St. John's University Athletics
A Life Not Spoiled
5/23/2005 12:00:00 AM | Baseball
May 20, 2005
Queens, NY - By Mike "Mex" Carey Associate Director for Athletic Communications St. John's University
The way he figures it, Anthony Sullivan started becoming an adult when he was about seven-years-old.
He remembers the night.
It's one of many nights from a not-so-normal childhood.
He woke up around midnight at the house he lived in with his mother and baby brother, Joseph, in the Boston suburb of Arlington.
His brother was crying.
Young Anthony went to the bedroom where he found his mother, Diane, on her bed and could not wake her up.
It was something he had grown accustomed to, even at the tender age of eight.
So he did what he thought he should. He put on a bottle for his 18-week-old brother, got him from his crib and fed him as he called his grandmother to tell her that his mom was out again.
Nearly 13 years later, Sullivan almost emits a chuckle as he tells the story.
It's not that it was a funny story, it's just that now, a few months shy of his 21st birthday, he's still somewhat amazed that he had the presence of mind to do that at that age.
"I'd seen my mom like that before," Sullivan said. "It wasn't a great situation, but I had to make the best of it."
Sullivan, a sophomore pitcher for the St. John's baseball team, saw a lot of things as a youngster.
None of it was what you would call the typical family life.
He was born John Anthony Caicedo in Queens in 1984. His father, Juan Antonio was a native of Colombia. Soon after he was born, Anthony moved to the Boston area with his Uncle Steven and grandmother (Joan Amico) and he grew up in that area.
His father stayed in Queens with his mother and Anthony recalls seeing him only once - when he was about seven-years-old - in his life. It was around that time when his father was deported.
The adolescent years of a young child's life are supposed to be filled with playing games and spending time with your family and friends. Anthony had some of that, but not much.
It wasn't that his parents didn't want him. Back then, Anthony had those thoughts; but now, he understands.
At the age of 11, Anthony was home with his mother and stepfather when four undercover Boston policemen stormed the family's apartment and arrested him.
A year or so after that, his little brother passed away from complications with Sudden Infant Death Syndrome.
Then, when he was 14 and vacationing in Maine with his aunt and uncle, he received a call saying that his mother had overdosed.
Fast forward about seven years from that, and Anthony Sullivan - who was legally adopted by his mother's brother - is sitting in the bleachers on a sunny, but overcast April afternoon while the Red Storm baseball team is playing an intrasquad scrimmage.
It's a long way from his childhood, but the memories never fade away.
He sees them every game St. John's plays, especially on the road.
While some of his teammates mill about after a game talking to their mom and dad, Anthony makes a quick exit to the team's bus, grabs his seat and turns on his cell phone to check messages from his Aunt Lisa, Uncle Steven or his grandmother.
"It's weird because I was around so many bad things," he said. "My father was addicted to drugs, my mother was addicted to drugs and other family members had alcohol problems. Everyone had these addictive traits in their bodies.
"I wasn't a saint growing up. I grew up tough. I think I took those addictive traits out with sports. It sounds corny, but maybe God knew that I had a chance and he blessed me with the ability to play baseball. To be able to go in the direction I am, in college, playing baseball, it's amazing to me.
"I'm the first kid in my family to go to college and I'm proud of that."
And while he grew up surrounded by things we read about in the papers and see on television, Anthony chooses not to dwell on the negative.
He hasn't seen his father in 13 years. He doesn't know where he is. He doesn't even know if he's alive. Yet, he'd still like to see him. "Even if it was via satellite video," he says. "I'd like to see him."
Sullivan's even attempted to find him. He sent a letter to the Dr. Phil television show explaining his story.
"I told my aunt I did that and she laughed," he said. "I think I have an idea of what he looks like from pictures I saw when I was a kid."
His mother, who he had seen do drugs, isn't around either. But he chooses to take the line that she's in a better place now. She's not, he says, subjected to the addictions anymore.
"That's how I started living with my aunt," Sullivan said. "My uncle pulled up to our house and said my mom had to do something. She got out of jail a month later. She kept leaving halfway houses and running away for three years.
