Florence Y’alls aren’t just back, they’re better, team leaders say with opener coming up Thursday

By Dan Weber NKyTribune sports reporter After eight months away, it would be easy to say, “They’re back.” And yes, the Florence Y’alls will indeed be back in action and throw out the first official pitch for the 2024 season Thursday at Thomas More Stadium.

Just don’t say it quite that way, say General Manager Max Johnson and Field Manager Chad Rhoades. That Y’alls’ team, the one that the last time we saw them in September was staggering to a 38-58 record that left them 14th in the 16-team Frontier League, 22.5 games behind the first-place New Jersey Jackals, will not be coming back. Bowie, Texas native Rhoades will be, however, back from his offseason home in Lisbon, Portugal. Back for his second season as the top guy calling the shots in Florence. But with a new approach after a season of on-the-job training for the longtime pitching coach. Johnson, a Lakota West and UC alum, is back for another season at the place where he started as an intern in 2016 and then a full-time ticket guy before working his way up.

So too will be 35-year-old Craig Massey, the ageless hitter and player-coach from Bells, Tenn., who is not only the oldest everyday player in the league in his 10th season but also the seventh-best hitter a year ago with a .328 average. “The Commissioner said there’s a 39-year-old pitcher but that doesn’t count,” Massey says. Pitchers don’t play every day. But unlike last season, this Y’alls team will. “This team is more athletic,” Rhoades says. “There’s a lot of new talent, a lot of young talent with minor league experience. It’s more dynamic . . . and there’s a depth of pitching,” which has to be a good thing after finishing 14th in the league in team ERA allowing 5.88 earned runs a game. Returning ace Edgar Martinez will start the season on the 14-day injured list but he brings the heat with a fourth-in-the-league 111 strikeouts last season in 108.2 innings. Ryan Watson, a 6-foot-3, 204-pound righty out of Georgia State will get the call against the Quebec Capitales for the 6:44 p.m. first pitch in the Thursday opener of a three-game series before the Y’alls take off for Chicago and five games against the Windy City Thunderbolts (for three) and the Schaumburg Boomers (for two) Tuesday through Saturday.

But as much as the talent – bigger, stronger, faster — is improved, the big improvement, Rhoades says, is with the manager. The big lesson he learned in the transition from coach to manager last season was this: “The weight of my words, the power of this position. I’d been a coach for so long, where I’m their brother. Now I’m their dad.” He’s in charge, something he’s learned to handle now. “I love managing, creating an environment, changing the culture,” Rhoades says. And doing it with his players. “That wasn’t the way it was,” he says in 2023. “I spent the year trying to get guys to play together, to play for the guy next to you. It’s a different mindset from last year.” And yet, baseball is baseball: a game where individuals “have got to be self-reliant to be good – especially in practice,” Rhoades says. And then come together at game time. All-stars Massey and Martinez will lead the way with Massey, who has won the batting title three times in different pro leagues, will also “try to be that bridge” between the manager and the players.

“He brought 35 of his kind of players to camp (soon down to 24),” Massey says, “it’s Chad’s team now.” Although the veteran Massey, who owns and runs an athletic training facility back in Crockett County in western Tennessee 15 minutes from I-40 where the county’s seven small farm towns don’t even have a stop sign, may be the face of this team now. As well as the wise man on the field. Rhoades has a message for his mostly 23-to-25-year-old players. “I tell them I’m 41 now but if I could put my head on your body, I’d be in the major leagues in two years.” Figuring it out matters. Experience counts. Paying attention pays off. So does talent. One player the Y’alls think will give them another all-star is shortstop Alberti Chavez, from Maracaibo, Venezuela, who missed the 2023 season but showed plenty in 2022. He’s one of four Venezuelans and six international players including 6-6, 238-pound Gunnar Groen from London (UK) and Martinez from the Dominican Republic. Groen will be a candidate to replace — to some extent — fan favorite Brennan Price, the 6-7, 300-pound New Jerseyan, who retired after a season among the league leaders in home runs (22) and RBI (75). Also missing on a team with players from 13 states is the lone Kentuckian, Owensboro’s Ray Zuberer, traded after finishing fourth in the league in stolen bases with 43. Zade Richardson, 23, from New Richmond who’s “just 25 minutes away on 275,” he says, is another player they’re high on. “Local talent,” GM Johnson says. Richardson, who played four years in the Cardinal system, then went up to high Double-A with the Braves and then played with Quebec last year before returning home, will alternate between catcher and first base.

“Being home, I’m much more chill,” Richardson says. Baseball is his life, the former Midland Redskins player says as a product of Cincinnati’s top national youth program. When and if the time comes to move in a different direction, “you’ll know,” he says. And by then, he’s sure he’ll have “made enough connections” in baseball to know the way to go. But until then, “I’ll be broke the rest of my life playing baseball” if that’s how it works out. GM Johnson is high on outfielder TJ Reeves, a 5-10, 205-pounder from Birmingham, Ala., out of Jacksonville State. “TJ’s got that power,” he says, “he comes in loaded.” With his manager in Portugal, the time difference is no problem, Johnson says. “We’re lucky he has a new baby so I can call him any time.” And they do confer bi-weekly before the first of the year and then weekly from January on. “We have constant communication,” says Johnson who was working at Kings Island when his sports management class at UC got him the internship here. And then there’s the power of the Florence fans. Despite finishing in the bottom three on the field, the Y’alls were sixth in the league in average attendance with 2,192 fans a game, better than eight others in the Frontier League. “Our promotions people are second to none,” Johnson says, outlining the draw of Dollar Tuesdays when everything from hot dogs to ice cream to popcorn is a dollar. Or how about Thirsty Thursdays when 10-ounce and 20-ounce draft beer is $1 and $2. When the new team store opens, the old one at the main gate will add games for the kids and there will be a train that travels the concourse, Johnson says. “Everything’s different,” he says, or at least some of it is. At the end of the left-field concourse, the building with an expanded team store, front office headquarters and home and visitors’ locker rooms is almost fully finished. Any day, Y’alls’ folks will tell you. And the nest now extend down to the end on both grandstands.

