The Cal Ripken Sr. Collegiate Baseball League can be described in many ways. It’s unique, thanks to wooden bats and a large Baltimore-Washington community atmosphere. It’s also highly competitive, with rosters comprising all four corners of the nation.
But one adjective that doesn’t describe the league is intense. Though the players are out to prove and improve themselves, they’re also away from the pressure of their college coaches and expectations, which brings more of a laid-back atmosphere to the eight weeks of action.
But there are exceptions — and first-year Silver Spring-Takoma Thunderbolts manager John Duffy, 33, is just that. Though new to the league, his passionate coaching style (exemplified by an ejection earlier this season against the Rockville Express) is somewhat distinctive in the CRSCBL.
But the players seem to find it refreshing.
‘‘He’s a real old-school guy,” said right-handed pitcher Dan Blewett, a rising senior at the University of Maryland-Baltimore County. ‘‘He gets after it, almost like a professional style, which I like. If you don’t play the game like it’s supposed to be played, he definitely gets fired up.”
Duffy’s zealous approach to the game is what prompted Thunderbolts’ president Dick O’Connor to hire him in replacement of Bobby St. Pierre, who was signed by the Kansas City Royals organization as the pitching coach for the Single A Burlington (Iowa) Bees.
His abundance of experience also made him a logical candidate for the job. On the field, he pitched for the University of Richmond and professionally for nine years for five different teams in minor and independent leagues — the Lowell Spinners (Mass.), Atlantic City Surf (N.J.), Somerset Patriots (N.J.), Sioux City Explorers (Iowa), and Fargo Moorehead Redhawks (N.D.).
During his stint with the Redhawks, Duffy, from Audubon, Pa., decided to get into coaching — he cut his teeth for four years as a pitching coach at Concordia College (Minn.) then moved into the same position at La Salle University in Philadelphia, where he has spent the last four years. He also had one more stint as a pitching coach in 2005, for the Can-Am Grays in the Canadian American Independent League.
As is the case for any manager, Duffy had a prolonged climb to get his chance at the helm. But what may wind up setting him apart is his underdog attitude, which he’s used since his journey to the coaching ranks began.
‘‘Pretty much the biggest reason is — I was never the most gifted guy in college,” Duffy said. ‘‘I never threw really hard, so in order to compete against guys who were better than me, I had to make sure that every time I took the mound, I was pitching and playing as hard as I possibly could, because I didn’t have the talent to coast. I guess that’s carried over. My saying, that I use with the team is that it doesn’t take an ounce of talent to hustle.”
As with all the managers in the Ripken League, there’s only so much coaching that can be done. With only eight weeks to work with players who train year-round, Duffy has neither the time nor capacity to change bad individual habits for a 27-man roster. What he can do, and has done proficiently, is instill in his players a mature approach to the game.
‘‘There’s not much that can be done in terms of mechanics or anything, but just learning how the game’s supposed to be played — that’s the biggest thing I’ve gotten from him,” said Wingate (N.C.) University rising junior outfielder Nick Siega-Riz, who led the team through last Friday with a .310 batting average. ‘‘He’s a player’s coach. And he’s one of the most intense coaches I’ve ever had.”
But Duffy also has high expectations to live up to in his debut campaign. The Thunderbolts have been the league’s premier winner in its first two years of existence, splitting with the Bethesda Big Train for championship honors in 2005 and following up by capturing the title outright a year ago.
The T-bolts have a long way to go if they want to three-peat, as they sat at just 8-8 through the end of June. But Duffy believes that playing ‘‘the right way” will pay off in the end.
‘‘I’m a big believer in the baseball gods,” he said. ‘‘In the long run, if you do things right, they’ll smile on you.”
