MAJOR LEAGUE

Pey-Lin Carroll remembers sitting next to John Savage, the baseball coach at UCLA, at an invitation-only summer baseball showcase. A few months earlier, her son, Corbin (then a sophomore at Lakeside School), had committed to attending and playing ball for UCLA.

Then Corbin came up to bat. His swing connected, and he flew around the bases. It was a triple. Coach Savage, who must have been making some quick mental calculations, turned to Pey-Lin. “Be ready,” he said.

Be ready for scouts. Be ready for offers. And, as it turned out, be ready for Corbin to be drafted by the Arizona Diamondbacks in 2019, right out of high school.

Time for dabbling

When it comes to sports, Corbin, who graduated from SCDS in 2015, tried a little bit of everything.

“My parents said, ‘Okay, you’re doing these sports,’” says Corbin. “I think I did soccer, baseball, and tennis, cross-country here at SCDS, which was awesome. Maybe one or two more.”

His parents felt confident about his academic path at SCDS, but they wanted to provide some balance — and a sense of a broader community — through physical activity. “We did

Little League with him, all the sports that he wanted to dabble in,” says Pey-Lin.

Just before 10th grade, Corbin realized he wanted to focus on baseball, and his family was all in. Corbin’s younger sister, Campbell, attended his games. His father, Brant, provided encouragement. For a time, Pey-Lin managed the uniforms for roughly 15 City Baseball club teams.

“At one point, our house looked like a uniform shop,” she says.

Loving the game

Corbin admits that he was an athletic youngster, and sports were relatively easy for him. But the sport of baseball, especially in the major leagues, is (forgive the pun) a different ballgame.

“It is such a hard game, and there’s so much failure, and I think that there’s not a lot of immediate cause and effect,” he says. “You’ve got to create this body of work and know that it’s going to pay off over time.”

The challenges of baseball, in fact, remind Corbin of SCDS.

“I remember math in sixth grade, just having a tough time. The way I learned to work through hard times like those — I feel like it 100% translates in a game like baseball,” Corbin says.

Baseball, like learning, is a long game. It’s creative, it’s analytical, and you have to commit. “You just have to love the game,” says Corbin. “If you don’t love it, the things that should come easily, and need to come easily, won’t.”

The player and the team

It’s been an exciting year for Corbin. He was promoted to the major leagues in August 2022 and now plays outfield for the Arizona Diamondbacks. He was ranked No. 1 out of 100 MLB prospects for 2023 by journalist Keith Law of The Athletic. Corbin is also in contention for National League Rookie of the Year. So, he seems like the right person to ask: What makes a good baseball player?

“It kind of goes without saying, but there’s a certain level of talent,” Corbin says. “Then there’s the discipline piece. It’s that cherry on top: taking the love for the game and turning it into something special.”

You also need your team. “I’d say the winning teams I’ve been on… it’s about making sure that everyone feels included. It’s about having that guy who’s cracking jokes and making it feel like a group,” says Corbin. “The term that comes to mind for me is collective effervescence… creating something bigger than a group of people.”

Teamwork is also important to schools. The Carrolls still fondly remember SCDS teacher Mark Holtzen, who looked past Corbin’s third-grade misspellings to focus on the content of his writing. Mark also encouraged Corbin when the student transformed a one-sheet assignment into a 14-sheet project that rolled out into the school hallway.

“People do better when they feel supported,” Corbin says. “If you can create that feeling of support and of ‘I’ve got your back, and I know you’ve got mine,’ that’s where special things happen.”

The podcast. When Corbin was in town this winter, he did two interviews: one for Wonder magazine and one for Johnny Ni, an eighth-grader who took part in our podcasting elective this year. Johnny then submitted his project — a podcast about young athletes, injury, and career longevity — to The New York Times Annual Student Podcast Contest and the NPR Student Podcast Contest Challenge. You can listen to “Sports Injury and Mental Health:

Featuring MLB Star Corbin Carroll” via the QR code.