“I’ve done everything including being the mascot,” says Johnson, who finished with a story on the impact of the Y’alls. And one of their best fans who’s been in the news. He’s talking of former Arkansas and now USC basketball coach Eric Musselman, whose decision to head to Los Angeles was the impetus that had John Calipari leaving UK. During the Covid season, Musselman ordered a bunch of Y’alls’ gear which he wore to practice, saying the Y’alls were his “new favorite team.” Now if they can only become Northern Kentucky’s favorite again. Florence Y’alls ROSTER As of 5/7/24 Manager: Chad Rhoades Pitching Coach: Karl Craigie Hitting Coach: Craig Massey Development Coach: Jason Stowers Athletic Trainer: Allen Chase Clubhouse Attendant: Brian Zix Director of Analytics: Dugan Andrews PITCHERS (12) # Name Ht Wt B/T Hometown Born (Age) ‘23 Team(s) G W-L, S ERA IP K Player Status Last School 14 Darrien Williams 6’2” 220 R/R Bryan, TX 6/24/96 (27) Idaho Falls Exp-2 Prairie View A&M 15 Ryan Steckline 6’2” 228 L/L Newark, DE 1/09/99 (25) U of Cincy Pro-1 U of Cincy 17 Kent Kylman 6’7” 260 L/L Williamsburg, VA 10/20/97 (26) Florence Pro-2 NC State 19 Josh Hudgins 6’2” 215 R/R Dunwoody, GA 9/02/99 (24) Georgia College Pro-1 Georgia College 20 Jonaiker Villalobos 6’1” 250 L/L Maracaibo, Venezuela 7/11/99 (24) Lake Erie Pro-2 International 21 Gunnar Groen 6’6” 238 R/R London, UK 7/01/97 (26) Amarillo AA Exp-1 International 22 Blake Loubier 6’5” 190 R/R Winter Springs, FL 10/13/00 (23) Salem A-Pro-1 Oviedo HS 25 Ryan Watson 6’3” 204 R/R Sugar Hill, GA 4/26/99 (25) Georgia St. Pro-1 Georgia St. 26 Ben Terwilliger 6’4” 250 R/R Elmira, NY 3/23/99 (25) Florence Pro-1 East Carolina 44 Joe Kemlage 6’1” 230 L/L Wilmington, NC 1/19/99 (25) Aberdeen A+ Pro-1 AIC 55 Ross Thompson 5’11” 165 R/R Wadsworth, OH 9/12/97 (26) Florence Pro-1 Heidelburg 88 Shane Gustafson 6’5” 190 R/R Rocklin, CA 10/09/98 (26) Lake Erie Pro-2 Nevada

14-DAY INJURED LIST 11 Edgar Martinez 6’1” 198 R/R Bajos de Haina, Dominican Republic 07/13/97 (26) Florence CATCHERS (2) # Name Ht Wt B/T Hometown Born (Age) ‘23 Team(s) G AVG HR R RBI SB Player Status Last School 2 Sergio Gutierrez 6’1” 195S/R Ciudad Ojeda, VZ 1/18/01Reno AAA Pro-1 International 9 Zade Richardson 6’1” 200R/R New Richmond, OH 5/10/00 (23)Florence Pro-1 Wabash Valley CC INFIELDERS (7) # Name Ht Wt B/T Hometown Born (Age) ‘23 Team(s) G AVG HR R RBI SB Player Status Last School 1 Ed Johnson 6’1 190R/R Trussville, AL 7/26/99 (24) Florence Pro-1 Alabama 3 Brian Fuentes 5’10 170R/R Caracas, Venezuela 3/08/99 (25) Florence Pro-2 Virginia 5 Jeremiah Burks 6’1” 205R/R Vacaville, CA 1/08/97 (27) Milwaukee Exp-2 Fresno St. 7 Alberti Chavez 5’10 175R/R Maracaibo, VZ 7/21/95 (28) Bravos De Magarita Exp-2 International 8 Tim Borden 6’1 200R/R Sellersburg, IN 9/01/99 (24) Asheville (A+) Pro-2 FAU 23 Craig Massey 5’11” 190 L/R Bells, TN 3/19/89 (35) Florence Veteran Faulkner 24 Langston Ginder 5’11” 195 L/R Fort Wayne, IN 8/21/99 (24) Great Falls Pro-1 Huntington OUTFIELDERS (3) # Name Ht Wt B/T Hometown Born (Age) ‘23 Team(s) G AVG HR R RBI SB Player Status Last School 4 TJ Reeves 5-10 205 R/R Birmingham, AL 4/20/00 (24) Mahoning Valley Pro-1 Jacksonville State 6 Ashton Creal 5-11 195 R/R Frankfort, IL 3/23/99 (25) Milwaukee Pro-2 John A. Logan 13 Hank Zeisler 5’10 195 L/R Kentfield, CA 6/18/99 (24) Florence Pro-1 John A. Logan Missouri Contact Dan Weber at dweber3440@aol.com. Follow him on X (formerly Twitter) @dweber3440.