Mike is an avid “BoSox” and “Gators” fan, born into a Navy family in Newport, Rhode Island on Veterans Day, November, 1945.  During his 13 years in Newport, “Juice” as he was called then, started baseball in Little League as a 9-year old with the Lions and played all 4 years with them.  During the old days, it was common to put 9 year olds with 12-year olds – not that way today.  Of course, Mike spent a lot of time on the pine as a 9-year old but by the time he was 11, he was first string Catcher and playing some 2B.  The Lions won the League Championship all 4 years.  His 12-year old All-Star team won the City Championship, District Championship and then finished 8^th in the state.  Playing baseball all year long in New England was tough, but you always find a way to play, even in the snow – just paint the balls and head to the ballpark  Of course there was always time for stickball or stoopball on Sims Street when things were slow.

Being a Navy brat, it was time to move South to Jacksonville Beach, Florida and what a difference coming from the integrated North to the segregated South.  Mike started playing Babe Ruth, American Legion and High School baseball for 5 years and couldn’t get enough of baseball.  Still small in size but very fast, coaches realized Mike’s potential was as an infielder rather than a catcher – having glasses by then helped on that decision.  He played exclusively in the infield, SS, 2B and 3B.  In Jax Beach, corkball and stickball on the hard beach sand was the name of the game – loads of fun.

As all of us ball players have dreams, Mike’s was to play for the “BoSox”.  Being in Florida landed the opportunity to visit many Spring Training camps and get the opportunity to try out for several Major League Teams – Detroit, Cleveland and Milwaukee.  But, reality set in quickly at those tryouts as you definitely realize there are a lot of great baseball players out there that were way better than him.  He remembers being at one tryout in Jacksonville Braves Stadium and the coaches sent everybody to dead centerfield wall and asked everybody to throw to home plate – you couldn’t even see home plate from 417 feet.  Well after High School and not getting any of those college offers he was expecting and the military draft getting closer to reality, he joined the Air Force at 18 years old.  This decision turned out to be the best decision in his life and actually led him to his current position at Boeing and landing in California.

Mike retired from the Air Force in 1988 as a Chief Master Sergeant (E-9) with 24 years of traveling all over the world and states (90 countries – 49 states) and had the opportunity to fly as a Loadmaster on many aircraft:  C-124C, C-130E, C-123K, C-141A/B, KC-10A, C-23A and C-27A with 6,000+ flying hours.  Mike had the opportunity in those 24 years to have 13 different assignments or training opportunities:  San Antonio, Amarillo and Wichita Falls, Texas; Orlando, Florida; Honolulu, Hawaii; Valdosta, Georgia; Fayetteville, North Carolina; Spokane, Washington; Clark AB, Philippines; Nakhon Phanom, Thailand; Charleston, South Carolina; Altus, Oklahoma and Dayton, Ohio.  All of these assignments had great visibility into dealing with different communities and diversities plus experiencing baseball, fast-pitch and slow-pitch softball in the service.

Playing SS for the McCoy AFB fast-pitch softball team in Orlando actually led to Mike’s assignment to Hawaii to play even more ball.  After the McCoy AFB season was over the coach announced the team would be participating in the Strategic Air Command (SAC) Tournament at Ramey AFB, Puerto Rico.  Off to Puerto Rico for 9 days on a C-47 (DC-3 for you civilians) to play softball – what a way to start an Air Force career.  Mike started to think at this time, wow!  Paid to play ball – maybe there is something more to this.  After the Air Force season was concluded, he continued to play with members of the Base Team in an Orlando City League to play in other state tournaments.  After the team won a tournament some of his Air Force  buddies decided to taste some of the good stuff and got pretty wiped out and decided if they were going to play top-notch fast pitch softball you need to be at Hickam AFB, Hawaii.  Well, five guys put in for Hawaii but four ended up in Germany and Spain, and Mike was off to Honolulu for 3 years.

Life in Hawaii was tough back in 1965 – 68 for a 19-year old, but somebody had to endure the pain.  Playing on the Hickam AFB Baseball and Fast-Pitch Softball Teams was so challenging but loads of fun playing all over Oahu, plus Pacific Air Forces Command Tournaments to far away places like – Guam, Philippines and Japan.  While he was coaching a Little League team on base, another opportunity steering him in the right direction was about to occur in his life.  One of the Little League dads was a Loadmaster on C-124C aircraft and asked Mike if he was going to stay in the Air Force or get out.  Mike stated “…stay in the Air Force only if I can fly, travel and see the world.…”  The Master Sergeant said take 10 days leave and I will get you on my crew orders and we will go to Tachikawa AB, Japan.  Mike took that trip and experienced an adventure of a lifetime that led to his decision to stay in the Air Force.  After arriving back at Hickam, the Master Sergeant arranged for him to go to Personnel and take the battery of tests required for this specialty.  He passed with flying colors and was off to re-enlisting for four more years and Loadmaster Technical Training in Wichita Falls.

