The John Crawford Volunteerism Award
Our friend, John Crawford addresses the team in 2012
We have one more volunteer that has earned a John Crawford award for his excellence in volunteering this year and it’s Ron Cochran.
Ron was part of the volunteer staff that worked with John back in 2012 and it’s so fitting to mention these two guys in the same sentence. John Crawford was a great friend to the Renegades. He showed his generosity in so many ways with his time, expertise and fearlessness. Why fearlessness? Imagine offering to bring uniforms of 12 players back to your house that had been worn for 3 days in 100 degree heat. Imagine the stink, the grime and the potential damage to his washing machine and his wife’s sense of smell. That’s Fearless for their senses and the health of their marriage!
Ron is fearless as well. It takes guts to stand so close to a hitter in Beepball. The mound is 21.6 feet away from the back tip of the plate. Our hitters stand up in the box and when the pitch is delivered, Ron is often about 18 feet away from the swing. This is easy to do when you have people without bat speed or people just learning to swing. However, when guys who know how to swing step in the box, it’s a different story. Ron’s heart beat rarely rises when our biggest of hitters crush a shot up the middle. He is calm as a cucumber. Fearless!
Founding Father to New England Beepball
Ron got his start with beep baseball way back in 2000 with the Lowell LAB retrievers. When Rob Weissman started coaching that team, Ron was the first call to see if he wanted to get involved. At the time, it was an easy commute for Ron as he was living in Lowell.
Ron, throwing a pitch in his first season with the Renegades in 2006
Ron was super busy when the Renegades got started as he was a new dad to his two daughters, Julia and Hannah. He finally got sucked into the Renegades in 2006. He has become one of the best pitchers in the sport. In his 17 seasons, Ron has allowed 2,179 runs to score and hitters have hit .402 in his career. His lifetime strike out rate is 21.4%. Our hitters have made some form of contact on 57% of the pitches he has thrown over almost two decades. Yes, we know how many pitches he has thrown. He has 15,751 tosses to the plate in an official game since he joined in 2006 (Take that Old Hoss Radbourn who pitched 678.2 innings in 1884) . What is impressive is the Renegades are not an all-star team and never have been. This means we have had players with every skill level step to the plate against him. He may be one of the most under rated pitchers in the sport. In the 2022 World Series, he had the second lowest K rate of any pitcher at the series at 15.7% (his best strike out rate was in the 2012 series when it was 14.8%)
Ron’s Role
Ron does much more than pitch for the Renegades. In the team’s infancy, he really helped the squad with its game strategy. He was a big part of changing our defensive alignment and has had a voice in so much of the strategy on the field over the years. On the field, Ron is a fierce competitor and his calm demeanor helps balance his hyper catcher for the players. At practice, Ron is also a batting coach and works tirelessly to help build a players confidence and knowledge of hitting to help them succeed.
Pitching accolades
Christian and his pitcher and catcher (Ron and Rob) at the hall of fame with his bat on display for setting the NBBA record in 2018
With Ron pitching, He has placed 2 players on all-Bolingbrook all-star teams (Shayne Cantan 2010 and Joey Buizon 2013). He also has helped us place a player on 8 offensive all star teams in our history including two MVP’s (Christian Thaxton 2017 and Joe McCormick 2022). If there was a record book, his name would be there helping Thaxton set an NBBA record for highest single World Series average in league history (.897). In that series, Ron threw 70 pitches to Thaxton. Christian made contact on 75% of the pitches and scored 93% of the time he put the ball in play (Striking out just once).
On the bump in 2023
This year, Ron stepped up in a big way and this award is to recognize that his efforts this year surpassed what he has done in the past. As a proud father of two daughters who have gone on to play collegiate softball, Ron has taken deep pride in being their biggest fan and rarely misses their games. Their schedules have always overlapped the Renegades. This year, their schedules lightened up a bit, allowing Ron to make the most practices he has made – possibly ever in a single season. Ron made 18 of the 24 scheduled practices for the team this year. That steady presence makes it easy for players to build their timing, improve their mechanics and their swings. The Renegades did a lot to try and improve player’s mechanics this year. Some of that helped our players improve their power, ability to go to the opposite field or just their consistency. Ron was critical in giving the feedback on what worked and what was not working as the players transitioned from practice reps to live BP. His advice to both the players and other hitting coaches helped us tweak the way we coached, communicated and narrowed the key focus areas.