"She came home one Christmas Eve night. It was the most amazing thing. That was the last time I saw her. The next day, I was with my grandfather and I had won an MVP trophy at some tournament for hockey and we came home and she wasn't there."
And his little brother, the little brother he always wanted, is in a better place too.
"I think about him a lot," he said. "When we were in California for the NCAA Regional last year, I remember thinking, `Here I am on a sunny day at a beautiful ballpark (at Stanford) and I was thinking how I'd love my parents to be there in the stands drinking soda and watching my little brother running around with a glove in his hand.'"
But Anthony is in a better place too.
He's going to college and playing baseball. He knows that he might have a chance to play professionally and that, combined with the desire to have his aunt and uncle and grandparents see him graduate, drives him.
Sullivan is majoring in sport management at St. John's. He's been used as a reliever and a starter in his two years on the Queens campus. The Red Storm, 39-14 overall and in first place in the BIG EAST with a 19-4 record, have been helped by strong pitching this season. Some of that credit goes to Sullivan, who is 7-2 with a 2.47 earned run average, has struck out 63 batters in 65.2 innings and won his last six outings.
Coming off a 2004 season in which he helped St. John's to its first NCAA Tournament bid since 1997, Sullivan knows that there could be some good chances for him in the future.
Especially in the near future. The 2005 Major League Baseball Draft will be held on June 7-8 and Sullivan, who turns 21 on July 2, will be eligible for the draft because he reaches the age limit within a month of the selections.
It's a long way from his younger days.
Baseball, however, has helped to bring him back to where his life started, in Queens.
He was a bit of a wild child in his younger days. "I wasn't a saint," he admits. Sullivan says matter-of-factly that he was a kid who would knock down mailboxes, pop car tires and generally cause havoc.
"But I made my own name," he says proudly.
Much of that, surprisingly, comes from something he learned from his grandfather.
"He taught me how to play baseball," he said. "He put me in a position to succeed."
Succeed he has.
His Aunt Lisa and Uncle Steve, and his grandparents, who live upstairs, kept on top of him. After starting his youth as a wild child, he settled down.
He got good grades, even making the honor roll in middle school and high school. Anthony graduated with a 2.9 grade-point average in high school, but his SAT scores weren't great.
"My grades weren't great," he says. "What you have to understand is that if it weren't for them looking out for me, I probably never would have made it this far. They changed me from a little, immature boy to a grown boy with street smarts and intelligence. They turned me around from barely passing sixth grade."
They also gave him the support that he needed to succeed. The Sullivan's - Anthony changed his last name from Caicedo in high school, saying "the Caicedo name didn't have much luck to it" - moved from their home in Watertown to a place in Arlington so he could stay near his friends.
"It means the world to me," Sullivan said. "They gave up their lives for me, so I wouldn't be away from my friends. They did all that for me. They made me a man.
"They are my feet and my legs."
Still, picking up sports gave him opportunities he would not have had otherwise. And it kept him out of trouble.
"I made friends because I played hockey and baseball," he says. "That's how I got into a good crowd. To this day, my best friend, Nolan Boike (who plays baseball at Maine), is a kid I played with growing up."
Unlike most kids playing sports, Sullivan wasn't looking at them as avenue to greater personal growth. He didn't entertain thoughts of college and he certainly didn't think of playing professionally.
It wasn't until he was a junior in high school that those thoughts came.
Ironically, it was a game that year that gave him some indication.
His Arlington team was playing Peabody, which featured a future first round Major League Baseball selection, Jeff Allison, who was taken by the Tampa Bay Devil Rays in 2003. Allison ended up suspended by the Devil Rays after his addiction to a pain reliever, Oxy-Cotin, became known.
"There were about 800 people there and it was televised in the area," he said. "I knew there would be scouts there, and we ended up winning the game. It was a huge, huge thing for me. I touched 92 on the (radar) gun and it just stoked me. That's when I knew something good could come of all this."
A slew of Division I colleges showed interest in him. The final decision came down to St. John's and Connecticut.
The choice for him was an easy one.
"I love it here," he said. "I've said from Day One that it's the team that got me here.
"I love the city, but I love these guys. I live with them. I needed that. I wanted to get away from home and find a family, and I found that here."