Throughout his Air Force career, Mike had many opportunities to play in several Military Airlift Command (MAC) Annual Tournaments while stationed at Charleston and Altus.  His most fondest memory was being on the team from Charleston that won the 1972 Command Tournament – he states …”we had the best pitcher in the Air Force which made it easy and he could pitch every day – just needed to switch off catchers to survive….”  One place Mike never expected to play ball was in Northern Thailand, on the Laos border and Mekong River while accumulating his 151 night combat missions in 1970 flying exciting C-123K Candlestick Flare Missions over Laos, Cambodia, South and “sometimes” North Vietnam when the Navigators got lost.  A couple of his baseball diehard buddies found an old field at the back of the base with rocks, weeds, etc. and figured out a way to play baseball there.  They ended up playing two or three times a week depending on the mission load but they played ball – bad hops were the norm on this field.

The Air Force was great for Mike and they paid for all his college education as he was able to gather college credits from University of Florida, Florida State University, Florida Southern, and Western Oklahoma State College and finally graduating from Southern Illinois University with a B.S. and then Central Michigan University with a M.A. degrees.  All these educational opportunities coupled with Mike’s many Air Force adventures led to his current position at Boeing (McDonnell Douglas) in Long Beach.  While stationed at Dayton and being the MAC Command Chief Loadmaster Acquisition Manager, he had the opportunity to being involved in two programs that led him to work in Long Beach.  The KC-10A offered him the opportunity to train the initial cadre Boom Operators on how to load this big new Tanker aircraft.  This entailed many trips to Long Beach working with the Boom Operators and McDonnell Douglas engineers plus flying around the world with the SAC Boom Operators as the only MAC Loadmaster.  Then, the USAF C-17A aircraft came along and he was fortunate to be selected as one of eight Loadmasters who helped the McDonnell Douglas engineers design the massive cargo compartment.  Before assuming his present position as Marketing Manager, C-130 Avionics Modernization Program he held several Leadership and Management positions on the USAF C-17A and United Kingdom C-17A Programs.

After completing his 24 years in the Air Force and looking for a new challenge and another place to play ball, he moved to Long Beach and went to work on the C-17A Program.  Another great decision in his life as he ended up meeting his second wife, Candace and they now have two sons – Matthew 15 “Grapes” and – Andrew 13 “Little Grapes” – a dad again at the age of 50 – Wow!  A big decision but a great one!  Mike also has another son from his first wife who passed away – Christopher 42 “Juice” and three grandsons – Zachary 20, Bret 16 and Noah 13 all living in Deland, Florida.  Mike is most proud of all his sons and grandsons and lived most of his baseball dreams while coaching, watching and following his oldest son Chris, who went to Bluffton College, Ohio on a baseball and soccer scholarship.  Chris was a much better Catcher than his dad, so Mike made sure he had the opportunity to attend the Denny & Brian Doyle Baseball Academy for 5 years.  There he had the honor for two years rooming with Charles Johnson (Catcher for Florida Marlins and Los Angeles Dodgers) and meeting and being instructed by all kinds of Major League players – Mike enjoyed that more than Chris.  While living in Dayton, Chris had the opportunity to play against the likes of Cincinnati baseball stars Ken Griffey Jr., Pete Rose Jr and Eduardo Perez while playing High School baseball in Dayton and also played with ESPN Announcer Kirk Herbstreit for two years.  Chris’s son Zach is now a Sophomore at Asbury University, Lexington, Kentucky on a soccer scholarship and Mike is fortunate to see him play on his trips to Kentucky.

Mike and Candace reside in Hermosa Beach with their two sons and stay very active with Boy Scouts as Matthew and Andrew are Life Scouts, Mira Costa Badminton Tournaments, Mira Costa Choir Concerts, Hermosa Valley School Band Concerts, Manhattan Beach Community Church Plays and attend St. Cross Episcopal Church in Hermosa Beach.  Mike is still a road warrior as his job keeps him on the road 130 – 150 days a year and finding it more and more difficult to jump off a jet onto a ball field in the same day – it’s hell getting old and when that happens you start playing Senior Softball.

Mike first played Senior Softball in 2001 with the “Marauders 55”thanks to Terry White and Steve Sloane, and then Dennis Lew asked him to join the historic Fat Cola team – what an honor.  He enjoys meeting all the guys and the camaraderie is outstanding and exciting to see people like Lou Kranz at 80 flying down to first base.  Because of these opportunities in Senior Softball, Mauro Pendilla and Mike discovered they were both Navy brats as youngsters in Newport, RI at the same time.  Mike is the newest member of the Admiral Risty team in the Manhattan Beach Senior Softball League and who knows what’s next?