A three-sport standout for the Niles Vikings, Garner had his pick of which game to play in college.
He looked at basketball and football, as well as baseball, and concluded that his best path to the professional level was with baseball.
“I felt it was my best chance to excel at the next level and maybe play at the next level,” he said. “Basketball was probably my favorite sport. I really liked it. I just felt like in basketball your God-given attributes, height and speed, figure more into that.”
Garner, 6’1”, knew that no matter his size, his passion for athletics was immeasurable.
“You have to have heart in everything you do. With the way I played, there would not have been much out there for me [playing basketball] after high school,” Garner said. “It was the same in football. I did not like to tackle at all. I did not mind picking the ball off or scoring touchdowns. I would have had to have been faster and I did not want to redshirt my first year.”
Garner has made a steady climb through the Chicago Cubs minor league, landing at Triple A Iowa to end the 2017 season.
After spending three years at Michigan State, Garner was sent to the rookie league in Arizona after the June draft in 2013.
“I will never forget that day,” Garner said.
In an attempt to shake his rattled nerves, the athlete found a distraction to take his mind off the draft.
“I kind of knew where I was going to be drafted,” Garner said. “So, I just went to the zoo. … I just felt to this day, time has never moved more slowly — from the time I woke up that day until the next day.”
The right-handed reliever left for Arizona in mid-January to continue his preparation for the 2018 season. He will not know where he will be assigned this year until right before spring training ends and teams break camp.
Thanks in part to Hollywood, Garner said people have a romantic view of what minor league baseball life is like. With five years of experience under his belt, Garner said it is anything but the glamorous lifestyle many expect.
“Anything in baseball that is not the ‘show’ is anything but glamorous,” he said. “It is not hard, it is a grind. You have to be able to tell yourself to believe. You have to really stick to that.”
Garner said the toughest thing he had to learn his first season was that he was just another player.
“You learn that you are nothing,” he said. “You really do not matter. You can be replaced like that. I did not feel like I was cocky or arrogant coming up, but sometimes you feel like, ‘I will be alright.’ But when you get up there is no more of that. There is a new class coming in every year. That was probably the biggest thing.”
He also said he had to learn not to call anybody “coach.”
“Everything is a first-name basis,” Garner said. “You do not call anybody coach. If you do, they call you out in front of the rest the team. They feel like they are higher than a coach because they are a manager now.”
Getting his first call-up to the next level was exciting, but also daunting.
“Of course, you are happy and you are one step closer, but you also realize you have so much more to do,” Garner said. “You are happy, you tell your family and friends, and then it is back to game-planning how you are going to get another one.”
Getting promoted to the next level is an affirmation that all the hard work is paying off. Garner is hopeful the hard work he put in last season at Tennessee and Iowa, as well as this past offseason, will give him an opportunity to reach Chicago and pitch in the Major Leagues.
“If you get moved up for good you have been doing something right,” he said. “You know you are ready to take on that next level.”

Photography by Emily Sobecki