COLLEGE PARK — COLLEGE PARK -- Sometimes, he thought about it on days when temperatures climbed as high as 130 degrees.
Sometimes, he daydreamed of it when he was in the middle of a 14-hour shift, guarding some of the most dangerous militants in Iraq.
Sometimes, it popped into his head when he was wolfing down packages of Skittles, which his mother had shipped to Baghdad, hoping to give him a small taste of home.
Army Sgt. Nathan Steelman didn't think about baseball very often during his 15 months overseas, but it happened occasionally. It was hard to spend time thinking about baseball when bombs were exploding and shrapnel was falling near him. Or when friends of his were killed.
Though he couldn't so much as play a simple game of catch for more than a year, he told himself that as long as he made it home OK, he was going to give the game one more shot, even if it was a long shot.
Steelman, a 21-year-old left-handed reliever, not only made the University of Maryland's varsity baseball team, but he also made the travel squad, pitched in some close games and won a game.
Steelman's quest to make the team this past season began with a simple e-mail to coach Terry Rupp after he returned home from Iraq last fall. All he wanted was a chance, he says.
A three-sport athlete at Smithsburg High near Hagerstown, Steelman played a year of football at Shenandoah University before joining the Army in June 2006 at age 19 when he could no longer afford college. He knew Atlantic Coast Conference baseball would be a major step up in competition.
"I tried to sell myself a little," Steelman says of his initial e-mail to Rupp. "I might have added a few inches to my height and a few miles per hour to my fastball."
Rupp was more than a little skeptical.
"When you see an e-mail like that, your first thought is that it's just some guy off the street, trying to make a run at it, but nothing serious," says Rupp, who has been Maryland's coach for eight seasons. "I talked to him on the phone and told him: `We already had our tryouts back in the fall. Where have you been?' "
Steelman replied that he had been serving in Iraq.
"When someone says that, you just kind of have to say, `Wow,' " Rupp says.
Steelman showed up for a bullpen session in January, and Rupp and Maryland pitching coach Jim Farr, though still skeptical, were immediately impressed by his arm strength. Steelman could throw a mid-80s fastball, and he had good control. He wasn't in baseball shape, but he wasn't afraid to go after hitters and throw strikes.
