FARMINGTON – Richard Neely, president of the American Amateur Baseball Congress, is caught up in a collision of sports and business after an announcement this month that the Connie Mack World Series’ host team may in fact not be a locally based team at all in the very near future.
In its place, a tournament at Ricketts Park of New Mexico-based teams will be held about a month before the series. It will be similar to several qualifying tournaments held across the country, and the winners will earn the right to compete in Farmington’s annual showcase sporting event.
This particular tournament, unlike regional qualifiers in states like Texas, Louisiana, Oklahoma and California, requires the winning team to select a minimum of six Farmington area-based players on their roster for Connie Mack World Series play.
The winning team of this tournament, which will be run by Five Tool Baseball, will be awarded $5,000 for housing expenses during the CMWS.
The consequences of this decision, in addition to meaning that a team from Farmington might not win the New Mexico qualifying event, could also mean that fewer athletes from Farmington and San Juan County, may not get to play in the series at all.
Neely, who’s spent most of his life living in Farmington, understands that not everyone involved with the CMWS, is happy with this most recent development.
“This is one of the hardest decisions I’ve had to make in my life,” Neely said about the New Mexico-based tournament. “For 10 years, we’ve been making changes because the baseball world is changing fast on what can we do to remain competitive in the World Series and retain the World Series in Farmington.”
Most of the recent changes to the Connie Mack World Series have been in its visibility. Live, nationally televised broadcasts of the championship game as well as streaming partnerships with CBS Sports and other platforms have made it necessary to ensure the product on the field is worthy of a national audience.
“There have been offers to move the Connie Mack World Series. Are we going to move it? Absolutely not. Nobody’s going to replace Farmington,” Neely said. “The host families, the volunteers, nobody else does that and it’s fantastic. But it’s a financial world and I’ve got a board of directors that have been in discussion for the last two years about what are we going to make the host team better?”
The statistical merits of those discussions are not without some validity. According to Neely, in the past five editions of the Connie Mack World Series, the team representing Farmington and San Juan County has combined to win two games, while losing 22 games and tying once.
There is a healthy amount of debate as to why local teams haven’t fared well in recent years when facing opposition from the likes of the Midland (Ohio) Redskins or the Southern California Renegades or the Enid (Oklahoma) Majors. Neely hopes the competitiveness will reveal itself in the statewide qualifier, in which teams from San Juan County will face off against teams from the Albuquerque area as well as Rio Rancho and Las Cruces.
“We had pressure from some to create a national tournament here, as well as a tournament from teams across the Four Corners states. But I didn’t want to do that,” Neely said. “And this isn’t an absolute correction without ever going back. If we get to that level and we’re building teams and building talent, we can go back to the old way.”
The immediate response to this change in format came with positive and negative reviews. Some called on local residents and businesses to boycott the event while others praised the decision as one which should be embraced by coaches and players.
“We cannot have our best local players on different teams competing against each other,” wrote Jason Hengst. “They must have time to mesh and play as a top level team should. The talent is not the problem.”
One of the groups of teams expected to play a big role in the New Mexico Qualifier is the Albuquerque Baseball Academy. The ABA played in the Connie Mack World Series from 2021 through 2023, but failed to reach the CMWS after coming up short in a pair of regional qualifiers.
The ABA participated in both the Mountain West Qualifier earlier this summer in Denver, and the South Plains Qualifier in Norman, Oklahoma.
Tim Campos, who serves as director of player development for the ABA, believes that while some local fans might be concerned about a lack of representation of players from Farmington or San Juan County, thinks the competition should be greater.
“When it comes to New Mexico baseball and wanting to put a good product out there, I think a New Mexico tournament is the right way to go. This is a Farmington event, and it’s the hub for all of it,” Campos said. “But I wish we’d all go play in a Farmington league so that we could endear ourselves to the community and the team that wins that league chooses from the other players in that league.”
Campos, a Gallup native, coached the Naa'taanii team which competed in local city league tournaments 2006 through 2012 before he joined the ABA. Recent alumni from the ABA include local players like Zach Raichel and Hunter Martin from Farmington High, as well as Chase Silseth from Piedra Vista, currently a member of the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim organization.
“It’s very hard for any team to compete with teams from Midland and Southern California because they’re taking kids from all over the country,” said Campos. “You’re expecting a host team to compete with that? It’s not going to happen. But if you take a New Mexico community, I believe they can and will compete with the best of them.”
Teams representing San Juan County some time back were, by most accounts, far more competitive and represented Farmington and the surrounding communities in far greater fashion.
Led by local high school coaches like former Piedra Vista coach Mike McGaha and Farmington High coaches Sean Trotter and Don Lorett, teams which consisted of players from those teams participated at a much higher level when competing for a shot at the Connie Mack World Series.
McGaha won 172 games and four state titles as coach of the Panthers from 2010 to 2016 and coaches at Carlsbad High. Lorett coached Farmington High to four straight NMAA titles from 2005 through 2008, while he and Trotter combined to win nearly 190 games in a decade.
“With the losses of coaches like McGaha and Trotter, our high school programs no longer have the connection to local coaching heroes and traditions that led to players who consistently outperformed their talent,” said Daniel Clark. “Quite obviously, our approach to the game in recent years has seen catastrophic outcomes that are unprecedented for northwest New Mexicans.”
Clark, who played for the Farmington Sky Sox in both the 2002 and 2004 Connie Mack World Series and won the CMWS Gold Glove award in 2004, went on to play baseball at Grinnell (Iowa) College, earning Midwest Conference All-Conference First Team honors in 2008 before working as an assistant coach for the 2010 Strike Zone Cardinals.
McGaha, who has coached three separate Connie Mack host teams in 2017 through 2019, says he’s been approached and is open to the idea of participating in a New Mexico Connie Mack qualifying tournament. He also understands why people in Farmington would be upset at the notion their tournament is being taken from them.
“The people in Farmington open their homes, they take time off from work to allow these players into their homes. They feed them, take them to and from games and practices. The people in Farmington bend over backwards for what is, in my mind, the greatest amateur tournament of all time,” McGaha said. “It’s the only tournament of its kind left at the national level.”
Despite the challenges of considered not being good enough to compete with the likes of Midland or the Renegades or the Majors, Clark understands the importance of the CMWS for parents and players alike. And the recent decision by the AABC may well spark a return to better days.
“If ever there was a time to feel especially motivated, local players should understand that one of the oldest and wealthiest organizations in amateur baseball just told every single player in the Four Corners region that they are not good enough to share their own high school ballpark with whoever shows up to Ricketts in July,” Clark said. “Host teams have succeeded before and should succeed again. More importantly, our kids should grow up confident that they deserve to share the field with anyone and everyone.”
Email: sbortstein@tricityrecordnm.com
