Playing professional baseball is a dream Appleton West graduate Jack Mahoney continues to pursue.
The dream has taken Mahoney from Goodland Field in Appleton to UW-Milwaukee to the Milwaukee Milkmen to Canberra, Australia, to Staten Island, New York, and now Lansing, Michigan – the home of the Lugnuts of the Midwest League.
He’s enjoying a homecoming this week in Appleton as the Lugnuts take on the Wisconsin Timber Rattlers at Neuroscience Group Field.
Mahoney was expecting 2020 at UW-Milwaukee to be the year his pitching would get him noticed. Unfortunately, COVID-19 intervened.
“Then came my junior year and I didn’t play very well, didn’t help myself out,” Mahoney said. “The dream was always there but never came to fruition.”
As he was getting older, Mahoney kept thinking baseball was getting younger, but he didn’t want the opportunity to pass him by.
That led to good management and a group of supporters getting him the chance to play winter ball for the Canberra Cavalry in the Australian Baseball League.
“I got signed over there and it was something I always wanted,” Mahoney said. “But my goals kind of shifted from just allowing baseball to give me experiences.
“It started with wanting to get drafted and playing at the highest level. Then it went to baseball is here to let me travel, have experiences and meet great people. Playing at the highest level is still always the goal.”
But what about that journey to Australia?
“The baseball world is small,” Mahoney said. “When I played for the Milkmen, they had older guys on the team and they would always share stories in the dugout and in the bullpen.”
When the question came up about where guys were going to play winter ball, information was shared about playing in Mexico, Venezuela and Australia.
“Australia kind of stuck out as more of a beginners winter ball,” Mahoney said. “Also, it’s Australia. I would love to go over and see that place. It was a matter of reaching out to contacts I made through baseball – former teammates, former management, former opposing management and people on LinkedIn.”
The Australian trip was good for Mahoney.
He finished with a 5-2 record and a 1.99 ERA over 10 starts and 58⅔ innings. He walked 15 batters and struck out 63 during the 2024-25 season.
Mahoney returned to pitch for Staten Island in the Atlantic League early in the 2025 season before his contract was purchased by the Oakland Athletics organization. He finished the 2025 season with Lansing in the Midwest League, throwing 34 innings in 20 games.
Mahoney has spent the entire 2026 season with Lansing, where in 21 games he has a 3-0 record with a 4.50 ERA over 24 innings.
The 6-foot-8 southpaw, who came off the injured list July 25 after dealing with a shoulder impingement, has been working hard to get back on the mound for the Lugnuts.
When he is on the mound, what do opposing batters see when facing him?
“Velocity has never been my strong suit, so for me it was just understanding that I do have strengths and I don’t always need to look like everyone else,” Mahoney said. “When you play into your own strengths, you can go decently far.”
Among his arsenal of pitches, Mahoney considers the slider his best pitch.
“It’s all about deception and trying to create angles on the mound,” Mahoney said. “If you’re not blowing things by people, you’ve got to get a little creative on the mound whether that’s throwing further to the left of the mound or hide the ball behind your head [or] body. You get creative over the years. It’s an ongoing process between you and your pitching coach.”
While Mahoney continues to pursue his dream of being on a major league roster, he adheres to something former MLB pitcher and minor league instructor Norm Charlton used to tell players.
Charlton’s advice was to look in the stands and realize everyone in those stands would happily switch places and get paid to play a child’s game.
“Being a little bit of an older guy in this league [Midwest League] and just my journey through baseball really helped me with understanding and making sure that I’m playing the game for the right reasons,” the 27-year-old Mahoney said. “It’s a blessing to be able to show up with these guys and take that out-of-body experience, third-person visual and look at where you’re at. I’m grateful for it every day.”
This article originally appeared on Appleton Post-Crescent: How Appleton’s Jack Mahoney keeps his pro baseball dream alive
Reporting by Jim Oskola, Appleton Post-Crescent / Appleton Post-Crescent
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
By Jim Oskola, Appleton Post-Crescent | USA TODAY Network
