Pecos League TV show: thoughts, observations

A reader of this blog asked a week or so ago what I thought about the Fox Sports 1 reality series about the 2013 Trinidad Triggers of the independent Pecos League. The show airs on Tuesday nights on FS1. At 9 p.m., the previous week's episode is re-aired followed by the new episode at 9:30.

If you haven't seen this show, then I suggest you watch tonight. You won't be disappointed. If you can't miss Gregory Polanco's debut with the Pirates tonight, then set your DVR or VCR (do people still use these?) to record "The Pecos League."

The Pecos League is supposed to be one step below the Frontier League on the independent baseball ladder. When you watch the show, you'll think it's much closer to the Fayette County Baseball League or the Washington-Greene Adult League than the Frontier.

For example, teams in the Frontier League travel via motor coach. Teams in the Pecos League, well, at least the Triggers, travel in an old school bus with no air conditioning. They do this while taking trips through rural Colorado, New Mexico and West Texas during June and July. I imagine it's difficult to sleep on an old school bus in those sweltering conditions.

Here are some of my observations and notes that I took while watching the series:

* Apparently, only players with multiple large tattoos can play in the Pecos League.

* Many, maybe even the majority, of the fields in the WPIAL are better than the ones shown so far in the series. Trinidad and Santa Fe are terrible. It seems that somebody attempts to make the field at Roswell look good and playable.

* The Trinidad players double as the ground crew.

* The Trinidad manager has a Harvard Law School degree and has written three plays (maybe it was musicals; I can't remember which) but yet he wants to manage in the Pecos League. There's a true baseball guy. Quitting law for the Pecos League might be the worst career choice since Mick Taylor quit the Rolling Stones in 1974.

* There is a local public access TV show about the Triggers. It's recorded in the basement of a Trinidad funeral home. That's also where they keep the bodies.

* I've yet to see a ballpark in the show with "real" dugouts.

* My favorite moment of the show: When the Triggers' PA announcer says he's going to Santa Fe for the all-star game because "I'll finally be off probation and that's the first week I'll be allowed to leave the state." Again, a guy who loves baseball.

* The visiting hotel (if that's what you want to call it) in Roswell, N.M., was either an old rest home or an office building. There is one long hallway with rooms off to each side, but there were no doors on the rooms.

* Some of the players in the Pecos are paid $50 per week. The minimum in the Frontier is $600 per month plus per diem when on the road.

* Pecos Leaguers play 70 games in 72 days. Brutal.

* There are about 20 things in every episode that make you appreciate the Frontier League.

Anybody who has spent one season in the Pecos League has my respect. To play in that league, you really have to love baseball. You're not playing the game because you're in nice ballparks or you're getting a decent paycheck or the travel is easy or the league has a history of sending players to Single-A, Double-A or even the major leagues. No Pecos League player has ever made it to the majors, so these guys are playing simply because they love baseball and want to play at a higher level than their local rec league.

The reason I mention this today is Tony Smith, a pitcher for last year's Triggers (and the 2012 Triggers, too) who is featured prominently in the first few episodes, plays for the Schaumburg Boomers, who will be at Consol Energy Park for a two-day, three-game series starting Wednesday evening. If I see Smith at the ballpark, then I'll tell him that his passion for the game and his ability to stick with his career choice even when the sport seemed to be giving up on him is something I admire.

It's unlikely that Smith will be pitching against the Wild Things because he started for Schaumburg in the Boomers' win Sunday over Southern Illinois. He pitched six innings and improved his record to 2-1.

One of Smith's teammates' on the Triggers was former California University standout Sam DiMatteo. I bet Smith never through that a year later he'd be playing on the same field where DiMatteo played his home games in college.

If you want to watch the first few episodes of "The Pecos League" and you have Comcast cable, the shows are available for free using the On Demand feature.