Greetings, My name is Mike McFarland. On a cold and wintery day here in Florence KY, I've decided to create a blog on one of my passionate hobbies. Playing baseball in the the Miami Valley Roy Hobbs League on the Cincinnati Dragon's 50s #2 Team. This blog will cover leading up to, and the 2021 season and beyond. A little background information first. I'm entering my 8th season as a Dragon. I started back in 2014. That is the year I went to my first Reds Fantasy Camp. That is where I first heard of the Dragons. I blogged my camp exploits as well. Besides the 2014 camp I also attended the 2016 Camp. I invited Steve Ritchie the Manager of the 50s #2 /GM of the Dragons to guess blog during the 2016 camp. The following is his post from 5 years ago.
Guest Blogger Steve Ritchie and The Birth of The Dragons Edition!
I first met Steve at those early workouts back in the fall of 2013. It was great he along with Satch and Rob Matheny set those up for the campers, especially us rookies. It was a great way to meet a lot of my fellow campers. Little did I know at the time by meeting Steve would lead me to the Dragons.
As I play in what will be my 8th trip to Reds Fantasy Camp, I can't help but reflect on how things have transpired since my rookie camp in 2005. I had always dreamed of attending fantasy camp and wanted to sign up as soon as I was age 30. Life got in the way for a few years but finally at age 37 I attended my first camp. It's amazing how things have grown since then.
After camp in 2005, I got the bug to play baseball again on a regular basis. Before the camp I had not played since high school age. At camp there was a local guy who had given out his contact info about a baseball league. I reached out to him only to find out the league was on the other side of town; I was hoping for something closer. He then gave me the name of another camper who played in a league close to me who it turns out I met on the plane flight for fantasy camp. Rob Matheny was good enough to get me onto this Tuesday night league team and I've played every year since. This was a very competitive league with many former high school and college baseball players. As the years went on there was a desire to try and play some more baseball.
From playing in the Tuesday night league and getting to know players from other teams we became aware of another local team/organization that sometimes needed subs for their games on Sunday. The team was the Cincinnati Colt 45's and they played in a Roy Hobbs league for ages 45 and up. Rob and I signed up to be subs that year and would fill in when needed. More often it was the other teams that needed players so the Colts would "trade" us to the other team. I really liked the concept of this league, mainly the age 45 requirement, because as we had aged the Tuesday night teams remained young, for the most part.
In 2012, Rob and I wanted to again play but this time be full time players on a Colts team. They actually had two teams. Going into that season we thought we would be on one of those two teams but soon found out that the Colts wanted a third team to join the league. They had gathered names of guys interested in playing so we were all suddenly thrown together. Our team name that year was as generic as our uniforms. We were called Cincy3 and one of the Colts elder players joined our team to be the manager with the understanding that he would switch back to the Colts after the season. The foundation for what would become the Cincinnati Dragons had been poured!
Our first season we ended up losing in the playoffs to a Colts team that eventually lost to a Dayton team in the championship. That season we even had former Cincinnati Reds player Eddie Milner on our team and it was truly a great experience to play with him and see him roaming centerfield again. At the end of that season I agreed to become the manager for this new team heading into 2013.
I quickly realized that we were going to need more ballplayers so I started asking/begging other Reds fantasy campers to come play with us and also found some more talented players. We assembled a great team and won the division with a 12-4 record. We won the Cincinnati division title and also brought home the World Series championship by beating the Dayton division winners. Heading into the 2014 season we were looking for a repeat and also scouting for more players. From attending more fantasy camps and by holding the pre-camp batting practices I was able to find more guys to come play with the Dragons. Our 2014 season found us playing for the division title but we came up short. A Dayton team ended up winning the world series.
2015 was another growth year for our Roy Hobbs league. Again, with all of us aging, there was a desire from other teams to create a new league for ages 53 and over. After some lengthy thought and discussions, we decided to split our Dragons and field two teams (45's and 53's). This was a difficult decision because we had a great lineup but also realized we had too many guys playing for us. There was one game where we had 17 guys show up to play! I will say that all our Dragons players are good guys and will share playing time for the good of the game. We also bat everyone (just like fantasy camp) so some days you may have only batted twice. We felt we could split our roster and still be able to field two competitive teams so we did which would give everyone more playing time and at bats. This would also allow us to grow by adding new players.
The 2015 season for both Dragons teams went well. The 45's and 53's teams both ended up playing for the championships but both just fell short of winning it all. The team even helped purchase new alternate jerseys.
Over the years great friendships have been made and it all started as a wide eyed rookie at Reds Fantasy Camp. Heading into the 2016 Roy Hobbs season I'm proud to say that we have 24 guys on our rosters that have attended at least one fantasy camp. We also have a number of guys that are looking to join. I'd also be interested in adding another team in the younger 35's division to become a feeder for the older Dragons teams. I'd love to speak with anyone who thinks they can pull together a team for the 35's division.
Finally, if you are on Facebook you may want to consider joining our group "Cincinnati Reds Fantasy Camp". You can find us at this link and then just ask to join the group.
Steve Ritchie
2013 HOF
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