It was right at 2am when I pulled into the parking lot of the Flying Tigers complex in Lakeland, Florida. I was trying hard to finish my loop of the 20 ball parks in Florida before I headed back to Virginia, and when I put my rental car in park, I noticed someone approaching me in a golf cart.
My first thought was to explain that I just wanted to look around and take some pictures and then get on my way. But before I could get started, Rafael Anglada beat me to the punch. See, when you want to protect the shield, that is the sport of baseball, you know immediately when you cross paths with a fellow Gste Keeper.
In the blink of an eye, I went from thinking about getting harassed by an underpaid third shift security guard to realizing the fountain of baseball knowledge was available, and he was in the mood to chat !
We quickly landed on the subject of Greg Maddux, and it turned out that his Son played on the same little league field where Dave Maddux taught his youngin how to pitch.
Maddux was in the Air Force when Greg was born in 1966. He was stationed at a base outside of Madrid. Spain, and that is where Greg first learned to play baseball.
The Sun had risen by the time we finished up our chat, and I learned more about the Tigers and the Flying Tigers than I would have thought possible. While a great deal of the relationships in this book are from decades ago, this one is fresh and continues to grow !
The MLB Tigers, the Class A Flying Tigers, and a rookie league club all spend part of their year at the half stadium / half college campus, and Rafael interacts with them all.
Meeting up with Rafael only happened because the hotel I had just stopped at prior to the park was booked solid. Your Biblical take on this one is that there wS No Room at the Inn, and it led me to one of the more interesting characters that I’ve ever met at 2am.
Look out, I’m coming through !! Or to quote Queens hit song Don’t Stop me now , Jabin Talley was always the smallest athlete in every sport he participated in. From the first time he played QB on his flag football team to becoming CCHS all time wins leader in tennis at the the no. 1 seed in singles and doubles with his doubles partner Ethan Richardson. I was fortunate enough to coach Jabin in flag football, tee-ball , machine pitch , coach pitch , Dixie league baseball , and His last 2 years of high school tennis . Jabin excelled in baseball He played 2nd base and was the leadoff hitter for his crushers team that won the Dixie League championship. Jabin hit .800 that year , that’s right .800 . He went on to hit over .400 the second year for their 2nd place team the next year . Size never mattered as opposing head coach Mo Davis said Jabin was a thorn In his side. Jabin started playing rec league Basketball in elementary school where I coached him for 2 years . No long after Russ Smoot told Kris Richardson about Jabin playing for his daughter team . That move started a relationship with the players that would eventually have 2 of the 5 greatest Teams in CCHS history . Kris hooked up Jabin with Coach Crotts to play on his rec team during off aau time, where Jabin went on to average over 19 points A game . Size didn’t matter . After Winning multiple tournaments playing for Kris , Anthony Barnes , Russ Smoot Jabin finally made it to play JV basketball in the 9th and 10th grade, where he won offensive player of the year his sophomore year . Next up, he played varsity for coach Barnes And Kris . He was the 6th man off the bench his junior year and starting PG his senior year playing alongside his AAU teammates Davis Rietzel, Bryce, and Brayden Smoot Cody Reece , Ethan Richardson, and Isiah Easter, where they put together 2 of the best teams in Cavs history. This is, of course, where I met Jerry Carter in the bleachers at a Cavs game where Jabin placed a perfect alley oop Pass to Davis for a slam dunk that Brought down the house . Size didn’t matter . Now let’s talk about tennis, which wasn’t even on the radar . Jabins sister Hadassah started playing tennis for CCHS, and he would go down and practice with her so she could hit balls . He was 11 at the time . He picked it up pretty quickly, myself along with his mom and paw paw Rickie saw Something special , so we hooked Him up with long-time player and current Floyd County girls coach Doug Hines . Doug coached him in his first usta tournament at Virginia Tech in the Blacksburg Midsummer Classic, in which Jabin won his age group beating the Commonwealth games champion Size didn’t matter . By the 8th grade, he was working with former d2 college player Andy Sarver from Bland while still playing AAU basketball and Dixie baseball . Jabins’ speed and ability to run down shots translated to his succes in usta and utr tennis tournaments where he won 4 Championships including 2 Blacksburg midsummer classics A lake Norman title and an utr championship in Christiansburg where he won all 4 of his matches All this before playing for CCHS . Size didn’t matter. Jabin won the no. 1 seed in the ninth grade for CCHS and held that spot until graduation. After going 4-4 in the covid, shortened freshman year, Jabin only lost 1 district match the next 3 years, including a 56-game winning streak . He and doubles partner Ethan Richardson finished runner-up in his junior year in regionals and a top 8 team in state . Jabin was the no. 5 seed in singles in regionals his freshman year no. 4 seed in his sophomore and junior Years and a no. 3 seed his senior Year . Jabin finished his tennis career with 74 combined wins in Singles and doubles at the no. 1 Seed . Ethan broke the doubles wins record as an individual as he and Jabin hold the record as a doubles team . Glenvars long time head coach Bob Haynie said Jabin was the best player he had seen and had the best top spin he had ever seen. Jabin was getting recruited in his Junior year by multiple d2 and d3 Schools including Emory and Henry, Wise , Tusculum, Lenoir Ryan , Ferrum, and others . He decided to accept a full ride offer to SW VIRGINIA COMMUNITY COLLEGE to play at no.1 .
