Playing His Part
For Years, Brooks Baldwin has been whatever baseball needed him to be. Now, the UNCW junior is exactly what the Seahawks need.
By Alex Riley
Special to the Seahawk Perch
WILMINGTON – Brooks Baldwin emerges from the sea of humanity without a jersey, his hair and shoulders dripping with a blend of sweat and Lemon Lime Gatorade.
The sun set more than an hour ago, turning an unseasonably warm February day into another cool evening at Brooks Field. The UNCW redshirt junior doesn’t seem to mind the weather, the stickiness or his missing shirt. He is all smiles as teammates tussle his hair and grasp him for a celebratory hug.
Somewhere between the start of the bottom of the ninth inning and being mobbed at home plate, Baldwin dug into the batter’s box against Middle Tennessee State’s Trent Seibert. Moments earlier, teammate Bryan Arendt came on as a pinch hitter to single home a run, pulling the Seahawks even with Blue Raiders.
That brought Baldwin to the batter’s box with one out and the winning aboard.
The first pitch he saw was good enough to warrant a swing, and Baldwin obliged — a whiff that drew a groan from fans eagerly watching.
Baldwin stepped out, then back in. He had seen what he needed; he wouldn’t miss again.
Seibert’s second offering met Baldwin’s bat, sailing high into the left-center darkness. Baldwin knew it was gone. His celebration started after his bat hit the ground and he’d taken his second step up the first base line.
Moments after chucking his batting helmet into the night sky, Baldwin was greeted at home by that aforementioned mob. The jumping commenced. The Gatorade bucket was dumped.
And, for the fourth straight season, UNCW baseball got a walk-off win on opening day.
Brooks Baldwin has never sought the spotlight. But, when it matters most, this quiet, unassuming ball player seems to find his way into its glare.
And it’s exactly where he needs to be.
FOUNDATION BUILDING
If Whiteville High School baseball is considered a dynasty, then Brooks Baldwin is an unquestioned member of the royal family.
In 1983, the Wolfpack won their first of four state championships in fewer than 10 years (1983, 1985, 1989 and 1991). The game became so ingrained in the fabric of the community that SPORT Magazine and ABC Sports tabbed Whiteville with the nickname “Baseball Town USA” in 1986.
Chuck Baldwin, an infielder on the 1983 team, was one of the program’s first stars. He signed with Clemson, earned ACC Player of the Year in 1986 and spent two years in the Cleveland minor league system before returning home to raise a family with his wife, Susan.
In a town synonymous with baseball and with a father so connected to the game, the natural progression would have been for a son to follow in his father’s footsteps. But for the Baldwins, there was no rush and no pressure. After all, baseball is only a game and the family treated it as such.
When Brooks and his younger brother, Bud, were toddlers, Chuck would ball up a pair of socks and throw them.
“If they missed it and it hit them, it was funny, we would laugh, and they kept right on going. And after a while, they just started catching,” Chuck said. “So, when we got to that age where it was time to play, we just put him at first base because he could catch. Other kids couldn’t hardly throw it there or they’d roll it, but he could catch.”
Early on, the Baldwins set boundaries. Practicing in the backyard, playing games of catch and working through drills for fun were all encouraged. But actual competition wasn’t going to be a year-round endeavor and diverse interests were strongly encouraged. Brooks played basketball as a kid and became a soccer standout at Whiteville High.
And when a ball wasn’t involved, hunting and fishing certainly were.
“My parents, especially my dad, didn’t want me to get burnt out on it. He wanted me to love it and play it as long as I could,” Brooks said.
In the Baldwin household, the strategy of baseball is taught. From an early age, Chuck coached his sons on situational awareness. Other families noticed and asked if their children could learn as well. While other teams were still working on catching and throwing, the Whiteville kids were talking cutoff man and the suicide-squeeze.
Brooks took it upon himself to learn switch hitting by practicing on a tee in the backyard. He quickly figured out the dynamics of every spot on the field.
“I wouldn’t say I have a natural position. To me, I just like to say that I’m a ballplayer,” Brooks said. “You can stick me wherever, whenever, and most of the time, I know where to go when the ball is hit. Me personally, I like playing it old school — play hard, have fun and just play until the final out is made every game.”
Chuck got a front row seat to his son’s growth, and like his father, Brooks wasn’t one to say much — his actions did the talking.
But one day, when he was 12-years old, the Whiteville Dixie Youth team was struggling during the state championship in Lumberton. Simply put, the team couldn’t record an out to end an inning. That’s when Chuck realized his son had the same passion that drove him to success so many years ago.
“I've seen him throw a hat down one day when we couldn’t get an out on the field. Then, I knew there’s a little fight in him,” Chuck said. “You hate to see that, you don’t want to see that, but you also like to see it a little bit.”
WHATEVER IS NEEDED
Brett Harwood knew he was getting a smart baseball player, but he didn’t know if Brooks was physically ready for the challenge of high school baseball.
