baseball has turned out to be his best sport. He was a standout in the Ewing Little League and Ewing Babe Ruth League, and carried that over to Hun, where he could not have been happier.
"When I first got to Hun, one of my best friends, Matt Stillitano, was already there and that made it much easier for me," Garrison said. "It worked out great in the end because I had my friends from Ewing and my friends at Hun. In the beginning, when I was first going to Hun, I wasn’t sure how it would work out. But it turned out to be a great thing for me. I’m happy my mother made me go to Hun."
As much as he’s going to miss Hun, he’ll be missed even more by those he is leaving behind.
"He’s just a great kid," McQuade said. "He always says the right things. And he’s so close with his teammates. He went to some pre-draft tryouts where he jumped in the car and went to Camden Yards, Fenway Park and to Yankee Stadium over three days. There were five kids that played with him last year and were just home from college that drove to each place with him and cheered him on from the stands during his tryout. They were just happy to see him do well.
"I’ve had some special players over the years and he’s as good as it gets. Steve has set pretty much every record we have. He’s just continued to get better and better each year that he’s been here."
And he capped off his career with his best season yet.