Jays: The best and the brightest just might be pitchers
DUNEDIN, FLA.— The collective IQ of Toronto’s moundsmen must be off the charts, at least if measured by scholastic analytics. From Marcus Stroman’s sociology degree at Duke University to J.A. Happ’s history major at Northwestern University to Aaron Loup’s digital design major at Tulane, these are academically accomplished ballists.
Two have degrees from Ivy League schools. (Factoid: The Ivy League sisters have sent 261 players to the major leagues, though only 30 in the past four decades.)
Danny Barnes: Princeton, l economics degree. His family paid the steep tuition out of pocket because Princeton doesn’t offer sports scholarships.
“There were a lot of exams and papers that I’d spend a week, a month, doing. Then it comes back and you find out it wasn’t that good. You think, ‘I did all that and it wasn’t good enough. What do I do now?’ So you keep trying to find ways to learn better, to study better.
“When you get into baseball, it’s kind of the same thing. You work so hard and you go out and you do badly and you think, ‘Aw, I’ve got nothing left. What do I do?’ But you just keep learning … The same attitude that I learned at Princeton applied to a baseball scenario: not getting down when you fail.”
Craig Breslow: Yale, degree in l molecular biophysics and biochemistry.
“I have for a long time thought about going to medical school. I deferred it earlier in my career. But at this point it’s hard to envision myself in a classroom, at my age (37), with young kids.
“I was exposed to a pretty diverse student population, ethnicities, backgrounds. Obviously, there’s a strong international presence at a place like that. Not so much different than this world where everyone is kind of sequentially exposed to the best in their fields. Like, every guy in here was the best player on their Triple-A team or their Double-A team or their high school team.
“You realize there are some pretty brilliant school minds out there …Things came pretty easy and naturally to me, good student, good athlete. Then you realize there are great students out there, great athletes.
Chris Rowley: West Point, l United States Military Academy. Degree in pre-law and legal studies. Later a first lieutenant in the U.S. army. Served in Eastern Europe as part of Operation Atlantic Resolve, a joint effort with NATO to put a military presence in countries bordering Ukraine in response to Russia’s aggression.
“West Point does a good job in general of developing people of character and leaders. That’s really the goal of the academy, to develop leaders who are going to go and lead soldiers into combat. West Point is much more about developing people than it is getting degrees or academia itself.”