Lake Brantley to honor state baseball champs
For a quarter of a century, even as he played baseball at Georgia Tech and then worked his way up baseball’s minor-league ladder to reach the majors,
has stayed connected to Lake Brantley and Altamonte Springs.
He kept a home in the area during an eight-year pro career (1994-2001), which included three bigleague seasons as a pitcher.
And when arm trouble ended his playing days at age 28, Rigby returned to Atlanta to finish college and then moved with his wife back to Seminole County.
Since 2009, he has been the part-time pitching coach for a Patriots program that now includes his son, . Some flexibility in his daytime job in medical sales allows Brad to make most games.
Not every member of Lake Brantley’s magical 1990 state championship team stayed so close to home, so Rigby’s other part-time job these past few months has been a handful.
The 6-foot-6 righthander, who went 13-0 as the junior ace for a seniorladen squad, has been the point man for a 25-year reunion of a loaded lineup that clinched a mythical national championship with a scintillating championship comeback.
Locating , the beloved 15-year Boston Red Sox catcher who is now a special assistant to the general manager in Boston’s front office, was pretty easy.
Tracking down some teammates has been tough — though not as daunting as being down 9-5 against loaded Brandon in the Class 4A state final at the old Baseball City ballpark in Davenport.
The Patriots, stacked with players headed to pro and college baseball, batted around with their backs against the wall and scored five runs in the bottom of the last inning to win 10-9.
Varitek delivered the decisive RBI on a walk-off single to center field to score teammate
. Varitek was college baseball’s player of the year at Georgia Tech, a member of the 1992 U.S. Olympic team, a two-time World Series champion and a three-time American League all-star. He was quoted years after that rally as saying it is a moment he never will forget. Rigby can relate. “It was probably the most amazing game I’ve ever been a part of in my entire baseball career,” said Rigby, who came on to pitch the last two innings of the final after tossing a complete-game threehitter a day earlier in a semifinal victory against Miami Killian.
“The crazy thing is, I don’t think anyone in that dugout ever had any doubt we were going to win,” Rigby said. “We were just hard-nosed players.”
The victory capped a 30-4 season for the Patriots, and USA Today crowned Lake Brantley as the best high-school baseball team in America.
“Pretty much our starting nine guys, plus three or four other guys, played either pro or college baseball,” Rigby said. “You couldn’t stack a lineup much better than what we had.”
That team is set to reunite for a social Friday night and then be recognized Saturday afternoon before Lake Brantley plays a 2 p.m. home game against another perennial Florida baseball power, Sarasota.
The ceremony is set for 1:45.
“Every time we talk about tradition and history, that’s the team,” Lake Brantley coach said. “They’re the ones that put us on the map. We wanted to do something to recognize those guys.”
First, you have to find them.
“It’s been quite an undertaking,” Rigby said with a laugh Tuesday. “Like herding cats. Everybody is so busy in their lives. I don’t think everyone will be able to make it back, but it sounds like a good core will be here.
“This has kind of brought everyone back in contact.”
Saturday’s ceremony includes Varitek, who spent his entire big-league career in a Boston uniform. He won the Gold Glove Award and Silver Slugger Award as the American League’s best defensive and offensive catcher in 2005.