Nahigian Finishes Up Career With Massachusetts Maritime Baseball

May 17, 2011

By Rich Maclone, Falmouth Enterprise

He left it out on the field, every bit of it that he had. Now it’s over, and Sarkis Nahigian is going to miss playing baseball at Massachusetts Maritime Academy.

Nahigian, who played baseball at Falmouth High School, was never the best player on his team, be it at FHS or at American Legion Post 188 in Sandwich, or MMA for that matter. He wasn’t the biggest, fastest or strongest.

But, what Sarkis Nahigian was, and is, is the kind of ballplayer that a team needs to win games. If Head Coach Bob Corradi needed someone to move a runner along, Nahigian would do that. Take one for the team? No problem, it’s only a bruise. Steal a base? Sure, which one?

Unfortunately, though, Nahigian will never know just how good he could have been for the Buccaneers. After solid freshman and sophomore years he missed out on his junior season because he was on the other side of the world, taking part in a student exchange program in Shanghai, China. “I knew if I didn’t go I’d regret it, so I had to,” he said.  But this year was the year he believed that he’d throw everything into baseball and have one last glorious year in the sun. Unfortunately his hamstring didn’t cooperate.

Early in the season he had played his way into a position where he’d be starting most games at third base. “I felt back to my normal self at the start of the year, like high school and 188,” he said. “I had taken this kid’s position and was feeling pretty good about where this year was going, then I got hurt.”

A tear in his right hamstring railroaded his chance to play every day. Most of the year he watched from the bench, making the occasional pinch-hitting appearance when the team needed a bunt put down correctly. “I’d hobble my way to first base,” he said with a laugh. “I did beat one out.”

Injuries turned what could have been one great last season into a part-time endeavor for Nahigian, who appeared in just a dozen games and started only four. In his limited time on the field he was still able to make an impact, batting .294 with a couple of steals.

Nahigian said he certainly would have liked to have done more during his tenure on the diamond for the Bucs, but his time in Buzzards Bay was hardly wasted. While baseball may have been full of ups and downs, the student part of the student-athlete equation was beyond all-star level. He will be graduating magna cum laude, with a 3.63 cumulative grade point average, and has already been hired full time upon exit from school. While at MMA he worked seven internships and also did a semester abroad.

“I knew (out of high school) that it wasn’t like I was going to go pro (in baseball). I didn’t know what I wanted to do, but you come here to figure that out and I got to play the best game in the world.”

Nahigian said that the opportunity to play for local legend Bob Corradi was a privilege. Corradi is a baseball lifer who has coached hundreds of young men, at both MMA and Post 188, and he certainly made a mark on the young Falmouth man.

“Playing under Coach C was great. You see these other coaches and they might be a good coach on the field, but they don’t teach you the life skills off the field that Coach C does,” Nahigian said. “The guy knows everything about baseball. I might not have played as well for him as I wanted to, but I learned a ton.”

Nahigian said that Corradi lives and dies by the Bucs, and he wears his heart on his sleeve. The infielder said that he saw his coach weep after his team did something that made him especially proud, and on more than one occasion. “He just loves it so much, and he wants us to be the best that we can be,” Nahigian said.

Sarkis said that one game that especially stood out for him was a contest his freshman year against Coast Guard. On that day the team was without any of its upperclassmen because of a school commitment for them, and the freshmen and sophomores had to go it alone against a tough team. Coast Guard led the league that year in getting hit by pitches, so Corradi told his charges to make a point of getting plunked even more, to crowd the plate and show CGA that they weren’t the only ones that had guts.

“I think I got hit by two or three pitches that day, Coach loved it, and we beat them,” Nahigian said.

Corradi said that having the local kid with his program was a boon for the Bucs.

“It’s been an absolute privilege for me to have seen Sarkis develop not only into a fine baseball player, but a better person. I’ve coached Sarkis since his days with Post 188, and at every step of the way he has worked to make himself a better player while at the same time becoming a great leader,” the coach said.

“Like most players in the program, Sarkis had an adjustment period to go through when he arrived at the academy, and he was able to contribute during his first two years on the team. When he went to study in China last year, I told him that there were no guarantees when he returned and that he would have to work harder to get into the lineup, and that’s exactly what he did. He truly saved his best for last this spring, and I couldn’t be more proud of everything he has accomplished here, both on the field and in the classroom.”

For the next few weeks Nahigian will be taking it pretty easy. He is working part time downtown at Bad Fish Outfitters and will be there until July when he begins the next chapter in his life working for Heidmar, a tanker company out of Norwalk, Connecticut. He will be a vessel manager there and hopes to be a trader for the company within a year or two. The job offer came after spending an internship over the winter at the company.

“It’s crazy that it’s already over. There’s a part of me that wishes there were more games to play, and a part of me that’s ready to move on,” he said. “It’s pretty exciting.”