This story was excerpted from Bryan Hoch’s Yankees Beat newsletter. To read the full newsletter, click here. And subscribe to get it regularly in your inbox.

When Willie Calhoun turned on a curveball to send a drive into the right-field seats at Yankee Stadium this past week, registering his first home run in pinstripes, it felt like a big moment. The Yankees had been scuffling for offense, and that blast off the Guardians’ James Karinchak provided a late lead.

Calhoun pumped his fist as he reached first base, never breaking stride as he hustled around the basepaths. The homer held up in a 4-2 Yankees win, and as the crowd of 32,521 swayed to Frank Sinatra’s “Theme from New York, New York,” most likely had no idea how far off that moment had once seemed for Calhoun.

“That was a special homer,” Calhoun said. “Yankee Stadium, to be able to hit a home run here is pretty cool. Just to overcome all the things I’ve overcome in the last few years, put it behind me in the rearview mirror, and be able to do it on this stage is a pretty surreal feeling.”

Calhoun’s story is one of perseverance. In 2014, poor grades cost him his athletic scholarship at the University of Arizona, and he briefly believed that his baseball career was over. Then 20, he tagged along for an afternoon tour at San Quentin State Prison in California, where his father, Willie Sr., was a corrections officer.

The jarring memories of that visit -- chats with convicted murderers and a lockdown after one inmate was stabbed -- convinced Calhoun to toss his job applications in the trash, calling it “the most eye-opening experience of my life.”

He would try sticking around the dugout a bit longer, tearing up junior college pitching at Yavapai JC, about an hour from Phoenix. The Dodgers noticed, selecting Calhoun in the fourth round, and the undersized 5-foot-8 infielder/outfielder who grew up idolizing Barry Bonds continued to rake as a pro.

Shipped to the Rangers in a July 2017 swap for pitcher Yu Darvish, Calhoun found a clearer path to the big leagues, hitting .258 with 24 homers and 63 RBIs over the 2017-19 seasons with Texas. Then came an exhibition on March 8, 2020, just four days before the COVID-19 pandemic shut down the world, when Calhoun was struck in the face by a pitch from the Dodgers’ Julio Urías. Calhoun’s jaw was fractured, requiring a titanium plate to be installed.

The injury had healed when play resumed in July, but he found it difficult to reclaim his confidence. Calhoun later spoke with Giancarlo Stanton to compare notes; Stanton sustained a gruesome injury when a pitch hit him in 2014. But there were more bumps in the road for Calhoun: hamstring and oblique injuries, then a fractured ulna sustained when he was hit by a pitch on June 26, 2021. Texas traded him to the Giants in 2022, where he was also hurt while playing in the Minors.

Suffice it to say that Calhoun, a non-roster invitee to Yankees camp this spring, needed a fresh start. That’s exactly what he’s found.

“Obviously, it’s a dream,” Calhoun said. “I’ve always believed in my ability to hit the ball, and I’ve always been able to be a threat in the batter’s box. It’s just, the past few years I’ve been banged up and haven’t been able to be fully capable of that. Going into this spring, I just tried to make sure I stayed healthy to just go out there and give it my best shot.”