(New Buffalo, MI) - A former World Series champion with the Los Angeles Dodgers has been chosen as manager of the new team of major league baseball hopefuls in New Buffalo.
Tracy Woodson played five-years in the major leagues before going on to coach in the minor leagues and other places like Valparaiso University from 2007 to 2013.
Woodson, a member of the Dodgers when they won the World Series in 1988, hasn’t coached in three years but was looking to return to the game when he learned about the job opening.
His ties to Valparaiso, including a sister-in law and her husband being school teachers in that community, were factors in wanting to pursue the manager’s job here.
“This was the perfect place,” he said.
Woodson, who lives in Waco, Texas said his son, TJ, a red-shirt freshman shortstop at Baylor University, will be on the roster of the team called the Dune Coast Quillbacks. It took just a few conversations on the phone with Woodson for the team’s primary owners, Tom Lawson and Brian Williams, both of New Buffalo, to offer him the job over many others nationwide interested in the position.
“It became clear quickly this was our guy,” Lawson said.
Williams, a scout for the Texas Rangers, credited Woodson with turning around the baseball program at Valparaiso University where five of his players were drafted by major league teams.
Woodson, primarily a third basemen during his major league career, said a half dozen or so college players seem close to already signing contracts to play for the Quillbacks in the Northwoods League.
The league featuring well over 20 teams from states like Michigan, Indiana, Wisconsin and Ohio consists of all college players hoping to catch the eye of major league scouts. Over 400 players in the league have made it to the major leagues over roughly the past 30-years.
Williams said the Quillbacks will play 72 games with half of them at the new baseball field at New Buffalo High School from late May until mid-August. The team is hoping to draw fans from as far north as Benton Harbor and St. Joseph and into Indiana in cities like La Porte, Michigan City, Chesterton and Valparaiso.
High quality lights were recently installed at the field, which will have about 600 grandstand seats added behind home plate along with bleachers and picnic tables for people to sit before the start of the season, Lawson said.
There will also be a “party patio” for fans along the first base line, he said.
Woodson said he’s already been coming up with ideas for making the games even more enjoyable for fans, especially youth. He said the many possibilities include autograph sessions with the players and a few players running the bases with children between innings.
“This is how we want to involve them in the community. I think that’s the first thing we do to get the excitement going in New Buffalo and all of the surrounding areas,” he said.
