Gary Kahn is a walking set of contradictions. He grew up in Florida, but attends college in Iowa. He's playing summer league baseball, but he's also very focused on his education and future outside of baseball. Most baseball players would seemingly avoid spending a semester abroad studying a different culture; Gary gladly traveled to Denmark to do just that.
All Things Valley League had a chance to sit down and talk education, life, and baseball with Gary on a rainy Sunday afternoon.
All Things Valley League: We don't usually get kids from Iowa to come out to the Valley League. Tell us how you got connected with the league.
Gary Kahn: Well I'd played the summer after my freshman year in the Southern Collegiate League in South Carolina with the Rock Hill Sox, and I had a pretty successful summer. Being from a Division III school, especially in the middle of Iowa, I knew that I had to broadcast myself to some better leagues. So I sent a few emails to the Northwoods League, the Valley League, and the Coastal Plains League, and the first guy to get back a hold of me was [Woodstock owner] Mr. Richardson. I had a really nice talk with him in September of my sophomore year, and he sent me a contract, and the rest is history.
ATVL: Compare the Valley League with the Southern Collegiate League. Is the Valley at a higher level?
GK: The level is significantly higher. The Southern Collegiate mainly consists of a lot of freshmen. You have more smaller schools than the larger Division I, and it's more localized in the South and the East Coast than from all over the country. But it was very good for me and a lot of the other players. After my freshman year, it helped to get our feet wet into summer ball and, hopefully, playing professional ball. Example: staying with a host family, taking care of yourself for the summer, being away from family, playing 40-50 games in the summer. It was nice to get my feet wet, but there isn't much comparison with the level of play. I have to battle every single pitch out here to get outs.
ATVL: So what do you enjoy about the [Valley] League?
GK: First of all, the people out in Woodstock- they're wonderful, some of the sweetest people you'll ever meet. These people come out and support us every night, and when they see us on the street walking around town, they'll come up and say hi, and they know your name. It's a humbling and nice feeling. As fans, they'll give us nice support. The players all have the same idea: they want to have a nice summer, they want to have fun, they want to play baseball, the greatest game on earth, they also want to win and showcase their ability to scouts out here. So when you get a tight-knit group of guys like that, it makes it a lot easier to win ballgames, and a lot easier when I go on the mound, or when they step up to the plate to relax up there knowing that they have 24 deep behind them. It's not so much cutthroat as some may think.
Along with the team, the coaching staff is great as well. Coach Foltz, man, you want to win for that guy every night. He always has your back no matter what and will be the one guy just as happy as you and for you when you succeed. The same with Coach Cardamone and Coach Bromley as well. Coach Mac [Macaluso] is a tough cookie, but without a doubt brings the best out of you on the field. The River Bandits organization has been nothing short of outstanding for all of us out here. Stu works his butt off not only for the well-being and functionality of the organization, but also to ensure that each and every one of us is as happy as can be out here in the 'Stock.
As well, I have a wonderful host mother. Rhonda Lively is almost like a second mother to me. Me and JJ
Housey live out in Edinberg with her. She and Randy [Foltz] are absolutely wonderful. I'm a very family oriented person- me and my mother, father, and two brothers are extremely close. So going away for the summer is a little bit difficult, and I still miss them a lot, but staying with Rhonda makes it so much easier. She takes us in like her own sons.
Playing against the best in the country- that's always a bonus. It's guys that you see on ESPN, in the College World Series every single year. I've caught myself sometimes looking in and saying, I remember watching this guy during the spring. We were playing a road series, hanging out in the hotel before the game, and I was watching the Georgia vs. Tennessee series, and I see Cody Brown on TV. This is my third baseman during the summer, and I'm watching him going against Josh Fields. It's a surreal feeling.
ATVL: So, you're a Florida boy, and you go to Grinnell. Tell me a little bit why you made that choice.
