Firefighter Gavin Marshall, a brigade secretary for Humberside and regional treasurer, was the first European to play professional baseball in the USA. He spoke to Steve Morgan
Gavin Marshall always had two dreams: “To play professional baseball, and be a firefighter.” By the age of 27, Gavin had fulfilled both – and turned from trail blazer to blaze preventer.
At 45, he is better known these days – in FBU circles, at least – as Yorkshire and Humberside’s brigade secretary and regional treasurer.
But in 2001 he made baseball history as the first European to play professionally in the US. He spent two seasons as a pitcher for Indiana-based Dubois County Dragons, sending the ball down at speeds in excess of 90mph.
You may well have seen Marshall’s picturesque old League Stadium home – it featured in 1992’s box-office hit A League of Their Own, starring Tom Hanks and Madonna.
Now 18 years into his fire-service career, that baseball flame still burns brightly. Gavin is a third-generation Marshall to both represent and coach Great Britain – following in the footsteps of grandfather Ron and dad Brian.
Now he has passed the torch to sons Zebb and Cole (12 and 11). In July, he oversaw the GB U12s’ visit to Austria, where a clean sweep of four games ensured qualification for next summer’s European Championships.
It’s a wonderfully outrageous, unlikely tale of a supremely driven lad from Hull, and one Gavin felt compelled to share after reading other people’s good-news-stories in Firefighter.
'Tell your story'
“My dad passed away a couple of years ago,” Gavin explains. “And he always said: ‘you really need to tell your story.’
“I still have my own little baseball card. which I’ve occasionally shown if I’ve been on a course, but it’s not something I’d really been comfortable with.”
That admission is a neat fit with the popular public perception of firefighters as the everyday superhero – the character who gets on quietly with the job.
For Gavin, the similarities between his distinct working worlds are obvious. Whether tackling a blaze, standing in front of a batter determined to smash the ball out of the park, or now as a pitching coach for Great Britain – swift and clear decision-making processes are critical.
“They call baseball the game of life – it throws so many challenges at you,” he says.
“You probably experience failure more than you do success – and that gets you in a really good position for life, in my eyes.
“You’ve got nothing other than the facts in front of you. If you make a decision at a job and it’s wrong, an incident can get out of control. Similarly from a coaching point of view, if you don’t make the right selections, before you know it, you could be losing 8-0. It’s all about setting the tone.”
Family history
The tone was clearly set a long time ago, courtesy of Gavin’s can-do nature and appreciation of family lineage. He talks with fondness about the family history in the sport; grandad Ron’s playing days in a strong club set-up boasting 80 teams in the Hull area alone.
Baseball may be a marginal sport on these shores these days, but Marshall remains as in love with it as ever.
He is justifiably proud of his legacy – not just for his boys, but for those others who were moved by his efforts. British baseball’s website pages are awash with testimonies to this inspirational pioneer. “There are hundreds of Europeans at US universities and colleges these days,” Gavin adds. “Quite a few British guys are out there looking to go one step further than me – I’d love to shake their hands.”
Respect for the past is key to the future. Before our chat finishes, Gavin – also a keen rugby player – mentions a funeral he is attending the following day. It’s of 1980’s Hull Kingston Rovers stalwart Asuquo ‘Zook’ Ema. Ema became a firefighter after his retirement, like a few of his former colleagues.
“It sounds crazy,” Gavin laughs. “But I would drive past the fire station, trying to look in and see him.
"I wanted to be a firefighter and play sport, just like Zook. I remember thinking I wonder if I could do that?"
