Tonight I got to go home. Well, at least it felt that way. In all of my wanderings around the Frontier League, I always look forward to going to Chillicothe's V.A. Memorial Stadium. It's more like a family reunion than a baseball game.
The Paints are the only team left from the League's inaugural 1993 season. Their history is really the Frontier League's history. Chillicothe hurler Brian Tollberg was the first FL alum to make it to the Big Leagues when he took the hill for the San Diego Padres in 2000. Paints players, like Scott Pinoni, Gator McBride, Mitch House, and Rick Blanc, helped create a rabid fan base in Ross County, Ohio that is unrivaled.
Out of all the people affiliated with the team over the years, the person whose memory means the most to me is former manager Roger Hanners, rest his soul. Roger was the Paints' skipper for most of the club's first nine years. A former star athlete in baseball, football, and track, he was drafted by the Yankees and played minor league ball until an injury halted his career.
Roger Hanners taught me more about baseball than anyone and not just the game between the lines. He knew what made people tick and how to maneuver them to his way of thinking. Most of his players didn't know about his athletic background - he didn't feel the need to tell them. They just knew him as "the old man" and they loved him just the same. Every year I go to V.A., I realize how long it's been since Roger let me buy him an after-game meal at Denny's. I miss him.
If you're ever in South Central Ohio, you should look to see if the Paints are playing at home. You'll see baseball the way you'd like it to be - played hard with tradition.
SCOUT NOTES: Umpire Matt Neader did his usual outstanding job during the opening series at Florence - no one would have known that he is coming back from Achilles tendon surgery . . . Speaking of umpires, congrats to Chuck Robinson for being named athletic director at Athens (Ohio) High School.
