Amidst a backdrop of fear and uncertainty as the novel coronavirus began spreading throughout the United States in early 2020, former Yale lefthander Matt McCarthy '02 found himself faced with a daunting task. An infectious disease expert and hospitalist at Weill Cornell Medical Center in New York City, McCarthy was in charge of coordinating care for patients hospitalized with COVID-19. As he prepared to lead a meeting with the residents he supervised, he thought back to a time when he experienced a different kind of fear and uncertainty: his first practice at Yale. To this day -- more than 20 years since that practice -- McCarthy still recalls the first piece of advice that head coach John Stuper had for the team.
 
"He said 'I only have two requests: be on time and work hard'," McCarthy recalled. 
 
Knowing how challenging the developing pandemic situation was going to be, McCarthy saw the value in keeping things similarly simple for his current team -- that team of residents. So he said the same thing to them.

At the pandemic's peak last spring, more than 12,000 patients were hospitalized with COVID-19 in New York City. Those numbers are now much lower (3,300 hospitalized at the latest count), and while the pandemic still rages McCarthy has had time to reflect on the challenges of the past year. 
 
"A lot of the stuff that I drew on during the most difficult periods were things I learned from playing baseball at Yale," he said.
 
As a nervous rookie prone to the type of overanalysis that comes with the kind of mind that can also handle a major like molecular biophysics and biochemistry, McCarthy appreciated Stuper's approach and candor. 
 
"I remember the way he would try to simplify things on the field," McCarthy said. 
 
McCarthy referred in particular to the advice that Stuper -- who pitched four seasons in the majors and won a World Series with the Cardinals in 1982 -- gave him to address his tendency to try to nibble at the corners of the strike zone.
 
"He pulled me aside and said 'Just throw it down the middle [of the plate], because you'll probably miss and make a great pitch.'," McCarthy recalled.
 
McCarthy eventually emerged as a big part of Yale's rotation, earning honorable mention All-Ivy League recognition as a senior. He said the best game he ever pitched as a Bulldog was his final one: a complete game win at Brown in which he struck out 10 and walked only one, allowing just four hits. That effort happened to come with one pro scout in the stands. That scout was from the Angels, and they selected him in the 21st round of the 2002 MLB Draft.
 
McCarthy also spent his time at Yale honing his off-the-field interests -- the ones that would eventually lead him to a career in medicine.
 
"When I showed up at Yale I was a bit intimidated and I just wanted to be good at something," McCarthy said. "The thing I was good at was chemistry."
 
So he decided to pursue the aforementioned molecular biophysics and biochemistry major. In addition to helping him become an MLB draft pick, McCarthy's time on the Yale baseball team wound up benefiting him in the medical field as well. One of his teammates was Jon Steitz '02 J.D. '07. While Steitz was a key part of the pitching staff alongside McCarthy -- earning honorable mention All-Ivy League in 2001 -- his parents proved instrumental in McCarthy's future career. Thomas Steitz was a Sterling Professor of Molecular Biophysics and Biochemistry at Yale who was awarded the 2009 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for studies of the structure and function of the ribosome. Joan Steitz '78 is also a Sterling Professor of Molecular Biophysics and Biochemistry at Yale and, McCarthy notes, is considered the "godmother of RNA". 
 
The two leading COVID-19 vaccines are RNA vaccines. McCarthy worked in both of the Steitzes' labs, and considers his time in Joan Steitz' RNA lab as a junior and senior to have been particularly critical in his career development. 
 
"One of the great things about Yale sports was this connection to Joan Steitz," McCarthy said. "What I learned from her was how to become a researcher."
 
In addition to his work as a physician and as an associate professor of medicine at Weill Cornell, McCarthy runs clinical trials in his time off. He's currently involved in the ACTIV-1 trial for patients hospitalized with the coronavirus, testing the safety and efficacy of three drugs.
 
