River Pigs visit reminds us it will be spring, someday
TUPPER LAKE — Atlanta Braves outfielder Matt Joyce stood ankle deep in snow along the third-base line of the future River Pigs field next to his high school baseball teammate and friend Eddie Gonzalez, president of the Empire League which is bringing the River Pigs to Tupper Lake next year.
The two were talking to the organizers of the River Pigs Baseball Committee, a group of Tupper Lake baseball enthusiasts who, after securing the River Pigs team this summer on the condition that they bring the former softball field up to Empire League standards, are well on their way to having it prepared for the River Pigs to play on in June.
Buried under the snow is a layer of Kentucky bluegrass sod, the outfield fence has been removed and will be replaced, and the run-down first-base line bleachers have been dismantled to rehab the third-base line ones.
Committee members showed off newly rebuilt dugouts and bragged about the sunsets over Raquette Pond that Gonzalez and Joyce will see in the later innings of River Pigs games next summer. The two reminisced on the old days playing high school ball and said they want to see Tupper Lake kids have a childhood in baseball like they did: playing classic sandlot games, getting off the couch and cheering on their hometown team.
Gonzalez played first base back in the day, and Joyce was behind him in right field. They took different paths after high school. Joyce spent a few years in the minor leagues before making it big on the Detroit Tigers.
“That’s the ultimate grind,” Joyce said of the minor leagues. “You get spoiled in the big leagues.”
He’s played for the Tampa Bay Rays, Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim, Pittsburgh Pirates, Oakland Athletics and now for the Atlanta Braves.
Gonzalez played college ball and got professional baseball experience in a development league. That’s why he started the Empire League, which is a development league.
“There’s got to be some guys out there like me that want to pursue it,” Gonzalez said. “After college, they’re not ready to get married, have kids and get into the workforce. They want to pursue the dream a little bit longer.”
He said it gives players who didn’t get drafted by the minors out of college a chance to keep chasing the “dream,” and that there’s a high demand for that style of league.
“I’m very lucky,” Joyce said. “I’m very fortunate to be able to live that kind of life and to live out my dream. It’s worth chasing.”
Gonzalez’s league gives those young, hungry players the chance to keep chasing that dream. After major and minor league baseball have their spring trainings, Gonzalez said he starts getting calls from players who didn’t get drafted and starts assembling his teams.
He said in the three and a half years he’s run the Empire League 140 players have been picked up by higher-level independent minor leagues with seven going to major franchise-affiliated teams.
As Major League Baseball announces plans for drastic cuts to minor league teams and reshuffling of the MLB pipeline, Gonzalez said he may end up providing an important platform for aspiring baseballers.
Joyce is a partner in the league with Gonzalez and has contact with scouts who attend the games to check out the talent there.
Gonzalez said he started the North Country-based Empire League — which has teams in Saranac Lake, Plattsburgh, with one each in Concord, New Hampshire and Aguada, Puerto Rico, as well as a road team — because he came to the North Country several times for college games and didn’t see much professional baseball here to bring communities together.
“I was always like, ‘Man, there’s a lot of cool towns and cities and baseball fields. Is there baseball going on up here?'” Gonzalez said.
There are now six teams in the Empire League and Gonzalez said there is a possibility he will expand it to eight in the future.
When the league introduced the Saranac Lake Surge in the 2019 season, David “Haji” Maroun, a village board trustee, started attending games with his son. After a short time he began to wonder: Why not bring a team to Tupper Lake? He pestered Saranac Lake Mayor Clyde Rabideau for Gonzalez’s contact information and they set up a meeting with the league president.
“It took one visit,” Gonzalez said at a village board meeting later that night. “My family loves this town.
“My wife didn’t even want to leave last time, especially after all your gifts,” he said, motioning to village Mayor Paul Maroun.
Gonzalez was referring to the Mayor Maroun-branded flashlights he gives out. Maroun’s well-known slogan is “everyday is a campaign day.”
Joyce brought out his flashlight and shone it around the boardroom as the assembled village employees, who know the flashlights well, raucously yelled, “You got a working one!”
Gonzalez said his kids used the lights while trick-or-treating on Halloween.
Gonzalez thanked the board and the committee for their contributions to the field. He loved the field when he saw it, but knew it would need some work to match the leagues requirements.
“Being able to have this kind of support where it’s not so heavy on us … and put the stadium in the standard that it is now … it’s a tip of the cap to you guys,” Gonzalez said at the meeting.
Standing on the field he said “It takes a whole village …” and gestured around to all the people assembled there.
“We’re glad we’re a part of it,” Haji Maroun said.
There’s still a lot that has to be done before the opening day pitch can be thrown, though. Because the season takes place during the summer, the busiest season for tourism in Tupper Lake, housing the players will pose a problem. Gonzalez and both Marouns said they are working on a solution and Haji said he thinks they are close.
Gonzalez said he hopes to finalize head coaches soon, then start drafting teams, though he doesn’t start drafting in earnest until the spring. He also said River Pigs logos and merchandise will be finalized in the near future.
Most the work on the field for the season is done, with the rest to be completed when the snow melts in the spring.
“We gotta deal with a goose abatement issue, but outside of that we’re alright,” committee member Rick Skiff said.
Canada Geese have long made the softball field a resting place, but with the new infield grass added this summer, they were chased away in droves by the committee members on a daily basis for several weeks.
The committee updated Gonzalez on the River Pigs name, which rooted up a bit of controversy when it was first announced. A vote was held and of 639 ballots cast 448 were for the River Pigs.
Paul Maroun said that was more people than voted for him in the last election. Maroun ran unopposed for the mayor seat in the Nov. 5 election.
After the village board meeting Gonzalez and Joyce went to the Lakeview Lanes bowling alley, where a Little League team’s worth of kids and their parents met the Braves outfielder, who fielded autographs all night long, signing baseballs, bats, hats, t-shirts, pictures and even a New York Mets ball the alley owns.