Hanging Up the Glove and Putting on the Doctor’s Coat

Noah Campbell is trading in his baseball hat for a stethoscope. The former South Carolina infielder recently wrapped up his pro baseball career and is now attending the University of South Carolina School of Medicine in Greenville.

Campbell played for three years with the Gamecocks, although his final season in 2020 was shortened due to the COVID pandemic. After signing as a free agent with the Milwaukee Brewers, Campbell played four years of professional baseball, ascending all the way up to triple-A ball. After his third year in professional baseball, he decided to finish his biology degree from South Carolina since he only had one more class to take and did that online to earn his diploma in 2023. For Campbell, playing pro baseball was just one of his dreams.

“I always wanted to play college baseball and then pro baseball afterwards,” the 27-year-old Campbell said. “I had the chance to live that dream, so that’s pretty cool. It was awesome. You just learn so much in pro ball and get to meet a lot of cool people and do a lot of cool things. It was really special. You go to different levels and work your way up. It’s a grind for sure. If you love baseball, there’s no better way to do it. I mean, you play 140 games.

“Going to medical school was something I wanted to do even when I was in high school. I truly tried to be a student-athlete, but baseball was what I wanted to do first. I knew I could go back and try to be a doctor after baseball because it’s kind of hard to become a doctor and then go try to be a baseball player after a career in medicine. This was always in the plan.”

Campbell said that transitioning from being an athlete to going back to school to study medicine has been challenging, but he was well prepared.

“The good thing about sports and the good thing about playing college sports is that it prepares you to do really hard things, including studying even when you don’t feel like it,” Campbell said. “Playing college baseball and then trying to go into med school is the hardest thing I’ve ever done because of the time management. You want to play professional baseball, and that requires a lot of time. You want to go to medical school, and that requires a lot of time because you have to have good grades. All of that helped prepare me for medical school.

“I can’t say I miss playing that much. If someone asked if I’d want to go hit, yeah, I’ll do that. The failure aspect of the game and the daily grind; I’m glad I don’t have to deal with that anymore. It’s not that I don’t miss it, but I feel like I completed what I wanted to do with the game of baseball. I was one step away from where everyone ultimately wants to be. What helps me not feel the sting about that as much is knowing that I had something else I wanted to do with my life that will have an impact on people as well.”

That being said, he greatly valued his time as a Gamecock.

“I had a lot of great memories,” Campbell said. “What you really miss are the teammates and the camaraderie. The guys at South Carolina are still some of my best friends. Personally, I think one of the coolest things for me was hitting a walk-off home run against Utah Valley. After the game I got a DM from Jackie Bradley, Jr. – a Gamecock legend! I thought that was so cool. What was so special about South Carolina was how all the guys would come back and share their stories with us and treated us like we were teammates and we were family. I appreciated that.”

Campbell is still trying to figure out which track he will pursue in the medical profession. He’s considering orthopedic surgery and working in sports medicine in some capacity. He’ll have time to think about it as medical school takes four years and there’s a residency period that last several years after that before he can go “pro” in his new profession. Regardless, he’s in it for the long haul.

“I had some injuries in my career, whether it was minor or major, and I had a couple of surgeries in pro ball,” Campbell said. “Those things pushed me even more in the direction of medicine because I appreciated what the doctors did. I really wanted to be on the other side of that table. I thought that would be a really special place to be.”

Perhaps he could someday return to the diamond as a team doctor for the Gamecocks.

“I’d love to do that,” Campbell said. “I’d love to be able to come back and talk to the guys. If you’re at South Carolina, it means you’re a really good baseball player. All those guys want to go pro. I’d like to go back and tell them about my experience and what college and pro ball was like for me. Then I would talk about the transition and how having a plan to do something else is very important. You want to shoot for the stars in baseball and play for as long as I can. It’s special for sure.”

Photo below: Campbell with girlfriend Faith Knelson, who is a former Vanderbilt swimmer.