PART ONE: BASEBALL PLAYERS ARE THRILLED TO HAVE A PLACE TO PLAY

“Everything about life that’s good, happens in a baseball game,” says Mark Pieraccini.

Pres in his natural environment

Known to his fellow baseball players by his nickname “Pres” (also “Fluff” and “Buck”; never “Mark”), Pieraccini is at Herlihy Field in Whately, Mass.,holding a rake, trying to repair the pitcher’s mound in time for this week’s Thursday Night Baseball pickup game (known as TNB to the regulars). Pres is the brains, heart and backbone behind TNB. He is the first one at the field, grooming the infield dirt, mowing the grass. He serves as the manager and treasurer, sending out emails to determine who is playing each week, and collecting the $8 fee from each player that pays for the umpire and other costs.  

He's also the last one to leave. He loads the bag of bats, crate of balls, and miscellaneous other equipment into his minivan by the backstop, as the few remaining players finish their conversations at the picnic tables and drive home.

It is October, near the end of the season for Major League Baseball. Most professional players have gone home; only the ones still in the playoffs remain. In the Connecticut River Valley, all of the over-30 and vintage baseball leagues have finished their seasons also.

So TNB, which attracts players from those leagues, is now the only game in town, and everyone is all too aware of how few opportunities are left. TNB players are people with a serious need for baseball, the ones who are looking for any opportunity to play. It is more than just recreation; it is a passion.

“All the people you see at TNB? These are the addicts,” Pres says.

He should know. Every week, Pres plays baseball. He’s not a professional, but you wouldn’t know it by his schedule during the season. When he’s healthy, he plays up to 100 games a year between TNB, the Knights of the Pioneer Valley Over Thirty Baseball (PVOTB) and the Whately Pioneers Vintage Baseball team.

He has been playing his whole life. At 63 he has no plans to stop, though injuries have slowed him down the last few years.

“I suppose all of us have a place where baseball became something that we would do for the rest of our lives,” he says.

For Pres, it was a cow pasture across the road from his childhood home in Smith Neck, Mass., on the southern coast of Massachusetts between Cape Cod and Rhode Island, where he played with other kids.

With the cows still in it.

“We had to be careful not to hit them,” Pres says. “The cows were used to us. We used stones for bases. Home plate was right in front of a gigantic hole in the ground that had been dug out by some farmer a century ago. It was great because passed balls would go in the hole and you’d have to go chase them.”

All summer he and his friends would swim and play baseball. He says the magic baseball still works on him is a mystery.

“It’s like bird watching, almost,” he says. “You have to pay attention for three hours because something really amazing always happens. The way I feel leaving a baseball game is better than any feeling I have ever had. And I like to feel that a hundred times a year.”

It's not easy playing often as a nonprofessional adult. It’s not something you can do on your own, like running. It takes more people than pick-up basketball or even touch-football scrimmages.

Luckily for Pres, has found a family of like-minded individuals.

Mike Mercier, known as “Nails,” is another lifer. Nails is on the Pioneer’s vintage team with Pres; is the Manager of the Mustangs, his PVOTB team; and fills in occasionally on a Quabbin Valley Over-Thirty (QVOTB) Baseball team. There also is a January trip to a Florida tournament. Altogether, most years it adds up to more than 120 games. He uses the money he makes plowing snow to pay for his baseball habit.

“What else are you gonna do? You can't sit on the couch and rot. Get up and move.” he says.

Unlike Pres, however, he hasn’t been playing his whole life. He played through Little League when at age 14 an injury forced him to stop contact sports for the rest of his school career. Nails rediscovered baseball in his late 30s in college. Like many TNB players, he's enjoying a second chance to play baseball.

"My first love is baseball." he says.

Because he plays catcher, which is the equivalent of a quarterback in football, he really enjoys the strategic, cerebral aspect of the game. He also plays the game full-speed, all the time, according to Pres.

Nails' bumper sticker

 Another TNB regular and Whately Pioneers player is Melissa Frydlo, known as “Mel” or “Albie.” For her baseball began in the backyard. At age 5 she began playing with her older brother and the next-door neighbors.

“Baseball is the best thing in the world,” she says. “It makes me more happy than anything.”

Mel at bat

She started organized baseball at 7 and continued until high school, when girls weren’t allowed to play anymore. So she played fast pitch softball through college. After college, Mel looked forward to turning 30, when she could play on a QVOTB team. Shortly after that she started playing in TNB. After half a dozen seasons she has a strong appreciation for people like Pres, who make opportunities for others.

“It’s nice to have enthusiastic competition, a place to sharpen your skills,” she says.

Pres created TNB in 2002. He had been playing only one game a week, and he wanted to play more. He found a neglected Herlihy Field and fixed it up with friends.

It had been built as an emergency field for the Frontier Regional district when they were renovating the high school. When the high school was done, Herlihy was forgotten. Now it is one of the best fields in the area, according to Mel. Pres helped raised money to add a pavilion and a batting cage. Now Herlihy makes money for the town, which rents it to the adult baseball leagues and to couples for weddings.

For the players of the Thursday Night Baseball game, another season is drawing to a close. Many of them will be putting away their cleats and bats and turning to other pursuits: a volleyball league at the YMCA, catching up on neglected chores or just watching football on TV. For some, though, it means getting ready for Domeball: their weekly winter indoor baseball game. Guess which group Pres is in.