For 17 years Gary Yeats has been retired from teaching and coaching baseball at Fairfield High School. The man led the Indians to two Ohio State Baseball Championships, then decided to move to Sedona, AZ to rest on his laurels.
The man knows a baseball player when he sees one, so the Reds have hired Yeats to guard the entrance to the players parking lot and suggest Mexican Restaurants to the media.
Early this week a young man in his early 20's drove to the players lot entrance and announced that he was there for a tryout.
Calmly Yeats tried to explain to the naive dude that it really doesn't work that way. He even offered to get a number to call to find out where the team has tryouts.
The would be star, did not want to hear that.
"I'm pretty good," the driver said. "You're blowing me off. I don't like to be blown off."
The diplomatic Yeats finally wore the kid down and he drove out of the lot taking a right turn toward the camp just 1/2 mile up the road that houses the Cleveland Indians.
"The Indians will probably give him a tryout and the guy will throw 100 miles and hour," Yeats said. "Then I'll get fired."
But he is too valuable to the organization. Without him no one would know the culinary south-of-the-border genius or the little taco stand hidden in a former ice cream establishment we affectionately call the "Taco Queen".
Cincinnati Sports News and Commentary
About Me
- Gary Schatz
- I am a freelance writer. I've covered the Cincinnati Reds, Bengals and others since 1992. I have a background in sales as well. I've sold consumer electronics, advertising and consumer package goods for companies ranging from the now defunct Circuit City to Procter&Gamble. I have worked as a stats operator for Xavier University, the University of Cincinnati, the College of Mount St. Joe and Colerain High School.
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