Perhaps that quality is what led the 6’0, 190 lb Flintian east two years ago. After being named a first-team All-American shortstop by the National Collegiate Baseball Writers Association his junior year—he is Harvard’s only player to receive such an honor during his prep career—he was recruited by baseball powers like Stanford and Georgia Tech and scouted by all thirty Major League teams. But Salsgiver turned down scholarship offers, six-figure signing bonuses and an assured place in the top 10 rounds of the MLB draft to live his dream of playing at Harvard.

An all-academic selection by the Free Press, he was determined to get a degree from one of the nation’s most prestigious universities.

“Harvard is such a sweet school,” he told the Free Press in 2002. “I’m looking forward to the challenge.”

So far, Salsgiver is conquering it. Now, as a sophomore, Salsgiver laughs at the challenge.

“I feel more familiar with the coaching staff and everything,” he says. “I mean, we got along great last year, but I can joke around a little more now.”

Not that the coaches don’t joke back. At this, Salsgiver starts to look like a man who is taking on more than he can handle.

“The coaches probably mess around with me more than they do with anyone else on the team,” he says. “For some reason, they happen to think that I’m this complete goofball.”

On road trips, he says, the coaches delight in pranking him—hiding his plane tickets, hiding his bags, putting things in his bag—anything to needle the youngster.

“They do all kinds of stuff,” he says.

As far as his relationship with his co-captain, Salsgiver says they are great friends. But he also acknowledges their pole-opposite styles and attitudes on the ballfield.

“During the game, Trey would be more of the serious guy,” he says. Salsgiver, the goofball, is not. “I don’t play as well if I’m extremely focused.”

Cracking jokes, to Salsgiver, is “the best way to stay loose.”

“Although I’m focused, it’s more important for me to be loose and more laid-back,” he says, “than super-determined and over-into-the-game.”

In other words, different things for different people.

BROTHERS IN ARMS