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  • Writer's picturehannahyoshi999

Brandon Van Horn: Looking Back on Saints Memories and Navigating a Turbulent Baseball Career

As a minor league baseball player for the San Francisco Giants, Brandon Van Horn spent countless hours on the diamond improving his swing and strengthening his already above-average glove. The 6’ 2” infielder’s efforts paid off, allowing him to establish himself in the San Francisco farm system and move from Rookie ball to the Giants’ AAA team in three seasons.

Van Horn made a name for himself as a defensive standout, even earning Giants Minor League Defensive Infielder of the Year honors from Baseball America in 2018.

In spite of his success with the Giants, Van Horn frequently looks back to his summer ball days of playing for the Arroyo Seco Saints. He still thinks and talks about his memories of playing with his Saints compatriots during the summer of 2012, whether it be putting a giant stuffed gorilla in the umpire’s spot after a series of bad calls, traveling to San Diego for games or following their “movement” that they affectionately call the Saints Bus.

While Van Horn has experienced his fair share of ups and downs throughout his baseball career, his memories of playing for the Saints are ones that he’ll remember fondly for the rest of his life.

Along with fellow baseball players and friends Patrick Adams, Sergio Plasencia, Troy Prasertsit, Cam Silva and Elliot Surrey, Van Horn was part of one of the most formidable lineups in Saints history. The Saints went 35-6 in 2012, making it to the Palomino World Series playoffs even though they were eventually knocked out of contention by the Taiwanese team.

“There’s guys we grew up around that were really good, like really good, whether it was in high school or they played pro ball or something like that,” Van Horn said. “In high school, we [weren't good] so it wasn’t any fun getting to see those guys at all. And then all of the sudden, we’re those dudes, tearing up those fields. For me, that was really cool.”

The team’s greatest strength was perhaps their strong bond off the field, which gave them the necessary chemistry to put up such an impressive record.

“It just turned out the more fun we had, the more we just started rolling people,” Van Horn said. “A lot of teams have their own thing now, a rallying cry or whatever, but we had just as much fun hanging out together as we did on the field. There really wasn’t a difference.”

Although his summer with the Saints was one of the best he’s had, baseball hasn’t always been kind to Van Horn.

At St. Francis High School, he struggled to adjust to the more advanced pitching and hit consistently because of his small stature. While his coaches recognized his potential, his lack of strength cost him a daily spot in the lineup.

“I used to say it’s too bad you can’t put his determination in the body of some other athletes,” said Marty Marquardt, Van Horn’s former coach at St. Francis and with the Saints. “Because he was so little, some games, he was probably not playing. It wasn’t much of his skill set, [his size] was just not developed as a high schooler, but I think it helped him stay humble, so that’s one of the things I liked about him. He was super humble and he’s always smiling.”

He instead stayed as involved as he possibly could whenever his coaches called plays and focused on improving his defensive range, which was his ticket to playing at the collegiate level. After graduating, Van Horn spent the summer suiting up for the Saints before moving on to college.

In the fall, Van Horn struggled to transition to the collegiate level, due in part to the vast differences between the environment of a college program and the more casual atmosphere of high school ball and the Saints organization.  

“[Summer ball] is just fun,” Van Horn said. “And then you get a break for two months and you go right back to grinding it out, the 6 a.m. weights, and you’re out here trying to please coaches and NCAA rules and trying to get good grades. When you’re in college ball, it becomes more of a business, and when you’re a student-athlete, it’s a full-time thing.”  

Van Horn played two seasons at Riverside Community College. He received offers from and committed to play for the Florida International Panthers and the storied University of Southern California Trojans, but was unable to play at either school because his academic credits did not transfer.

After missing out on his first two chances to play for a four-year program, Van Horn secured a spot on the Dallas Baptist University roster. Yet, he again struggled to maintain academic eligibility, which he eventually lost for the season.

He subsequently transferred to The Master’s University, which competes in the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics, in Santa Clarita, Calif. after a friend of his helped to secure him a place on the team. Although the move initially represented a fresh start, he was again ruled ineligible because of his choice of courses, costing him his junior season.

With the help of his TMU mentor Bob Dickson, Van Horn finally passed the necessary amount of academic credits to regain his eligibility in time to play the majority of his senior season.

Van Horn’s leadership qualities, energy and strong work ethic shone through in TMU’s small program. He was also able to earn the necessary playing time to get noticed by pro scouts.

His glove, which had been praised by his coaches in the past, was good enough to carry him to the pros. Van Horn was drafted in the 19th round of the 2016 MLB Draft by the Giants, whose facilities were only a few hours away from where he grew up and first learned to play baseball.  

“It couldn’t have happened to a better guy either,” Marquardt said. “I love seeing that such a good person is having such success in his life and doing what he always wanted to do.”

However, while Van Horn vastly improved during his time in the minors and rose through the Giants’ farm system, his baseball career was soon brought to a halt yet again — but this time by the coronavirus pandemic. With the cancelation of the minor league season and the loss of millions in ticket revenue, MLB teams were forced to cut more minor leaguers than usual, costing Van Horn his spot in the pros.

Van Horn has since moved to Boise, Idaho, where he now trains young athletes and baseball players at an athletic training facility.

“Life comes at you fast,” Van Horn said. “One day you’re hitting homers in Spring Training against Johnny Cueto, and now you’re training Boise Chicas FC.”  

Even though life threw another unexpected challenge at him, he still reflects on those long-ago memories of playing with his Saints Bus teammates at Jackie Robinson Memorial Field. The otherwise laidback and wisecracking Van Horn can now take a serious look back to that season, recognizing the impact it had on his own career and on the growth of the Arroyo Seco program.  

“The year before, it was like, ‘Oh I played [for] this team close to home and there are some local guys, it’s called the Saints, and I don’t know where they got their logo and it’s pretty cool, and we play at Jackie Robinson,’” Van Horn said. “It went from something like that to where people are like, ‘Oh, how can I get on that team?’ It became a thing.”

Van Horn and his teammates helped to bring more notoriety to the Saints organization, which now regularly nets players from states and Division I athletic conferences across the country.

Professional baseball may not currently be part of his life, but Van Horn has faced plenty of obstacles to playing the sport he loves in the past and hasn’t allowed those hurdles to stop him from pursuing his dream.

Even if his baseball career is over, he’ll always have the memories of summer ball and playing alongside his closest friends to hold onto.

“You never know who you’regonnaplay with, what coaches you’regonnaget, and most guys end up just showing up andleaving and it’s kind of a waste of time,” Van Horn said. “But for some reason, for us, [that summer] was the most fun you could ever imagine.”

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