Jon Steitz is just one of many Yale baseball teammates that McCarthy remains in touch with. He notes that the group's chats feature experts and leaders in a variety of different fields. While McCarthy can field all the COVID-related questions, another teammate can tell him how best to refinance his home.
 
Indeed, the rosters of the Yale baseball team in the earlier part of this century feature plenty of people with noteworthy accomplishments less than two decades since most of them graduated. As a lefty, McCarthy compared himself with fellow southpaw Craig Breslow '02 -- to a point. While McCarthy pitched professionally for one year before heading to medical school, Breslow pitched in the majors for 12 seasons and was a part of multiple World Series championships with the Red Sox.
 
"We were both lefty pitchers, both biophysics majors, both got drafted [by MLB teams], and played on rival teams [in the minor leagues]," McCarthy said. "But he got much better and I got much worse. The next thing you know, he was throwing 93 miles per hour. It's been awesome to follow his career."
 
Breslow eventually transitioned to a front-office role. He was recently promoted to AGM/VP, Pitching for the Chicago Cubs and is widely viewed as a future big league general manager.
 
And Breslow is not the only Bulldog McCarthy crossed paths with who is now in an MLB front office. Pitcher Mike Elias '06 is EVP & General Manager of the Baltimore Orioles. McCarthy knew Elias had the potential to do great things, though it wasn't clear until later on that those things would include running a major league team.
 
"He was just a little different," McCarthy recalled. "But he was also destined for greatness."
 
The Bulldog rosters of that era have also produced a political leader. McCarthy recalls spending a summer in New Haven with outfielder Ron DeSantis '01 as his workout partner. DeSantis is now the governor of Florida. McCarthy's memories of him include the frustration of watching DeSantis -- who hit .313 for his Yale career -- turn pitch after pitch into hard-hit line drives that summer.
 
"He is a guy who I really respect as a friend and a person," McCarthy said.
 
Now McCarthy finds himself in a similar leadership role -- in multiple fields. While not busy being a doctor, he is also a best-selling author with three books to his credit. 
 
McCarthy's Yale friends away from the baseball field proved influential in that regard. He notes that one is now a screenwriter, one is a novelist and one writes for Sports Illustrated. So in that respect it is no surprise that McCarthy took to writing. The ability to find interesting and easy-to-understand ways to present material ranging from life as a minor league baseball player to the intricacies of infectious disease research has served McCarthy well in many ways.
 
"I fell in love with the idea of telling stories," McCarthy said. "It's helpful now that I'm a medical school professor."
 

The timing of McCarthy's most recent book was uncanny. He was in the midst of a tour promoting "Superbugs: The Race to Stop an Epidemic" when he first heard of the novel coronavirus emerging in China more than a year ago. He immediately knew it had the potential for a devastating impact. And because his background also included, among other things, studying pandemics associated with bats and writing an article for Slate in 2015 entitled "The Next Ebolas", he soon emerged as a trusted voice for information about the virus. Over the last several months he has made media appearances on outlets such as CNBC, Fox Business News and NPR. 
 
McCarthy also looks prescient for having written an opinion piece for the New York Times in April of 2019 entitled "The Scary Shortage of Infectious-Disease Doctors". In it, he noted that infectious diseases is one of just two medicine subspecialties that routinely does not fill all of its training spots every year. In proposing a way to address that issue, he also delivered a warning that foreshadowed the events of the past year:
 

"It begins with the recognition that infectious-disease doctors are overworked and underpaid. Our insurance system needs a better way to measure the value of diagnoses and treatments so that we can fairly reimburse doctors in cognitive specialties.

We must hurry. Superbugs are coming for us. We need experts who know how to treat them."

 
Whenever possible, McCarthy does his part to assist any promising future doctors. That includes taking time to talk with current Bulldogs who are interested in medical school. Speaking from experience, he makes sure to tell them that their time as a student-athlete will serve them well in the medical field.
 
"Med schools really like people who have played varsity sports," McCarthy said. "They're tough but kind, they're good with people and they have learned something about resilience."