GK: Back in high school, I went to a large, powerhouse school; we were ranked in the state and nationally for quite a few years- Cooper City High School. I went on the showcase circuit my sophomore and junior years- Team One, Baseball Factory, Perfect Game- most of the schools that were interested were the academic schools. I had very good grades in high school, and a pretty good SAT score. I was looking at Harvard, Johns Hopkins, Tufts, Dartmouth, Emory University. I was looking at the academic schools. It was in August of my senior year when I received, along with many other letters that I got back then, a tiny leaflet from Grinnell College. Never heard of them in my life, so I cast it off to the side of my desk. Two and half weeks later my father came on and told me to clean up, so I started sorting them, throwing some out, and one of those was the Grinnell leaflet. Ironically, my father walked in and asked, "Where is that from?" I said, "Grinnell College, in Iowa, from Coach Hollibaugh." He gave me the best piece of advice so far when he said, "If this Coach Hollibaugh from Grinnell College, wherever it is, had enough respect to send you something, you should have enough respect to send something back." So I filled it out, send it back, and from then on I got a call from him every Saturday and Sunday. It was a lot different from a lot of the contacts from other coaches, who wanted to know stats and showcase why their program was the best for me. It seemed like Coach Hollibaugh had a program that I could step in and really make an impact, make it something special. That was very appetizing. Not only that, but Grinnell is one of the top liberal arts institutions in the country. There are numerous students who turn down Ivy League schools to go to Grinnell. When I took a visit out there, everything just clicked...it's one of the best decisions I've made in my life.
ATVL: You were looking at Ivy League schools. Your brother, who just graduated from high school, is going to Johns Hopkins. Obviously, there is a feeling in your family that education is very important. Where has that feeling come from?
GK: My mother and father told me from a young age that academics were the most important thing. I love the game of baseball, but in order for me to go out to play that night, I had to have all my home work done, and I had to be getting good grades. Not just good grades, but great grades. They had high expectations of us. Because I and Ryan and Chase, my two brothers, love our parents so much, we always want to do better. Because of that, academics took the priority in our lives, right after family. We weren't allowed to watch TV, or go on computer, or play XBox or Playstation during the week. Friday afternoon, when we came home from school, until Sunday afternoon, we were able to have our fun times, but during the week we did our homework and played baseball. There was nothing else.
ATVL: So you were in Denmark for a semester. What in the world were you doing there?
GK: A thing that attracted me to Grinnell was their emphasis on going and studying abroad for a semester. It's a great experience to step outside your comfort zone, immerse yourself in a different culture and learn a lot of new things, and apply what I've learned at Grinnell into the world and real-world situations. A couple of the programs I was looking at were a Swedish program at Stockholm, University of Adelaide in Australia, and DIS, the Denmark International Study program, based in downtown Copenhagen. After doing my research and following my anthropology major, it made the most sense and looked like the most intriguing programs to get myself into. It's very difficult to get into that program. Luckily I did get into the DIS program, and I studied prostitution and genocide studies while out there. The program treated us like kings- they took us to Paris and Amsterdam for a week studying prostitution. Asking them how they got into it, conducting studies and surveys. You can't do that in school- you really can't apply [what you've learned] until you get out there.
I had the time of my life out there. I studied hard, learned a lot, made a lot of connections with the many professors I had in my classes. My job was a DJ in downtown Copenhagen. I was a DJ during high school- house parties, and some of the dance parties in college. When I got out to Denmark, one of the girls in the dorm I was living in said a bar/nightclub was looking for a DJ. I said, why not? A guy called me up, had me downtown, wanted me to give him a sample of what I could do, and right there on the spot said I got the Wednesday night slot. Being a study abroad student, I wasn't allowed to make any money... but, it's a hobby I really enjoy, and I made a lot of new friends doing it. It was one of my high points while there.
I have some memories that I won't forget for the rest of my life- the trip was a life changing experience. Whoever has the opportunity to study abroad, I would recommend it.
ATVL: So.... what was the purpose behind studying prostitution?
GK: It's under the field of anthropology, which is the study of culture, theories of culture, subtleties of culture. I'm in social anthropology, the study of looking at some of the nuances of culture. Looking at prostitution in Western Europe was very intriguing because it is legalized over there. It was an opportunity for me, coming from the middle of Iowa you don't have many opportunities to ethnographically do any sort of research, but in Amsterdam it was an opportunity for me to devise my methods, propose my theories, propose my ideologies, conduct the study, conduct the surveys, and to write about it. It wasn't so much that I was interested in the prostitution as maybe an average 20- or 21- year old college student would be, but it was an opportunity for me as an anthropology major to apply my ethnographic field method that I learned back in school to the real world, to Western Europe. I also studied random acts of genocide of the 20th century. I got to visit Nenengamme Concentration Camp- it was a moving class. It was hard for me being Jewish, but it was one of the greatest courses I've ever taken.
ATVL: What are your plans for after college?
GK: My plan is to go into law school after I graduate, pending what happens in baseball. Hopefully I can defer it a few years and, to be cliche, "chase the dream." I want to be a sports agent.. on the level of a Scott Boras, basically.
Gary Kahn is a breath of fresh air- an athlete who isn't afraid to focus on academics and family. No matter how baseball turns out in the long run, it's clear that this young man has a bright future.
