Wyo players picking up tips, making memories, with unique summer job

Derek Macrina’s summer job is cooler than yours.

A couple nights each week he puts on a Reading Fightin Phils uniform, hangs out in the home dugout and picks up tips he can apply to his own game or take back to his Wyomissing teammates next season.

He grew up coming to Fightins games with his family; he’s learning a lot more down on the field as a bat boy.

“It’s great being on the other side of the net at games,” he said of having a front-row seat for the action.

Macrina enjoys watching professional players go about their jobs. He’ll snag some food in the clubhouse before a game or ask a player for advice. He’s getting a rare and valuable view of the game played at a high level.

He took some fresh baseballs out to the home plate umpire earlier this season when Nick Abel, the Philadelphia Phillies’ top prospect, was warming up. It was an eye-opener.

“It just whizzes by you at 98 (mph),” Macrina said. “You just don’t see it. It’s a blur. When you get up there (that close) you can really see how fast it goes. It’s crazy, the level of play.”

Macrina began working for the Fightins this season. When he heard they needed another bat boy he suggested his classmate and Wyomissing football and baseball teammate Dan Noey.

The rising juniors do football workouts in the morning at Wyomissing and played together on the Shillington Dodgers Legion this summer.

They’ll be together at FirstEnergy Stadium a few nights each week the rest of the summer. Noey often works with the visiting team; Macrina always works with the Fightins.

Their job begins about 90 minutes before the first pitch. They get the dugouts ready for the players and coaches, making sure there are towels, sunflower seeds, bubble gum and cups for water or Gatorade.

Macrina delivers seven dozen fresh baseballs to the umpire’s room so that they can be rubbed up with mud (which makes the new balls less slick and easier for the pitcher to grip).

If there’s a major league pitcher making a rehab appearance Macrina has to bring major league baseballs to the umps, as well. When the major leaguer takes the mound, the minor league balls are set aside and only major league baseballs – a Rawlings model, with Commissioner Rob Manfred’s signature on it — are used.

“Major league guys do not use minor league balls,” Macrina said.

Macrina worked the Fightins dugout when Philadelphia Phillie Jose Alvarado pitched in Reading earlier this season.

“I made sure to grab one of the balls for a memento,” he said.

Macrina and Noey collect broken bats as keepsakes, too. Who knows, if you get one from the next Bryce Harper or Trey Turner it could be worth a few bucks down the line. At the least it’ll be an interesting conversation piece their buddies won’t have.

Noey does a little homework before each visiting team comes to town to find out who the hot prospects are. He’ll take special notice of them, though he said he enjoys talking to all of the players, top prospects or not.

“They’re easy to talk to,” Noey said. “I expected them to be . . .. big-minded, but they’re just like us. It’s kind of neat. It’s easy to ask them questions about baseball.”

Noey, who catches for Wyomissing, has gotten tips for his game from Reading catcher Cody Roberts that could help him throw out a few more base-stealers next season.

“He helped me with my transfer,” Noey said of the movement involved in taking the ball from his catcher’s mitt to get into throwing position.

“I was transferring down here,” he said, motioning toward his waist. “I’m trying to get it higher. He’s helped me with that.”

Macrina said he has picked up a lot by sitting next to Reading batting coach Tyler Henson, who is positioned at the corner of the dugout, nearest to home plate, when the Fightins are at bat.

“He tries to tell the batters if the pitcher has any run to his fastball, if it’s flat, where he throws his slider,” Macrina said. “They have sheets of zones (like a heat map) where the pitches are thrown.

“He likes to look at the iPad and give the players as much information as he can. Between each pitch they’ll be listening for him.

“I’m picking (things) up just listening in, different things I’ve never really thought about. If the pitch is up, you’re not gonna try to go up with it, you’re going to try to attack it down. If its lower, you’ve got to get up on it.”

Once the game begins it’s the bat boys’ job to retrieve foul balls behind home plate, pick up the discarded bats and collect helmets and other equipment when batters reach base. They keep the home plate ump supplied with fresh baseballs and occasionally bring them and the base umps a drink of water between innings.

After the game they clean up the dugout and take the equipment – bats, helmets, whatever’s left behind – into the clubhouse.

The Fightins are struggling to win games this season; they had the worst record in the Eastern League at the All-Star Break. That can make the atmosphere a little tense at times. Macrina and Noey understand that and lay low when things aren’t going well.

“They’re just doing their jobs,” Macrina said. “When they lose, they come in the next day and they’re energized. They’re not giving up. They know that’s how it is.”

Baseball, especially when played on a daily basis, can be a grind. That’s been part of the education process for Noey and Macrina, as well.

“When they win its fun,” Macrina said. “We were there for back-to-back walk-offs; those are fun.”

Macrina said his favorite Fightins player is center fielder Yohan Rojas, a top prospect who spent the first half of the season with Reading before being promoted directly to Philadelphia right after the All-Star break.

Macrina, who plays the outfield, kept his eyes peeled on Rojas during games and occasionally tried out his Spanish on the Dominican native.

“He’s a fast outfielder, he’s aggressive on the basepaths, which is how I like to play,” Macrina said. “I like watching him, trying to see how he gets a jump (off first).”

Both bat boys say the best part of their job is being around the players, though Macrina admits he doesn’t mind being mistaken for an actual player every now and again.

“The kids walking through the concourse would be like, ‘Can I get an autograph?’ ” he said. “ ‘I’m just the bat boy guys, sorry.’ ”

Did he think about signing his autograph?

“I did it one time,” Macrina confessed, “but not often.”