Rich Revere: Manager revels in baseball history, camaraderie, and success of Tri-State Leagues Plowboys

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copyright Peter Wallace Register-Citizen June 20,2024

BETHLEHEM – The Tri-State Baseball League is full of former/current high school and college stars or higher who love to play baseball, but a lesser-known key in the 12-team league is coaches who just love to coach.  Rich Revere, who’s coached the league-leading Bethlehem Plowboys for nine years, the last five as its head coach, is such a person. His footsteps are cast from the same mold as such predecessors as Gregg Hunt, John Pettit and Tony Geraci, all of whom had at least as much drive for team success as any of their players. “I don’t plan on losing this summer as a championship is the goal,” Revere said after his team obliterated the Torrington Thunder, a newcomer to the league, Saturday afternoon. Much more important to that plan and the Plowboys’ 8-0 standing so far is a 3-2 win over the three-time defending league champion Tri-Town Trojans on May 30. In the midst of an extremely competitive league, including the Thunder, these two teams have brought the most fire (and the most interest by would-be recruits) over the past few years, along with the richest history, long or short.

The Trojans started in 2005, reaching the league playoff finals 10 times in the last 13 years with five league titles, including the last three. The Plowboys started in 1923 with its modern heyday beginning with Hunt, who revived the team to a run of 12 finals and six league titles between 1996 and 2010. For the last two years, the Trojans’ titles had to come at the Plowboys’ expense. “The first year, they swept us,” says Revere. “Last year, we split until the final game. Our record with them is 4-4 over our last eight games.”

Feel the heat?

“I think it’s the culture,” says Revere. “(Legendary Thomaston girls basketball coach) Bob McMahon played for this team. He said, ‘Not everyone can be a Plowboy.’ “To be on this team, you have to love baseball and you have to hate to lose,” Revere now says. “You have to know what you’re getting into. Our job is to go out and win; you have to come ready to do that and have fun afterwards.” That kind of culture, in a summer league meant for high-level fun, breeds the same kind of loyalty and dedication often found in the military’s tough-love milieu. “I credit guys wanting to be here,” Revere says. “We have 38 guys on the roster and, of course, for one reason or another, not all of them play regularly. But I know any one of them will come to play if I’m in a pinch.” The point is, most demonstrated in the Plowboys’ 100-year anniversary celebration last year, most of them never really leave.

Revere cites a few active examples last Saturday, still on the field. “(Leadoff hitter extraordinaire) Jon Wilson drives from Boston every week. (League all-star) Joe Rupe lives in New York.” “I came up her as a junior at Thomaston High School when legends like Eric O’Toole were still playing,” says Wilson, in a swing by to deliver beverages after Saturday’s game. “We want to prove we can beat a team with MLB former minor leaguers like Tri-Town.” Part of that passion stems from the talent level sprinkled throughout the league, rekindling the basic love of baseball. “We have some players, like (League MVP) Greg Campbell and pitchers Tyler Boisvert and Keegan Daigle who could have had a chance in the MLB,” says Revere, with the implication that Tri-State Baseball and a team like the Trojans gives them a chance to prove it (with the former MLB players still proving they coulda/shoulda gone further).

It’s the kind of hidden impulse that elevates the league’s and teams like the Plowboys’ culture from fun to passion…along with some of its coaches. “I have two jobs besides coaching the Plowboys and I’m a full-time student at Southern New Hampshire University,” says Revere, 27. One of the part-time jobs is in stats analysis at ESPN, where former Plowboy Kevin McDonald is Director of Talent Acquisition.

“Plowboy for life” is not just a banner waved at last year’s anniversary celebration. It’s a lifetime culture that, much like military service, just never really goes away.