Playing Hardball

When Lakewood ’s Doug Conner stopped playing baseball in college, he was surprised at how much he missed it.

          “I just missed the whole experience,” says Connor, who was a freshman catcher at the University of Virginia when he realized he could either play baseball or do enough school work to graduate, but not both. “I had been playing for what seemed like forever, and then it wasn’t there. It was really weird.”

          Which brings us to this month, when Connor, a 24-year-old college graduate and advertising agency employee, will return to baseball. This time, he isn’t catching; rather, he’s the general manager for something called the Highland Park Blue Sox, part of the eight-team Texas Collegiate League (texascollegiateleague.com). The first-year venture aims to bring some of the country’s top collegiate players to the Dallas– Fort Worth area, showcasing them for major league scouts.

In this, it’s similar to other summer collegiate-level leagues in Cape Cod and Alaska , where any number of former major leaguers have played for the past five decades. Alumni include Philadelphia pitcher Billy Wagner, Frank Thomas of the White Sox, former Yankees great Thurman Munson, and the Rangers’ Mark Texiera and Tom Grieve. The point of these leagues is to bring the best collegiate players in the country together and give them a taste of what professional baseball is like, playing every day and using wooden bats (college players use aluminum bats). The Texas Collegiate League hopes to attract quality players who don’t want to go quite so far from home.

The competition is comparable to the low minor leagues, but that’s not the only attraction. The lure is partly baseball, partly the “Bull Durham”-like atmosphere of local teams and local players, and, for some people, that fantasy baseball is not quite enough. How else to describe a league whose teams are owned by sportswriters (Weatherford, where Star-Telegram columnists Randy Galloway and Jim Reeves are part-owners), ex-law school deans (Highland Park’s Paul Rodgers), and a couple of ex-Rangers ( McKinney ’s Mike Henneman and Ken Hill)? In addition, the league’s advisory panel includes political commentator Alan Saxe of Arlington and actor Ethan Hawke.

So what’s a former college catcher to do?

“Just about everything,” says Conner with a laugh. That means helping line up players, schmoozing with sponsors and advertisers, giving the odd interview to talk up the team, and selling tickets. The latter is of special concern to the Blue Sox, since they’re in the middle of Dallas and have big-city competition for the entertainment dollar. Other teams, like Graham or Mineral Wells, probably won’t have nearly as much difficulty bringing in fans.

That’s why finding top-flight players has been even more important. This season’s roster includes Ryan Hill, a shortstop from St. Mary’s College in San Antonio; Gibbs Chapman, an outfielder at Florida State ; and Utah ’s Eric Shaler, a 6-foot, 5-inch left-handed pitcher who can throw the ball through a brick wall — assuming his control is good enough to hit the wall.

And Conner must do all this, of course, while working his day job. Did he really miss baseball enough to go to all this trouble?

“Oh yes,” he says. “The drawing card for me was to be back in baseball. I just missed it so. It’s great to be back around the players and the atmosphere. What am I eventually going to do with this? I’m not sure. It’s a good foot in the door for me if I want to stay in baseball, give me something to work off of.”

But that’s a decision for later. The concern now is opening day June 8 against McKinney and the home opener June 10 against Coppell — and worrying about all the things general managers worry about.