In 2015, Harwood, the head coach at Whiteville High School, made a decision following tryouts: the lanky, 135-pound freshman was going to be a part of the varsity roster. He just wasn’t sure what exactly he was going to do with him.
Brooks got a mere five at-bats that season and saw the field sparingly, mostly as a relief pitcher and position player.
Before a third round Class 1A playoff game with Perquimans, Whiteville starting pitcher Zach Pait injured his back. Without hesitation, Harwood called on Brooks for just his second start of the season in a win-or-go-home situation.
He worked 4.1 scoreless innings to help the Wolfpack advance. In the East Region Final, he closed out the series over West Columbus by retiring six of the seven batters to help Whiteville advance to the state championship. In the deciding Game 3 of the state series versus South Stanly, Brooks worked five innings to pick the victory and secure the program’s second straight crown.
“There was evidence of him being able to handle pressure early on,” Harwood said. “He always showed that ability to rise to the occasion when it was his turn.”
A year later, Brooks found himself back in the battery, this time in a different position.
With future first-round draft pick MacKenzie Gore headlining the staff, the Wolfpack needed a player capable of handling the junior hurler’s velocity and precision. Because of his high baseball IQ, Brooks was the man for the job.
“He was just a guy who could catch me and handle it. He’s smart and he did a really good job,” Gore said. “That’s why he can play so many different positions — because he’s so smart. The best way to describe Brooks is just a baseball player; he can play anywhere and he’s going to be good anywhere.”
Over the next two years, Brooks spent a significant portion of the season crouched behind home plate. On days when Gore wasn’t throwing, Brooks often made his way into the field or pitched himself.
“I think that being able to catch MacKenzie for three, basically four years, it helped me understand what I was getting myself into basically if I wanted to play at the next level,” Brooks said. “Being able to catch him every day for three years basically was tremendous for me as far as pitch recognition, seeing velo, seeing really good off-speed pitches and that kind of stuff.”
When Gore graduated in 2017, Brooks’ role changed once again. The Wolfpack didn’t need a catcher; they needed a pitcher — specifically, a staff ace. With an 11-0 record, 0.62 ERA and 114 strikeouts in 78.2 innings, he gave the team just that.
In his four years at Whiteville, the program went 108-18, playing for four state championships and winning three. On the mound, Brooks was 31-4 as a pitcher. He spent two years catching the No. 3 overall pick in the 2017 draft and played almost every position on the diamond, except the outfield.
“He just has this savvy and the poise to step in and do that. I always called him, ‘The Silent Assassin’ because he very seldomly says much and he can just blend in. But when it’s time for him to come through and deliver, he’s always been there and been able to do it,” Harwood said. “I don’t know what makes that up. Some people call it the ‘It Factor’ or whatever, but Brooks definitely has been able to rise to the occasion when his name is called.”
FINDING A HOME
There is no set path to baseball after high school, and each player has to do things their own way.
That said, Brooks’ journey was certainly unconventional.
Long before he reached freshman year, the Baldwin family made a decision – there was going to be a balance between playing baseball and overdoing things. While others signed up for travel programs that traversed the country for months on end, Brooks stayed local, playing with the American Legion program and other teams that participated in tournaments close to home.
“When I got older, I just didn’t see why everybody went and paid to play when we had the same group of guys that could go play all summer, every day, like it actually is in pro baseball. I had the most fun in the summertime playing Legion ball because it was all of my buddies,” Brooks said. “Legion ball was probably, outside of winning a couple state championships, that was the most fun I’ve ever had playing baseball.”
Coupled with the fact that he played very little his freshman year, caught his sophomore and junior seasons and pitched his senior year, college coaches were unsure of who Brooks Baldwin really was and how he could fit into their program.
One person had a pretty good idea.
Back in 1984, Mark Scalf returned to his alma mater, UNCW, as an assistant for coach Bobby Guthrie. One of his first tasks was to figure out when Chuck Baldwin was playing so he could scout him for a potential scholarship offer.
At that time, a schedule was hard to come by as the Whiteville coaches wouldn’t return calls and the Internet did not exist. Scalf ended up getting the schedule through Chuck’s sister, Allyson, a student at UNCW at the time.
More than 30 years later, the longtime UNCW skipper, now known as Uncle Mark after marrying Allyson several years after that chance meeting, was one of three programs to offer Brooks in high school.
“He’s had a real good baseball awareness since early in his high school career, and now he has an even better understanding of it at a higher level,” Scalf said. “Chuck taught him early on, ‘You’re going to learn where everybody goes in different situations. You’re going to learn the game. You’re not going to get to high school playing one position and then you get moved to a different place and you don’t know where to be in every situation.’ He learned that coming through at a younger age.”
While Scalf knew his nephew had the mental tools, he also knew he shouldn’t be the deciding factor. Recruiting duties rested with then-assistant Randy Hood and former pitching coach Matt Williams.
Scalf wanted their feedback to determine if what he saw was correct.
