His plate full of combat

After baseball, Schuyler Williamson served 15 months in Baghdad. (Stan Grossfeld/Globe Staff)

Schuyler Williamson left the ball field for the battlefield and he caught hell.

The former Army catcher was selected in the 26th round of the 2005 draft by the Detroit Tigers. He played just one year before he decided to leave the sport and serve his country. Six months later, Williamson was deployed to Baghdad, where he was wounded.

He has no regrets.

"I got a chance to live my dream," says First Lieutenant Williamson by telephone from Fort Knox, Ky. "I played one season in professional baseball. From the time I started playing ball when I was 5 years old to the time I quit when I was 23, that was my goal. But you know, things change. I didn't get a lot of playing time, but they [Tigers coaches] told me they were happy with where I was at."

He batted .203 with 6 RBIs in 25 games for the Oneonta Tigers in the Single A New York-Penn League.

"The [2005] season ended and everything was good," says Williamson. "I had to go to officer basic class and I started thinking about things."

Things he learned at West Point, such as its motto: "Duty, Honor, Country." It turned out family was more important than fastballs.

"I talked to my younger brother, who was in Fallujah [Iraq]," says Williamson. "He just told me some bad stories about leadership and how they failed them. To put it straight up, they weren't taking care of their men, to the point where they didn't even go out. They just told them their mission and sent them out there. And that hit home for me. He was my mom and dad's kid, but he could be any kid - your kid out there fighting. At the very least, I care."

So he spent 15 months in Baghdad, a platoon leader in charge of 28 men. "I chose the fighting Army over the baseball Army because I wanted to do my part," says Williamson. "I felt I was needed somewhere else to accomplish a different mission."

For Williamson, it was a heartfelt decision. "Do you just let people die or do you help them? I helped hundreds of other people. Not only my soldiers, but people who are able to live a life they never had the opportunity to live. And that feels good.

"I'm blessed. Some of the best experiences in my life happened in Iraq. You've got people who haven't had electricity in three years. It's because we can't get contractors in there to fix the power lines because they'll get shot. We capture and kill a few people to regain the streets and then we can rebuild the power lines. They can actually cook a warm meal and sleep in a warm bed."

Williamson also realized that playing baseball is a grind, especially for a guy who had gotten married. So he had another reason for retiring from pro ball.

"There were something like 100 games in 101 days," he says. "I want to be a family man. I want to teach my kids how to play baseball. I thought coming into the Army I would have a more stable life, start a family, and be the best husband I can be. But deployment got me. So it didn't work out as sweet as I thought, but we're getting there."

He was also quick to defend Caleb Campbell, the West Point football player who is a rookie with the Detroit Lions.

"That's exactly what the program is for; you don't just fight," Williamson says. "We've got leaders everywhere. We've got leaders that sing country songs. Leaders that dance. Leaders that play professional football and baseball.

"Their job is extremely important. I believe that some of the strongest leaders in the Army are people who played team sports. They know how to overcome adversity and know how to win and to relate to everybody. If Caleb Campbell can recruit a really good leader-athlete - if he can bring me that good leader - then that's more important than fighting every day, like I did in Iraq."