After his freshman year, SW VIRGINIA scrapped their tennis program , but he decided to finish out his sophomore year at SW. He did make the all district athletic academic team . He was offered To play at Blufield University, but Transfered to Virginia Tech to enroll in their school of communication.
I could go on for hours just how proud his family is of him of all his Athletic achievements. He showed that truly size doesn’t matter . His mom , paw Rickie, and I were instrumental in his success. We traveled to every game of Dixie league, aau basketball, utr and usta tennis high school basketball and high school tennis . He more than exceeded our expectations in every sport he played .
We still think baseball was his sport , but he never let his size Hinder his success. Seeing his opponent look across the net at This small guy and thinking this was going to be an easy win was a big mistake. He is, in my opinion, the best tennis player to ever play At CCHS . Special thanks to Doug Hines, Andy Sarver, Scott John , former Virginia Tech assistant coach Chip Webb, and present Virginia Tech head coach Jim Thompson for coaching the baby face assassin, the nickname I gave him his sophomore year. I’m very fortunate and honored to have coached my son in football, baseball, basketball, and the final 2 years of high school tennis.
Special thanks to Jerry Carter for All the time he spent with us and the many other athletes at CCHS . Jerry was instrumental in creating The now famous fab 4 . Jerry also showed that even just A little kindness can go a long way To quote from Denzel Washington In Training Day : King Kong ain’t got nothing on me describes Jabins drive to succeed. Who know we might might see him on TV after he graduates from Tech . High school wasn’t the end for Jabin , his story is just beginning . Don’t blink because the baby face assassin is coming through .
We ( Lawrence Nesselrodt and I) are entering our 19th season of West Virginia Tech University Baseball together, and doing so with our current President is nothing short of wonderful !
Both Allen Worrell and Chuck McGill managed to deal with me for a combined 10 years. The best estimate of how many of my stories these two edited would be 700 – 800. Both men were good at their job and a credit to the newspaper business !
McGill took over for Mike Petre at the Northern Virginia Daily in Strasburg, Virginia, and held that post until returning to West Virginia. His highlights there included working for the paper in Charleston and a great stint at Marshall University. We spent his final night working for the Thundering Herd at a home football game.
That weekend was another bizarre one as it went Laurel Fork to Obio for an App State Field Hockey game to James River for a JV District volleyball post-season tournament and then on to Huntington and finally back to Laurel Fork.
984 miles that weekend…
Allen Worrell not only edited 250 – 300 stories, he created another dozen or so over our four years together. We partnered on a number of projects that fit under our OneofUs.Care umbrella.
Still a career highlight !!!
Each of the three Sportswriters / Editors listed above has been given the opportunity to submit a companion piece for the book, and they are the last three things left in question as we wrap things up. Regardless of whether or not they find the time to put pen to paper or not, they are all still Aces in my book !
It has been fun to rehash 50 years of writing and storytelling. It will be interesting to see the finished product !
