Middle Tennesee State University Athletics
MT great Peck a “quiet leader” with Smyrna Fire Dept.
5/16/2018 11:00:00 AM | Baseball
Nearly 18 years ago, Middle Tennessee's baseball team was on top of the world heading into the Ohio Valley Conference Championship game with its record standing at 36-21.
On May, 19, 2000, the Blue Raiders arrived in Cape Girardeau, Missouri, to square off with the Southeast Missouri State Redhawks for the conference title.
With the game tied early, bad weather snuck into the area and umpires suspended play until the following day. Littered with future professionals, MT certainly had as much talent as anyone and was looking for that one break to swing the momentum in their favor the next day.
That break would come from its quiet, 5-foot-10 center fielder.
From 1999-2000, Bryan Peck established himself as one of the best players to ever step foot on the outfield grass of Reese Smith Jr. Field. After a stint at Wallace State Community College, Peck made the trip back to his native Tennessee to finish out his final two seasons under head coach Steve Peterson at MT.
When it was all said and done, Peck found himself atop the program record books in nearly every offensive category. At the time of his graduation, he was second in home runs with 34 in only two seasons. To this day, he currently sits behind only current New York Mets outfielder Bryce Brentz with a .720 slugging percentage and his .373 career average is sixth best in school history. The right-handed hitter was also recently nominated for the Blue Raider Hall of Fame.
The spring of 2000 was a magical time for Peck. He drove in what is still a school single-season record 81 runs, scored 68 runs (sixth all-time), collected 94 hits (eighth all-time) and was second in school history in both total bases (174) and doubles (25). He was one of just two Blue Raiders over a 30-year span to hit over .400 in a season when he finished his senior year with a .405 average.
The icing on the cake came on the afternoon of May 20, 2000. With a SEMO runner on first base, a line drive to the power alley of Capaha Field split the gap between left fielder Justin Links and Peck and traveled all 375 feet to the wall, taking a favorable bounce toward Peck.
With the runner beginning to round third, Peck fired a laser to shortstop Wes Whitehead, who gunned down the SEMO runner at the plate. The picture in the paper the following day showed Peck's father hooting and hollering behind home plate with his teammates excited to the point that they jumped over the twine dugout railing and mobbed their center fielder.
To Peck, though, it was all just part of the game he'd grown up loving.
If you took a drive down Country Road in Athens, Tennessee, in 1980, chances are you might've seen a 3-year-old future All-American catching pop ups in the front yard from his father while his mother nearly pulled her hair out in nervousness peering out the front window.
"My life revolved around playing baseball," Peck said. "For me, it was about the process. I loved playing. That's always how I've defined myself. I can remember being in the driveway hitting rocks with broomsticks. It's what I loved to do."
After his senior season at MT, Peck was drafted by the Colorado Rockies in the 22nd round of the MLB Amateur Draft.
"He was as consistent as could be," Peterson, Middle Tennessee's coach from 1988-2012, said. "He had two unbelievable years. You wouldn't have known the difference if he was going to play that day or if he was going to sit the bench. He came to work every day and was a great teammate."
In five seasons floating around in single-A, Peck posted a .348 on-base percentage and hit 29 home runs before he tore his labrum, ending his playing career in 2004.
After baseball was over, the former OVC Player of the Year was lost. He came back to Tennessee and worked in various sales positions and struggled to regain the lifelong passion he had experienced with baseball. His best friend of nearly 20 years, former teammate Kyle Skillman, even once described him as "miserable" at that point in his life.
The quiet and rugged blue-collar father and husband just wasn't suited for the suit-and-tie life of selling Brink's home security systems.
Skillman, who now resides in Kansas City and works as a lawyer, speaks frequently with Peck to this day and still sees him at least once a year when he returns to the Nashville area. In Peck's professional playing days, Skillman would visit him during spring training to watch him don the black and purple Rockies jersey under the hot Arizona sun. He even slept on the floors of Peck's often-cramped hotel rooms so they could spend time together.
Eventually, things hit rock-bottom in Peck's career. After talks with Skillman and his family, he found his true calling: firefighting.
"Several years ago, Bryan and I talked about whether he would make a good firefighter," Skillman said. "Through our discussions, it became evident to me that Bryan desired a means of employment that would put him back in the posture and mindset of a ballplayer – an area in which he clearly excelled.
"Although I had never given it much thought before those discussions, I frankly couldn't see a better fit for Bryan."
Those talks must have struck a chord. Peck will celebrate his 10th year of service with the Smyrna Fire Department this July.
"(Firefighting) is a lot of the same type of atmosphere as playing ball," Peck said. "There's a lot of teamwork and helping others. It's very similar to a lot of movies you see. The fire hall has a lot of comradery and you're there for each other just like a clubhouse, so it meshed well."
Every two days, the hard-nosed Peck is on the scene of life-altering events for everyday people in the local community. Growing up as a part of a team laid the foundation for success that the now senior fireman has enjoyed.
If you walked through the bay doors into the small station on Enon Springs Road, chances are you'd see Peck either cutting up with the guys or getting things done around the station. When the tones drop, he'd likely be one of the first people aboard the red Freightliner engine, working just as hard as anyone at his assigned riding assignment.
Peck would be the first one to admit he isn't a people person and he isn't going to go into great detail about the job. Probationary firemen, often known in the profession as "probies," look up to senior firemen to learn how exactly to cut the A-pillar on a car or which way to set the nozzle when they are heading into a room where all they see are bright orange flames being hurled at them.
Senior firemen like Peck often lead by example. They aren't going to grab a probie by the hand and tell him what to do step-by-step.
On the diamond, Peck didn't call the spotlight to him. He stepped up to the plate, did his job and jogged back into the dugout to prepare for the next inning, the same way he approaches the fire service.
"(Bryan) is very good at leading without saying a lot," Skillman said. "People are attracted to that. People follow him by example. They see him do the work and they follow along. He doesn't have to say a lot about it."
"You see people and they're just driving to work and all of a sudden there's a big accident," Peck said. "You literally have to take the car apart around these people to get them out and you realize peoples loved ones are running in and are hysterical. It's a big deal. At the time, you don't realize it, but when you get back (to the station) and start talking about it, you come to realize people were just driving to work and their life changed all of a sudden. You realize the impact that you make."
The impact that Peck has made on and off the field to the people of Rutherford County since the turn of the century is something that can't be repaid. He selflessly traded in the minor league baseball bus rides along the California coastline for a rear-facing seat in a fire engine and a set of light-brown turnout gear.
Peck would be the last man in the world to tell you about the impact he's made as a fireman. If you pass the fire station tucked behind the industrial park that consumes Enon Springs Road and notice a stocky man with short hair and a serious look on his face, just give him a quick nod or tip of the cap. He doesn't need to hear a single word to know what you mean.
