https://www.ourmidland.com/news/article/Loons-return-to-Midland-Gamboa-Chiu-grew-up-12814012.php
Loons return to Midland: Gamboa, Chiu grew up together in northern California
ByDan Chalkchalk@mdn.net
Updated 7:25 am EDT, Saturday, April 7, 2018
Loons pitcher Max Gamboa pitches the ball during the Loons' season-opening game against the Lansing Lugnuts on Thursday at Dow Diamond. Gamboa grew up playing with second baseman Marcus Chiu in the San Francisco Bay Area. (Katy Kildee/kkildee@mdn.net) less
Loons pitcher Max Gamboa pitches the ball during the Loons' season-opening game against the Lansing Lugnuts on Thursday at Dow Diamond. Gamboa grew up playing with second baseman Marcus Chiu in the San ... more
For starting pitcher Max Gamboa and infielder Marcus Chiu of the Great Lakes Loons, the Great Lakes Bay Region is a long way from the San Francisco Bay Area.
And when you're living away from home for the first time -- not to mention 2,400 miles away -- it's nice to have someone familiar there with you.
Gamboa and Chiu played against each other in Little League and high school baseball, were teammates on the California Warriors summer team about four years ago, and roomed together in Arizona last summer after being drafted three rounds apart by the Los Angeles Dodgers.
"We've had a lot of intersecting ties," Gamboa, 22, said of himself and Chiu, 21. "To have him playing behind me (on the field), I'm blessed."
Gamboa, a righthander who was drafted in the 18th round last year, started on the mound in the Loons' season opener on Thursday at Dow Diamond against the Lansing Lugnuts. Gamboa pitched the first four innings and took the loss. Chiu, drafted in the 15th round, did not play Thursday. Friday's game was postponed.
While Gamboa did play collegiate baseball at the University of Pepperdine several hours down the coast in southern California, Chiu said this is the first time he's ever lived outside the Bay Area, where he attended and played baseball at College of Marin.
"I always put family first," said Chiu, an only child. "Every Sunday, we have a family dinner at my grandparents' house."
In addition to being a familiar face for Chiu, Gamboa has quite a sense of humor, according to his teammate.
"He's hilarious," Chiu enthused. "He just says things off the the top of his head to crack you up."
When it comes to Gamboa, there is indeed much more to the story than baseball.
The Loons' tallest player at 6-foot-5-inches, Gamboa was a competitive swimmer for 12 years, almost all the way through high school.
He also played water polo for two years at Tamalpais High School, and finally gave up both of those sports in his senior year to focus on baseball.
"It toughened me up," Gamboa said with a smile of playing water polo. "A lot of things go on under the water that most people don't know about. There's a lot of kicking and subtle jabs under the water."
Water polo also helped him develop strength, Gamboa added.
Outside of sports, Gamboa finds joy in cooking, which he calls a "closet hobby" that his mother helped instill in him.
"I like cooking for my family and my girlfriend," said Gamboa, who has two sisters.
Gamboa's specialty is cooking breakfast dishes, particularly Eggs Benedict and waffles.
For Chiu, meanwhile, something he enjoys away from the ballpark is fishing.
In California, that meant on San Francisco Bay. Here, it could be on the Tittabawassee River, just a stone's throw from Dow Diamond.
"My host family was just telling me about (the fishing opportunities in this area)," Chiu said.
But it's also undeniable that baseball is Chiu's playground, his sanctuary.
"Ever since I was young, that's the one place you can go and you don't have to worry about the outside world," he said of the baseball diamond.
In his two seasons at Marin, Chiu hit .332 with 16 home runs and 70 RBIs. His sophomore season was by far his more productive year with a .349 average, 13 homers and 46 RBIs.
Gamboa pitched for three seasons at Pepperdine, starting as a sophomore and junior. He had a 3.74 ERA with 52 strikeouts in 53 innings as a sophomore, and a 5.05 ERA with 36 strikeouts in 35 2/3 innings as a junior.