On a chilly April night, Regis Durbin Sr. is sitting in the Rate Field stands watching his son, Caleb, continuing to realize his childhood goal of playing baseball at the highest level.
“He always had a passion for the game, he always enjoyed playing,” the elder Durbin recalled. “He always said he would like to play professional baseball. He always had that dream.”
That dream came true on April 18, when Caleb Durbin, a 2018 Lake Forest High School graduate, got the call from the Milwaukee Brewers saying he was being brought up to the major leagues.
Since then, Durbin, 25, has been a fixture in their lineup for the past two weeks.
“I think we have a really good team,” he said before an April 30 game against the White Sox, the team he rooted for as a child. “It’s been a lot of fun to be in the trenches with these guys and go to work every day up here.”
The Durbins lived in both Lake Forest and Lake Bluff as Caleb, Regis, Jr. and their sister, Reanna, were growing up. It was a childhood filled with many traditional components for local children, with after-school treks to the Left Bank Restaurant for a hot dog followed by a short walk over to Sweet’s for ice cream.
Regis Sr. and Diane recall Caleb playing board games, chess and cards along with having an interest in art. But sports, particularly baseball, was his passion.
Durbin channeled that love during games with friends with his talent so overwhelming that buddies made him hit left-handed in the pickup Wiffle Ball games, as he was too dominant from his natural right side.
When Durbin reached Lake Forest High School, baseball coach Ray Del Fava loved his speed and natural instincts for the game.
“He just had the intangibles and as he grew and got stronger, he was able to add power to his tool belt,” Del Fava said.
Durbin was a three-year starter for the LFHS varsity squad. He hit .500 in his junior year, followed by .424 in his senior year despite a 0-17 start that season. His stellar career there established a number of school offensive records and included two Most Valuable Player awards among many honors.
His athletic ability was not limited to the baseball diamond. Like his father and brother, Durbin wrestled and was a cornerback for the LFHS football team, becoming a letter winner in those other sports as well.
“I always like kids who played multiple sports,” Del Fava said. “Those were the kids who know how to compete and thrive in games.”
But baseball was Durbin’s favorite sport. Yet, despite his impressive LFHS statistics, Durbin did not catch the attention of baseball scouts. Del Fava thought they were scared due to his 5’7” frame.
“You can measure height, but you can’t measure heart,” Del Fava said. “That’s what Caleb had. He played with a chip on his shoulder because of that and he used that as motivation.”
Thus, after high school graduation, Durbin enrolled at Washington University in St. Louis.
Playing at the Division III level, Durbin’s game continued to excel. He once again earned accolades, with major league organizations starting to notice what he could do on the field.
While earning a degree in economics, Durbin was selected in the 14th round (the 427th player overall) in the 2021 draft by the Atlanta Braves. That started a nomadic journey with stops all over minor league baseball and the Arizona Fall League. There were many long bus rides and playing in very small ballparks.
“It’s a grind but you keep it all in perspective and realize how lucky you are that you are doing what you are doing,” Durbin said. “It makes it easier getting through those tough times.”
He was part of a 2022 trade from Atlanta to the New York Yankees. Last December, he was dealt again, this time to the Brewers.
His mother saw that as a “gift from God,” given the approximate 60 miles between Lake Bluff and Milwaukee.
Earlier this year, Durbin battled for a major league roster spot in spring training, but did not go north with the Brewers. However, his minor league assignment this time was brief because three weeks into the regular season, Durbin received the word notifying him he was now a big leaguer.
“I was excited for the opportunity and wanted to make the most of it,” he said.
His father was not surprised when Caleb let him know about the promotion.
“It’s been a consistent path where he has improved each year,” Regis Durbin said. “He got better at each level. So the expectation was pretty high, and (he continued) to work diligently so when he actually got called up, it wasn’t unexpected. For me, it was part of the process.”
Durbin has the distinction of being the only Division III college position player now active in the majors, according to a Major League Baseball spokesman.
In his major league debut, he went 2-4 and scored a run with many of his family and friends at Milwaukee’s American Family Field, including his LFHS wrestling coaches Matt Fiordirosa and Nick Kramer.
Durbin conceded there were some butterflies in his stomach that first night.
“I wasn’t as nervous for the baseball as I was for everything around it,” he recalled. “There were so many people there supporting me and I wanted to do well for them.”
The entourage making the trip north included Trevor Allen, a friend since kindergarten.
“It was awesome,” Allen said. “It was just so cool to see your buddy play in a major league baseball game.”
Durbin’s first three games were at home, then the Brewers went on a three-city road trip, initially stopping in San Francisco. On April 21, he belted his first major league homer, a two-run blast off 2021 Cy Young Award winner Robbie Ray.
“Definitely looking back at it, you realize how special it is to hit your first home run in the big leagues,” he said.
Then it was back east to St. Louis for a series against the Cardinals and then on to Chicago for three games against the White Sox. Ahead of that set, his mom dropped off some of her family-recipe chicken cutlets and pasta to Caleb (a lover of Italian food) at the Chicago hotel where the Brewers were staying.
At Rate Field, with lots of family and friends sitting behind the Brewers’ dugout, Durbin played a big role in the first two games with a two-run single in the 6th inning of a 7-2 victory for the Brewers on April 29.
The next night, he went 1-3 with an RBI sacrifice fly in the 8th inning, which gave the Brewers an insurance run as they went on to win, 6-4.
Of course, baseball is a game of ups and downs as Durbin went 0-3 in the May 1 series finale, and he was picked off first base in the April 30 game.
“You are always acknowledging it and figuring out why it happened,” he said of the baserunning gaffe. “Then you make sure it never happens again.”
Through May 1, he is hitting .244 with the one homer and eight RBIs.
Despite only playing 13 games through May 1, Durbin has already been hit by a pitch four times, placing him as one of the National League leaders in that category.
He fractured his wrist last year, causing him to miss several weeks of the season, and said he is going to have extra padding on it to prevent that from happening again.
“I’ve always had a knack for getting hit,” Durbin said. “Guys like going inside on me and I really don’t get out of the way as I’m trying to stay in there and battle, especially with two strikes.”
As Durbin settles into this new chapter of his life, his manager, Pat Murphy, is calling him “Happy”.
Why?
“He makes me happy, thus the nickname,” Murphy quipped.
Murphy then elaborated on what he had seen so far from his rookie third baseman.
“He has great energy, (he’s) a gamer,” he said. “He creates his own standards and he has very high standards for himself.”
Durbin is now trying to get used to playing against fellow major leaguers with his teammate Rhys Hoskins noting it can take years to get adjusted.
“But that type of mentality helps you in the long run,” said Hoskins, who has played in the majors since 2017. “You never want to feel too comfortable in this game because the game will come up and find a way to bite you. This game is about adjustments as well so as soon as you start to get comfortable, the league is making an adjustment on you. It’s up to you to make that adjustment back.”
With Durbin getting used to big-league life, he does so with the advantage of his family being a relatively short trip down I-94.
“Now, on off days I can spend them at home,” he said. “That has never been a thing before. It’s definitely convenient.”
With the Brewers set to host the Cubs this weekend, Durbin is getting used to the bigger stadiums, bigger crowds and all the other elements of Major League Baseball. He is having a good time, but realizing there are many other chapters to write.
“I’m a big leaguer myself now and I am learning every day,” he said. “It is really a matter of having fun and the rest will take care of itself.”
Daniel I. Dorfman is a freelance reporter for Pioneer Press.
