August 13, 2014 at 3:24 p.m.
Comer reflects on summer in Northwoods League
Comer reflects on summer in Northwoods League
Comer signed with the Thunder Bay (Ontario) Border Cats in mid July and got the opportunity to play with and against some of the best collegiate players in the country.
Comer, an infielder, hit .238 with a pair of RBIs and seven runs scored in 18 contests with the Border Cats, who play in the Northwoods League - the same league that features the Wisconsin Woodchucks, the Wisconsin Rapids Rafters and 15 other teams from the upper Midwest and Canada.
The season came to an end Sunday as Comer went 2-for-2 in a 9-7 loss to Wisconsin in Thunder Bay. It was an experience he said he would not soon forget.
"That was the big thing for me, the experience," he said. "I didn't play every day, but just being around those guys, it's awesome to see how they go about things and watching them play the game. They play it at a high level. They're Div. I guys. Everybody dreams about playing Div. I baseball. Playing D-II, you don't get the full experience."
"You're around some of the best players in the country - kids from Florida, Vanderbilt, Mississippi State - all these SEC schools, Big Ten, kids from all over. It's just nice to be around kids like that and pick their brain and learn how they go about things. It's just awesome to be around. You just learn all these different ways to go about it. Baseball's such a funny game where there's more than one way to get it done. All these kids have different philosophes and it's a neat experience to be around kids like that."
Comer received the call from the Border Cats roughly two-thirds of the way through the season after a roster spot became available.
"They had talked to my coach (UMD's Bob Rients) right before the start of summer, but I had my knee (injury). I had that surgery taken care of. Once I was back to normal they had a kid get injured and my coach asked me, 'Hey, would you be interested in going to Thunder Bay. They need a guy.' I was like, 'Sure.' Two days later I was up in Thunder Bay."
Comer said that presented its own set of challenges, namely getting across the Canadian border while he waited for his passport to arrive.
"In hopes of getting an offer, I had applied for my passport and all that, but it's such a long process I didn't have my passport yet," he said. "I had called (customs) and the Border Cats had actually sent me a letter that I could show (at) the border ... For the first two weeks, until I got my passport, I was just using my driver's license and this letter, just hoping they'd let me cross."
The Border Cats struggled during the second half of the season, going 9-28, the worst record in the league. They went 8-19 after Comer's first game July 13.
Comer said the record did not matter as much to him as the experience.
"The bus rides," he said, without hesitation, when asked about his favorite part of playing this summer in the Northwoods League. "Being in Thunder Bay, the nearest place is Duluth. That's about 3 1/2 hours away. I think our longest road trip was eight days. That's a long time on a bus for 27 guys. That's always the best part about any sport like that where you have long road trips, just being around the guys, being able to joke around. On our team alone we had kids from California, from Brooklyn, from Mississippi, from the Midwest. You've got all these different regions coming together. It's a good time."
Unfortunately, those road trips did not bring Comer very close to home. There are seven teams from Wisconsin in the Northwoods League - Wisconsin (Wausau), Wisconsin Rapids, Eau Claire, Madison, Green Bay, Kenosha and La Crosse. However by the time Comer joined the Border Cats the only trip to the Badger State left on the team's schedule was a two-game series at Carson Park in Eau Claire, which occurred the first weekend he was with the team.
"It was kind of a bummer not to be able to get closer to home," he said. "It would have been nice in Wausau and Rapids and get some more family and friends to the games, but the overall experience you just can't turn down."
Comer, a three-sport athlete during his days at RHS, said he has a little bit of downtime before school and college baseball start again. He may try to return home to catch a Hodag football game. Otherwise, it will be back to work as he prepares for his junior season with the Bulldogs.
"I'll get back to school, get back in the weight room and get back to work," he said. "We've got fall ball starting in the second week of September. We've got about a month off to rest up, get my legs underneath me again. Hopefully I can bring some of the things I learned, whether its drills or mental preparation or whatever it is, I can bring that back and help the younger guys."
Comer said he'd love to get a chance to play in the Northwoods League again next summer, but until then, he will remain focused on helping UMD, where he hit .331 with 18 RBIs and a team-high five home runs this spring.
"Hopefully with the end of this summer and getting back to work in the fall and the spring. Hopefully team-wise we can get a couple of more wins and go from there," he said.
Jeremy Mayo may be reached at [email protected].
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