Sometimes it’s a struggle, balancing the rigors of an Ivy League curriculum with the demands of playing full-time sports at the Division I level.
At least sometimes it’s a struggle for most of the Columbia University Lions baseball players.
For sophomore DH Joey Falcone, spending hours in the classroom, in the library, and between the lines is a welcome respite from the real challenges he’s faced.
Challenges such as seeing a close friend take a bullet through the neck. Or watching two kids – a brother and a sister – on a donkey step on an IED and die instantly. Those are challenges that most of us will thankfully never face.
Following an undistinguished high school career, both in the classroom and on the field, Falcone decided to join the military. He went to basic training in 2004 and was trained to be a Navy corpsman. Eventually he became an infantryman with the 2nd Battalion, 3rd Marine regiment.
He deployed to Iraq in 2007 and 2008 and was sent to Afghanistan in 2009. He was discharged July 1, 2010.
The things he saw while deployed have left a lasting impression on him.
“I didn’t know if I would make it from sunup to sundown,” he said in a 2011 interview. “You didn’t know if your heart would still be ticking, or if your legs would still be attached to you.”
“I don’t want to come off as pessimistic, but you’d have a hard time convincing me that the sky isn’t going to fall,” Falcone recently told the New York Times.
Now, that sky might still be hanging up where it belongs. After recapturing his passion for the game he loves – his father, Pete, had a 10-year major league career as a pitcher – Falcone anchored the Columbia University lineup in the NCAA Regionals, batting cleanup as the designated hitter.
It’s definitely been a circuitous trip for the 6-foot-5, 225-pound lefty.
Falcone said thoughts of returning to baseball filled his mind toward the end of his military duty. “My desire to play and give it a shot never left me,” he told the Times, “and I was confused about why it never left me.”
Eager to find out, he enrolled at the College of Staten Island to return to competition while pursuing a nursing career. After one year at CSI, he applied to Columbia University’s School of General Studies, “created specifically for returning and nontraditional students,” including veterans.
Upon acceptance, Falcone decided to swing by the baseball offices and see if the team had any need for a 26-year-old battle-scarred and raw first baseman.
Columbia Coach Brett Boretti said he was concerned about how Falcone would fit.
“I was not sure how that would unfold,” Boretti told the Times. “But Joey is very down to earth. He loves playing baseball.”
And it shows. This year Falcone put up a team-best .536 slugging percentage as the Lions set a school record for league wins. In the postseason, Falcone was 6-for-9 in a two-game sweep of Dartmouth to win the Ivy League Championship Series.
Those wins helped propel the Lions to the NCAA Regionals for the first time since 2008, where they faced a tough draw and were paired with Cal State-Fullerton in the first game. The Lions managed just three hits in the loss, but they bounced back the next day with a thrilling 6-5 13-inning win against New Mexico. Falcone had two hits, a walk and a run scored in five official at bats.
The win was the first in six NCAA tournament games for Columbia, with its previous two appearances resulting in 0-2 records in 1976 and 2008. The win also gave Columbia its 28th (against 20 losses) this year – tying the school record set in 1987.
Columbia’s season ended the next day with a 10-5 loss to Arizona State, despite out-hitting the Sun Devils 12-5. Falcone again had two hits in five at bats, adding another run scored and two RBI in the loss.
A sophomore with two years of eligibility remaining, Falcone can’t help but think about the future, but he does so with the guarded approach of one who has seen a little more than perhaps he should have at his age (he turned 27 June 1).
“I don’t want to lie and say the dream (of professional baseball) isn’t there,” he said. “But, at the same time, perspective.”
Whatever happens, playing ball is just what he needs for now.
“My wife and I are so proud of him,” Joey’s dad Pete told the New York Daily News in 2011. “All we want is for him to experience life. I mean, when he was 20 and 21 years old he was carrying 180 pounds on his back, getting shot at in the mountains of Afghanistan. Now he needs to enjoy himself. He needs to have fun and let himself live.”
Joey says he still thinks about his military experience every day.
“It’s helped me to keep pushing,” Joey said. “If a ballgame doesn’t go your way, or something doesn’t go your way, it’s all right. You can just keep rolling with the punches and keep going forward, keep pushing forward anyway.
“I wasn’t even in the lineup at the beginning of the year. But you stick with it, and stay focused, stay faithful and just keep pushing.”
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