Score one for father and son
Cumberland baseball coach Andy Tuetken cherishes time in dugout with dad, George
Cumberland High baseball coach maintains a strong bond with his dad... team scorekeeper.
CUMBERLAND – A basket of french fries has been brought to the table. Now, the real discussion can begin.
The fries are shared between a father and his son, both associated with the Cumberland High baseball program. They’re still wearing Clipper attire – no need to change when the distance between Tucker Field and Cumberland House of Pizza is just over a half mile and the atmosphere inside the Mendon Road restaurant, that’s affectionately known around town as “CHOPS,” screams casual and relaxing.
“It always ends up that I eat 80 percent of the fries while my dad nibbles at them,” said CHS head coach Andy Tuetken.
“The remaining 20 percent shows up on me, not you,” quickly quips George Tuetken.
George, who goes by the nickname “Skip,” is Cumberland’s scorekeeper. He takes his duty very seriously, charting each base hit, walk and strikeout in easy-toread fashion. As the fries cool off, George takes the scorebook out from his blue binder. It’s placed on the table at CHOPS so that both Tuetkens can examine the contents that are written in pencil.
With today being Father’s Day, the story of a scorebook and a local eatery is part of a postgame ritual where everything appears to be always in sync.
“Having him in the dugout as an assistant coach is great, but it’s even greater that it’s my dad,” said Andy Tuetken, who recently wrapped up his fourth season at Cumberland. “I trust him more than anyone.”
It’s easy for family ties to fall off the rails due to competitiveness and pride, thus a potentially beautiful, American story — of a fa- ther-son coaching tandem bonding over baseball — falls apart. Andy and George avoided that pitfall by setting a clear boundary.
On a recent afternoon while sitting at CHOPS, Papa Tuetken points to the back of the blue t-shirt he’s wearing. It contains all the names of the players on the 2018 Cumberland roster as well as the coaches.
There might be two Coach Tuetkens, but only one is listed on the shirt.
“He’s Coach Tuetken,” says George while pointing to Andy. “I’m Coach Skip.”
The tradition of father and son heading out for a meal after a baseball game dates back to when Andy played for UMass Amherst from 2005-08. Right before Andy’s freshman season with the Minutemen, George retired after a 31-year career as a safety inspector for OSHA. That freed George up to take in many of Andy’s UMass games. It also led to many postgame dinners where the father offered observations based on what his eyes told him.
“There was a lot of positive reinforcement but also reminders about ways to get certain things done,” recalled the younger Tuetken.
Looking back, Andy can say with complete sincerity that the fashion in which George “Skip” Tuetken presented topics during his son’s UMass career rubbed off.
“A lot of those conversations led to the way I coach now,” Andy said.
It was always a goal, at least from Andy’s vantage point, to coach baseball with his fa- ther. George was a coach on several of Andy’s Little League clubs in hometown of Smithfield. When Andy’s Cub Scout troop was in dire need of a Den Mother, George stepped forward.
“I never wanted to be a coach, but I love helping out,” George said.
When Andy accepted the junior-varsity baseball post at Smithfield, it opened the window to incorporate family into the dugout. The JV coaching world can prove to be pretty lonely, often featuring a staff of just one. Sensing that a little help would go a long way, Andy asked if George would mind handling the scoring duties. George immediately jumped at the chance.
“We always wanted to be in the dugout together,” Andy said.
When Andy learned shortly before Christmas 2014 that he had been selected as the next Cumberland varsity head coach, the first phone call he made was to his father while on a free period.
“It was going to be a given that I was going to have my dad on the bench,” said Andy, a history teacher at Cumberland High School.
There’s peace of mind in knowing the scorebook is in good hands, and the lineup card for that matter. Sometimes, George will write it out – one less item for the head coach to worry about. His penmanship has drawn positive raves from umpires and opposing coaches.
“It’s known that my dad coaches with me,” Andy said.
Nowadays, George uses a scoresheet he modified from the last page of a scorebook that’s no longer carried by a local sporting goods store. He created a two-sided document that has simplified his job. Instead of flipping pages, he takes a single sheet of paper and flips it over, reattaching it to the metal clip on his blue binder.
“I’m not that modern, but I prefer this method,” George says with a smile, which leads to Andy bringing up how a number of R.I. high school baseball teams are preferring to keep track of games on tablets.
The pencil that George uses comes in the color blue and says, “Coach Skip.” It was last year’s Christmas gift from his son, who rarely sees his dad use the eraser.
“We don’t often disagree often,” Andy said. “If he words what happened in a certain way, I’ll say that makes sense and we’ll go with that.”
After dinner at CHOPS, George will take the scorebook and type the results into a computer that produces a comprehensive stat sheet that Andy described as a godsend. One stat that George began incorporating this season is the number of hitters a Cumberland pitcher would face per inning.
“Numbers used to be secondary to me, but as I’ve gotten older and because he breaks them down for me every night, I realize that I use them now more than I ever thought I would. It’s allowed me to make more calculated decisions,” Andy said. “Having a pure stat guy is unbelievable. The fact that it’s my dad makes it even better.”
George will chalk up what he does as a la- bor of pure baseball love. If the Clippers play on the road, father and son will sit in the front of the bus, analyzing the scoresheet while the players munch on Subway sandwiches. They’re still wearing their proverbial coaching hats when they walk into CHOPS, and that’s perfectly fine.
“We never celebrate a win or dwell on a loss. We get right into talking about the game,” Andy said, referencing the standard protocol at CHOPS. “It’s a good time to reflect on the game that was just played. We’ve always reflected on the book. Now we get to do it in the coaching aspect. Those are important conversations and I love having them with my dad.”
On the bus ride home from Cumberland’s season-ending 7-6 loss to eventual state champion South Kingstown earlier this month, it dawned on both father and son that they’ll have to wait nearly a full calendar year before their next opportunity to talk high-school baseball shop.
“The fact we get to do this three months a year is unbelievable,” Andy said.
For Coach Skip, just give him a binder, a double-sided scoresheet, and a pencil with a good eraser and he’s in paradise. For Coach Tuetken, it’s all about understanding how truly fortunate he is – even if that means having to eat the lion’s share of the french fries.
“A lot of coaches will say to me that they would love to have their dad in the dugout,” Andy Tuetken said. “It’s something that I can’t tell you how much I cherish.”