Practice makes perfect
One thing Ron has always done is set up side sessions outside of practice. Often he and Weissman would bring a set of players to a field to do nothing but hit. This has been a mainstay for the team forever as a way to get in extra work and for Ron to help the players with timing before tournaments. This year, Ron took this to a whole new level. This year, he wanted to give help to both Shawn Devenish and Drew Crook, two of the biggest bats in the Renegade lineup. Drew lives in Manchester, NH and Shawn lives in Salisbury, Mass – both a long distance from Littleton, Mass.
Ron is demonstrating hand path to Shawn Devenish in the cage
Shawn Devenish states, “Ron takes his own time and gives it to the players that want to work. He is even willing to travel to do so. I know this personally because he has traveled over an hour to come to where I live to throw some BP and give some instruction on hitting. Ron also drove up to NH to do a side session with Drew and myself before the World Series. We had a lot of time to work out any kinks that were still lingering. This session helped a ton. I think it contributed to my success at the Series in Norman. “ And help it did. Shawn went out and hit .658, his 2nd best World Series in his career. Drew hit .433 but his bat wowed many opponents who did not know his name when he was launching bombs and showing he has one of the biggest bats in the league.
Game Time
Boston made a decision to attend the Indianapolis tournament in 2023, giving the Renegades 4 tournaments on the season. Boston played 18 games in total, which was the most games in a single season since 2010 (the team record is 19 played in 2009). For most of the past decade, Ron has had to miss a tournament. In 2023, he made all four trips for the first time since 2011. Ron gave these Renegades players an opportunity to play more games which was critical because our other two pitchers were more limited with their time in 2023 as Teigan Weissman moved out of the area and Peter Connolly is a proud new father to his son Miles.
World Series time
Christian Thaxton launches a Home Run off a pitch from Cochran at the ’23 Series.
When the Renegades traveled to Oklahoma, it was unclear if Christian Thaxton would suit up. We knew he would be with the team all week, but we were not sure if he would be Clark Kent or Superman. In the second game of the series, Joe McCormick pulled a hamstring and it was unclear if he could play. At that time, Thaxton decided to play and help his teammates. The last time he had batting practice was in 2021 during an intrasquad scrimmage against Teigan Weissman. He had not hit off Cochran since August of 2019.
Ron was fearless. He toed the mound with Thaxton at the plate not knowing if Thaxton would rip one up the middle. Christian has always been impressed with this, “I have crazy respect for Ron’s fearlessness. I wouldn’t stand that close to me hitting.” They took roughly 15 pitches of batting practice to find their timing. The results were incredible. Thaxton hit .750 (ranking 8th in the league) and tied David Smith for the most Home Runs ever hit in a World Series (3). Thaxton did it in 19 less at bats than Smith. Christian states, “Ron has allowed me to continue chasing that feeling I love – feeling like a ball is feather light leaving the bat after crushing it”
Ron Cochran is one of the best pitchers in the sport of beepball. The funny thing is most players in the league would be hard pressed to know his name despite the fact he is just one of a few active pitchers who has over 2100 runs scored (unofficially the others are likely Woodard, Medrano, Perry, Hibner, Walker). You know who knows his name? The umpires because of intensity.
It’s always beepball season
Ron delivers a pitch in Philly
Ron’s work has not stopped there. This off season, he and Drew have been talking. Drew told us, “This off season Ron has been available to me via phone and in person for questions regarding my offseason plans. He even drove all the way up to Bedford NH to meet me at a hitting coaches facilities to assist in translating baseball to beepball, he also was able to confirm if this hitting coach was the real deal and knew his stuff. I really appreciate Ron’s willingness to go the extra mile to support even when the main season is over. “
We thank Ron for stepping up in 2023 and helping this team have another successful season! This team would not be where it is without him! We know this as the team is 151-78 in games he pitches and is 32-33 without him (though it was 8-27 before he joined the team). Everyone in Renegade history will remember Ron’s name as he gave them an opportunity to play the sport they love!
Other Award Winners
2022 marked the inaugural season for this award. To learn more about the contributions of these four amazing volunteers, please check out the links below:
2023 Award Winners