June 7, 2010

Ex-Paints Player Makes Comeback After Eight Years Retired

BROCKTON, Mass. – Freddy Flores is a baseball lifer.
     At age 36, the former Chillicothe Paints' infielder has resurrected his career as a pitcher for the Brockton Rox, an independent team in the suburbs of Boston, Mass., a member of the Can-Am League.
     Twelve years ago this week – that's a millennium in the life of a professional baseball player – Flores sat nervously in the Stables at VA Memorial Stadium while Paints' manager Roger Hanners and coach Marty Dunn pondered the final roster cuts.  Then, Flores was a fiery 24-year-old middle infielder, vying for a job on what would turn out to be the finest team ever assembled in Chillicothe, the 1998 Paints.
     Flash forward a dozen years, and Flores, now 36, lives near Atlantic City, N.J. and is married to Heather, a professional tiger trainer.  After retiring in 2000, Flores returned to his native New Mexico and spent seven years coaching college women's softball.  But he still longed to play the game of his youth, taught to him by his now deceased father.
     “The last conversation that my dad and I had was to leave coaching, because he said I wasn't getting any younger! He just felt in his heart that I gave up on baseball too soon. He encouraged me to chase the game again.  So in a nut shell after I lost him in 2006 you could say that I was on a mission to fulfill what he wanted me to do, and that was to play ball again. So after an eight year lay off I got myself back into shape,” Flores said.
     His is a story or persistence... a story of longing... a story of redemption.  Flores, who enjoyed the 1998 season with the Paints and two more with the Richmond Roosters, was not ready for retirement after the 2000 season.
     “Every summer evening, about game time, I had that feeling that something was missing in my life.  I still had things I needed to do,” Flores said on a sunny Memorial Day weekend before the Rox played their suburban Boston neighbor, the Worcester Tornadoes on the opening weekend of the CanAm League season.
     “I stayed in shape, running and lifting, but not baseball shape,” said Flores, who is up only 10 pounds from his 1998 playing weight – a tribute to his dedication and lifestyle.  “I got in touch with my old Northern League coach, Ed Nottle, and he said all I need is pitching.”
     A slick-fielding middle infielder during his four Frontier League campaigns, Flores revived his baseball career as a starting pitcher.  And with fine results.  In 2009, Flores compiled a 6-5 record with a 3.93 earned run average in 16 appearances.  He hurled three complete games, including a two-hitter shutout over Worchester.  He even went 3-for-10 as a fill-in shortstop after a teammate's injury.
     Flores earned a spot in the Rox's starting pitching rotation this spring and opened his season May 31 against the Sussex (N.J.) Skyhawks, pitching six innings of two-run ball and earning the win.
     Josh Papelbon, brother of Red Sox closer Jonathan Papelbon, pitched the ninth inning to close out the win for Flores.
     He loved his time with the Paints, he said remembering the elation he felt that May day in 1998 when Hanners and Dunn informed him he had made the team.
     “Chillicothe was a great place to play baseball,” he said. “It will always have a special place in my heart.”