Bill Rogan has been named the inaugural field manager of the Marysville Drakes
Born in the Bronx and raised an hour or so north of New York City, Rogan graduated from Duquesne in 1984 with a degree in journalism, coached at the high-school level and then worked in radio for a number of years. That period included a five-year stint doing play-by-play for the Hudson Valley Renegades of the Class A, short-season New York/Penn League, as well 11 years announcing Army basketball and hockey and some general news reporting. He even announced dog and horse races.
He moved to Denver in 1998 and continued working in sports radio, even hosting a sports talk show while also finding time to play in an adult baseball league – which he still does . . . when he’s home.
In addition, he’s found time to write five books, with a sixth on the way. One is based on his experiences announcing in the New York/Penn League; two contain fictitious short stories on sports; and another profiles 18 people he considers to be among the top sports talk show hosts in America. The fifth deals with a long-time acquaintance who rebounded from drug addiction that ended a promising baseball career before it began and is still pitching in men’s leagues at the age of 68. That one is being made into a movie, though shooting the baseball scenes is on hold because of the pandemic.
The last couple of years, he’s also worked in ticket services for the Colorado Rockies, somehow wrangling a leave-of-absence last year to manage Tucson. And getting into managing is a story in itself.
“In late 2017, I saw a documentary series online about the Trinidad (CO) team in the Pecos League,” Rogan said, “and I watched all six episodes. I was shocked that there was a team not that far (roughly three hours) away. The next season, I drove down to see them play a couple of times. Their manager was really low-energy – a player of his once got thrown out of a game, and he never even came out of the dugout – and I started to think that I could manage in the league.”
Conversations with Dunn and J.D. Droddy, the league’s adjudicator, turned up opportunities with Santa Fe and Tucson. When the Santa Fe manager decided to return for another season, Rogan took the job with Tucson, finishing with a 30-30 mark in his managerial debut.
“We started well, but flamed out at the end,” he said. “Our middle relief wasn’t good – we let several games get away in the sixth and seventh innings. I also think our players were fried after a while because of the heat and the travel we had – we had long trips to California and Colorado, and the players had to drive their own cars. That really wears on you after a while.”
Still, the experience left him both looking back and wanting more. For one thing, it provided the material for his sixth book – due out later this year and titled “Life Ain’t the Same in the Pecos League . . .”
If the pandemic subsides and next season is more like normal, Rogan hopes to again work with the Rockies and manage in the Pecos League.
“I really like working for the Rockies. It’s a great organization, and I hope to eventually get into the operations side,” he said. “But I love the Pecos League, too, and I’m lucky that the Rockies will give me time off to be there. The grind doesn’t bother me at all; I enjoy all of it. If I wasn’t managing or doing play-by-play, I’d either be at the game or watching on TV.
“It’s a fun league, a crazy league and a league for underdogs. I call it the ‘no-regrets’ league. Guys can give it a shot here and never find themselves wishing later in life that they hadn’t.”
Bill served as the manager of the Santa Fe Fuego in 2021 and 2022 leading the Fuego to all time high in attedence and narrowly missing the playoffs each year.
