Friday, April 8, 2016
By Ben Hayden, Gazette Staff

Editor’s note: Kalamazoo Gazette reporter Ben Hayden has been granted all access to the Kalamazoo Badgers for the 2016 season. He will be following local Little League legend Trent Nichols, who was hired as the team’s assistant manager, as he makes the transition into coaching professional baseball.

KALAMAZOO – A team’s home opener is always a special time of year that brings even the most fair-weather of fans out to the ballpark. A home opener when the PEBA’s newest multi-millionaire is on the visiting team and when the eyes of the entire baseball world are on your ballpark is a whole different set of circumstances.

Trent Nichols was hoping to make his transition into coaching professional baseball with the Kalamazoo Badgers quietly, but any notion of a quiet, low-scale opening home stand was blown right out the window when the Reno Zephyrs, along with $216-million man Tony “Whitey” Carmona, rolled into town.

A loud and boisterous crowd of 34,855 packed Portage Park for the contest. The ballpark’s official capacity is listed as 35,000, but the franchise typically sells slightly less than that for fire safety reasons. The game’s first pitch was scheduled to be thrown at 7:05 p.m., but by 4 p.m. there was a huge line snaking all the way around the ballpark. Scalpers were allegedly having a field day, with some premium tickets reportedly being sold at four-to-five times their face value.

While the visiting team’s batting practice before a game is typically viewed only by a handful of fans who have arrived early, on this day there were thousands who came out to watch Carmona and the Zephyrs hit. By the time the Badgers took batting practice, the stadium was mostly full.

“I don’t think I’ve ever taken batting practice when there were probably 25,000 people in the stands,” said Badgers second baseman Joel Swedlove in the clubhouse before the game. “It’s insane out there. I hit a homerun and the place erupted – in batting practice!”

While the crowd was largely pro-Badgers, there were also throngs of Reno fans throughout the stadium. The 32-hour cross-country drive from Nevada to Michigan isn’t one many Zephyrs fans have been known to make in the past, but there’s something about seeing a new potential superstar in action that encourages fans to get on I-80 and make the trek east, even though they’re following one of the PEBA’s all-time worst franchises.

A team’s home opener is generally filled with pomp and circumstance to celebrate the local squad returning to action for another season, but the Badgers seemed resigned to the fact that they would be playing second fiddle on this night to the Tony Carmona Show.

“Man, I just went out onto the field to sign some autographs and the kids didn’t even want it,” said an amused Badgers second baseman, River Adkins. “I went to grab a kid’s ball and instead he said he was waiting for Carmona to sign it. He asked if I knew when he’d be on the field.”

The hoopla and excitement extended past the fan base. While Portage Park’s press box is usually sparsely staffed – a few local scribes mixed in with whatever visiting team media is present – on this day it was a beehive of activity. The normally spacious press box was packed to the rafters with journalists from all over the country and league.

“I fielded 10 questions from the media in a press conference before the game. One of them was about the Badgers and the other nine were about Tony Carmona,” said Kalamazoo manager Víctor Bruno.

Of course, while there was much excitement surrounding the game, there was still the regular calm before the storm, where Nichols and starting catcher Stan Holmes sat down to discuss how to attack the Reno hitters. Predictably, talk of Carmona dominated much of the conversation.

“Listen, Stan, Carmona’s first time up at the plate, you’ve got to move his feet a little bit. Pitch him high and tight. Don’t let him get comfortable in the box,” Nichols said. “Brush him back, whatever you’ve got to do. Let him know that he might be the superstar, but this is our barn. He’s not running the show here.”

“But what if we hit him?” Holmes innocently replied.

Nichols looked at the young catcher with a gaze that mixed surprise and disgust. “If you hit him? He goes down to first base and hopefully his ribs are a little sore. Is that a serious question? You can’t be worried about pitching guys inside. Plus, if we can make him uncomfortable in his first at bat, you can be sure he won’t be leaning out over the dish looking to extend his arms as much the next time. We’ve got 10 years of facing this guy ahead of us. If he’s as good as they say, we’re going to have to make him a little uncomfortable up there. I’ll sacrifice a few bean balls today to save a few homeruns tomorrow.” The new coach was starting to realize that while Holmes has all the physical tools to succeed, he may still be lacking that mean streak and mental toughness that it takes to be a top-notch catcher at the highest level.

“Alright, sounds good, brush him back,” Holmes said, still seemingly unsure of himself.

Nichols repeated the same message to starting pitcher Patrick Hunter in a pre-game chat and the grizzled veteran had no problem with the directive. “No worries Trent. Sounds like a plan,” Hunter said.

As luck would have it, when Carmona strode to the plate in the bottom of first, there were runners on first and second with two out. Coming too far inside wasn’t a good option for fear of hitting him and loading the bases. Instead, Hunter did the next best thing – striking the mighty hitter out on three straight pitches.

“Just that easy,” Hunter said with a toothy grin as he strode confidently back into the dugout. “If that’s what $216 million dollars gets you, I think I need a raise.”

Carmona’s next at bat came in the top of the fourth. Hunter, presumably full of confidence from their first encounter, went right after Whitey. With chants of, “Overrated!” being hurled from the Kalamazoo faithful, Holmes set his target high and inside as instructed, but Hunter’s first pitch was a fastball that split the plate in half for called strike one. The 0-1 was another pitch that caught far too much of the plate and Carmona just missed it, flying out to deep left field.

Needless to say, Nichols was not impressed. “What did we talk about with Carmona?” Nichols said to Hunter after the inning.

“Missed my spot. Sorry, Trent,” Hunter replied in an insincere, almost mocking tone.

“Bull,” an agitated Nichols shot back. “You can’t just go after the guy like he’s a Little Leaguer, Patrick. Eventually, you’ll get burned. He can hit.”

Hunter didn’t respond, instead shooting a dirty look while walking off to the trainer’s room. He ended up coming out of the game that inning with mild shoulder inflammation, so Nichols let it slide for the time being. He’d talk it over with pitching coach Santiago Alvarado and let him handle the situation further.

Marcos González came on in relief in the fifth inning for Carmona’s next at bat. Finally, the directives were followed. The first two pitches tailed in on the big power hitter and forced him to back off the plate. A noticeably perturbed Carmona grounded out weakly to second base on his next pitch.

“Atta boy, how to do the job,” Nichols said as he greeted González with a fist bump after the half inning.

In the end, some 9^th inning heroics saw Raúl García deliver a walk-off single to give the Badgers a 4-3 victory. The capacity crowd got exactly what they paid for. While Carmona was largely neutralized throughout the game – he hit a single in his final at bat – an energy like none seen in years filled Portage Park. For better or for worse, the PEBA has a new star. Whether he’s being cheered or jeered, “Whitey” has helped make baseball in Reno relevant again and energized an entire fan base.

“Hey, we kept the guy to a 1-for-4 showing with only a single. We’ll take it,” Nichols told reporters after the game when asked about Carmona. “Whether he succeeds in the PEBA is still to be decided, but you’ve got to admit, it’s fun having him around and having that type of excitement and atmosphere in the ballpark. Just glad we came out on top today, but we’ll have to gear up to do it all again tomorrow.”