Selby almost chose Navy over baseball

This story was excerpted from Justice delos Santos’ Pirates Beat newsletter. To read the full newsletter, click here. And subscribe to get it regularly in your inbox.

Colin and Stefan Selby stood inside the garage of their home in Chesapeake, Va. It was the middle of Summer 2017, and Colin stood at a crossroads. One path led to the Majors. One path led to the Navy.

Stefan understood the gift his son possessed, and he didn’t want it to slip away. As Stefan’s words poured out, so did the emotion. Stefan typically maintains a stoic demeanor, but this afternoon, he bawled.

“I didn't want to sit there and watch him squander the opportunity that, at that time, I thought he had,” Stefan said.

It's currently Summer 2023, and Colin didn’t squander that opportunity. Earlier this month, Colin made his Major League debut, finding himself 60 feet and six inches away from the likes of Ronald Acuña Jr. and Matt Olson. In Pittsburgh, he has an opportunity to carve out a career, to keep adding chapters to a story that no one in his family has ever written.

“A complete evolution from a dependent boy to an independent young man,” said Randolph-Macon head coach Ray Hedrick. “It was extremely impressive.”

Coming out of Western Branch High School, Selby had two choices if he wanted to continue playing baseball: Randolph-Macon College in Ashland, Va., a Division III program, or West Virginia, where he’d have to walk on. He chose the former, eschewing his Division I dreams to play where he was wanted.

As a freshman, Selby had a 3.54 ERA across 53 1/3 innings with 45 strikeouts. During the Old Dominion Athletic Conference (ODAC) Tournament, Selby tossed nine innings of two-run ball with eight strikeouts against Shenandoah University. Along with the results, Selby’s velocity crept from the mid-80s to low-90s. He couldn’t go D-1, but pro ball could offer a fine consolation. That is if he could get there.

Off the field, Selby was placed on academic probation prior to his sophomore year. On the field, a right shoulder injury limited Selby, who wasn’t in the best shape, to five games. Around April, Selby was shut down for the year.

Selby expressed to Hedrick that he was unhappy and frustrated during their offseason meeting. Selby’s parents, Christie and Stefan, had their own frustrations as well. Despite their financial investment, Colin wasn’t putting forth the proper preparation in either the academic or athletic fields.

“Frankly, he was immature,” Stefan said. “He was still a kid. He knew he couldn't keep operating with that level of immaturity and go to the places that he wanted to go.”

Colin and Stefan had half-joked on several occasions that the Navy would be Colin’s backup plan. Given where Colin stood, there was a possibility that the Navy became the plan. Hedrick wasn’t yet prepared to let Colin walk that road.

Hedrick talked at length with Colin’s parents, and both parties understood they were on the same page. Colin wasn’t Hedrick’s first student-athlete who struggled to adapt to the demands of college. Hedrick believed Colin could go far if led down the right path; Christie and Stefan trusted Hedrick to get Colin there.

“Ray was like, 'I know 100 percent what you're saying. You're his parents and it's not my place to say, but I will tell you this. He's not the first college kid that's struggled to try to grow up and take mature actions on and off the field on a college campus. I think if you don't leave this in my hands then you're never going to know what he could've been,’” Stefan recalled. “My wife and I talked about it and we were like, 'Oh, OK. Got it. You're taking this kid under your wing.’”

Added Ray, “The messaging he was getting at home was the exact same messaging that he was getting from me. He couldn't get away from it. A lot of times, a coach is too tough now or a coach is too aggressive or the coach doesn't give anybody a break and the parents are that safety net to fall into. Well, the Selbys, they weren't a safety net. They probably held him to a higher standard.”

Stefan, too, understood the talent that Colin possessed, but in his estimation, Colin couldn’t quite grasp what he had. Colin didn’t just have an opportunity to play a game for a living; he had an opportunity to live a different life. So, in their garage on that summer day in Chesapeake, Stefan shared his perspective in its entirety, tears be damned.

“I was like, 'Hey man, you got lightning in a bottle and you're getting ready to throw it in the trash. We need to talk,’” Stefan said. “I said, 'Hey, there's a standard and you're not just going to blow this money away. You need to get it together or it's going to come to an end and you're going to have to have a little rougher path like I did how to figure out how to become a man and provide for yourself.’”

Stefan’s words are derived from lived experience. In his youth, Stefan’s admitted lack of academic effort pushed him into the Navy at 20 years old. While Stefan described the Navy as good for him and his family, he added that there are sacrifices that aren’t so glamorous. Colin’s efforts, then, were better spent on the field.

“I remember thinking at that moment that he wanted it a little more than I did, and I didn’t want that to be the case ever again,” Colin said. “That was one of the few, if only, times I’ve seen my dad cry. I took it pretty seriously.”

From there, Selby evolved. In the subsequent fall, Selby began working extensively with teammate Nick Roth, who’d go on to be selected by the Orioles in the 2019 MLB Draft. Roth, in Hedrick’s estimation, couldn’t match Selby’s physicality, size and strength, but Roth maximized his talent by strictly sticking to a routine and system.

Selby handled business in the classroom, too. He doesn’t consider himself an academic, but he did the necessary work to stay on the field. And when he was on the field, he was one of the best Division III pitchers in the country.

As a junior, Selby had a 2.60 ERA with 126 strikeouts across 97 innings, a season that earned him a laundry list of awards and enticed the Pirates to select him in the 16th round of the 2018 MLB Draft. Five years later, Selby pitched on baseball’s highest level in front of a litany of family and friends.

“To be there with his mom and dad, specifically, knowing all the conversations we've had, knowing the sacrifices they've made and the challenges that they put forth for him, I don't know that I'll ever have that experience again,” Hedrick said.

“It feels like you're blessed. It feels like it's surreal,” Stefan said. “You're shocked by how surreal it feels, but it does.”

In another reality, Colin followed in his dad’s path. In this one, he’s carving his own.