“The more we watched, you just saw a guy who knew how to play baseball, could play a lot of positions,” Hood said. “The longer you watch him, the more you realize he can do a lot of things and he doesn’t have to be physically bulky or things like that. He’s just a good baseball player that we felt like could be better once he got here.”
Ultimately, it came down to UNCW, N.C. State or East Carolina. Proximity and the chance to play as a freshman ultimately led Brooks to Wilmington.
“I told them, ‘You’re getting ready to get the steal of North Carolina,’ and I believe that, I still do,” Harwood said. “The colleges came kind of late for him, but a lot of it was because he sacrificed for our team and that’s just a testament to him. But he never worried about it, he never wavered. Which is the poise he has. A lot of kids this day and time, if they don’t get that offer early, they just want to get something, put it on Twitter and be done with it. That was never him, and I think he picked a great place, a great fit; a place where he can go in and feel comfortable and do what he’s doing.”
ADJUSTING AGAIN
Cole Weiss wanted Brooks Baldwin to say something.
Weiss had once been a freshman and he knew how difficult it could be to adjust to college. So, as a junior, Weiss tried to make Brooks feel welcome at UNCW by joking around with him and encouraging other guys to do the same. In the locker room, the response was stoic — an occasional word or sentence followed by intent listening.
On the field, though, that’s where Brooks spoke loudest.
As a freshman, he started 61 games; 56 of which were at first base, a position he assumed after several other players didn’t pan out. The next year, in a season-shortened to by COVID-19, Brooks started all 16 contests at shortstop. Then, as a red-shirt sophomore, he spent 49 combined games in either right or centerfield.
Over his time with the Seahawks, Brooks has started at first, second, shortstop, right and center while batting as high as first and as low as ninth in the order.
“He’s a supreme utility guy. I guess that’s the best way to put it. He’s played about everywhere besides pitcher and catcher. He’s one of those rare players that you can put him anywhere you want and he’s going to be an above average defender. That’s hard to do in college baseball,” Weiss said. “ I mean, a lot of people move around in high school and stuff and get away with it, but when you get to college, that’s hard to do. It’s hard to get into a rhythm. That affects your at-bats, too. If you’re kind of moving around and you’re somewhere different every single day, a lot of people can struggle with that. But he — as we all can tell — has not struggled with that. That’s just a rare talent to have nowadays.”
Added Gore: “It's kind of just what he’s done his whole baseball career. He doesn’t think about it; he’s done it his whole life. It’s just what he does, it’s all he knows.”
After spending last season mostly in the outfield, Brooks is back on the infield, this time starting every game at second base. Following 13-straight appearances at leadoff to start the year, Baldwin was shifted down to the third spot in the batting order during UNCW’s Sunday doubleheader with Kennesaw State over the week, both of which were wins.
His .381 average paces the team while his 24 hits are second-most in the CAA and sit among the top 15 nationally.
The guy who can play anywhere certainly seems to be enjoying having a permanent home.
“Coming back to the infield, me and Taber (Mongero) playing up the middle, it’s been fun having him beside me at shortstop,” Brooks said. “To me, I like playing the infield a little bit better, but I just like being out there and being able to play every day and getting at-bats.”
LEADING THE WAY
When the CAA preseason honors came out, the redshirt junior was tabbed as the league’s preseason co-Player of the Year with Northeastern pitcher Cam Schlittler.
A year after earning first-team All-CAA honors and a spot on the conference’s all-tournament team, blending is no longer an option. Brooks is now the guy other teams scheme for and make plans to neutralize.
“It’s good to have the recognition that everybody knows I can play, but it’s one of those things that you just slide over to the side and keep in the back of your mind and keep working to prove that their prediction was right,” Brooks said.
The newfound fame has forced him to learn more patience at the plate. The days of swinging at anything that looks good are officially over. In 132 previous games at UNCW, Brooks drew just 37 walks in 539 at-bats (6 percent). Through 15 games thus far, he’s picked up seven walks in 63 at-bats (11 percent).
Already this season, he’s hit the walk-off shot to beat Middle Tennessee, a two-run homer against Ball State that turned into the deciding runs and an RBI single that tied the game and sparked a seventh-inning rally to beat Coastal Carolina.
None of those moments would have happened if the San Francisco Giants had been able to lure Brooks out of college and into the minor leagues. The franchise called his number in the 15th round of last year's draft and made a valiant attempt to sign him.
“It was a hard decision, but I didn’t think it was the right time to go,” Brooks said. “One of my main things was coming back and I’m in two classes and I’ll have a college degree. That was a hard choice, but I think it was the right choice coming back.”
And, if he continues to play at this high level, there will undoubtedly be another team to call his name in the 2022 draft.
After all, someone has to be looking for the ultimate team player capable of doing just about anything.
If so, they’ve certainly found their guy.
“I think if he stays healthy, he’s a guy that could play the game for a long time, either as a full-time second baseman, third baseman or utility guy,” Scalf said. “I see him as somebody who has a chance. Organizations have a lot of options in places to put him as long as he performs. If he performs, they’ll find a place to put him.”