Longtime Rocket hangs up cleats

He was on the mound as the Rockets clinched the franchise’s first world series berth in 2012.

Five years later he helped them get back.

But Father Time is still undefeated.

Mitch Waters, a Portland resident, 2002 Jay County High School graduate and longtime Portland Rocket, officially marked the end of his playing career after the Rockets had their season come to a close Aug. 4 in the National Amateur Baseball Federation regional tournament in Fort Wayne.

“I was definitely overwhelmed with emotion in Fort Wayne that last game,” the 34-year-old Waters said. “You put so much into it. It’s not that I don’t want to play, but obviously life takes over at this point.

“My shoulder is not what it once was. It just becomes harder every year. For me it was definitely a lot of emotions going through my head at one time.”

It was Waters’ right arm which helped him play at Manchester University and later pitch in the professional ranks in Italy. But for most of the last 16 years he spent his summers playing for his hometown team.

In recent years, however, his arm started to weaken. This summer he suffered tears in three ligaments in his shoulder.

“We pushed him to the limit,” said Portland manager Randy Miller, who actually stood in the batter’s box once with Waters on the mound shortly after he graduated high school. “He has no regrets. I believe he’d still put it on the line and give his all when we’re playing in exhibition or tournament play.

“He knows only one burner and that’s the front.”

It’s his competitiveness that has allowed him to play baseball well into his 30s, something many athletes don’t have the pleasure of doing. As he aged, his role on the team changed, but one thing was always certain: If there was a Portland Rocket game, Waters was in the lineup.

“I don’t know if it means that I’m stupid or just the love of the game that I have,” he joked about how he was able to play for so long. “Maybe a little bit of both.

“It means a lot. Obviously being part of it since 2002, off and on, over 16 years you become part of four or five different teams because everybody rotates through about three or four years. To experience that and have a lot of good relationships that I still talk to to this day is pretty special. It is definitely that I’ll always remember and cherish.”

Waters, who was one of 13 Rockets inducted into the National Semi Pro Baseball Hall of Fame in 2014, went the distance on the mound in 2012, helping the Rockets defeat two-time defending regional champion Cincinnati Chiefs to earn the team’s first berth in the world series.

Last year, having not pitched all season, Waters took to the hill in a winner-take-all regional championship game against the Battle Creek Behnke. The crafty veteran allowed two earned runs on five hits, struck out four and walked one.

That performance is what sticks out the most to Miller.

“Hadn’t pitched all year,” he said, struggling at times to find the words to describe his now former player. “Didn’t think he could, and he found it within himself to pitch eight innings to garner a Rocket championship.”

Next year will be the first time in three decades the summer months don’t involve baseball for Waters and his family, which now includes wife Angie, daughter Emma, a stepson and two stepdaughters.

This fall Waters begins his first year coaching the Blackford High School girls basketball team, but he didn’t quite rule out coaching baseball, whether it be the Rockets or a different team, in the summer.

Until then, he’ll have to find a new way to spend his time in June, July and August.

“I never really understood what a real vacation in the summer without baseball is all about,” he said. “I’d like to step away for a couple years, enjoy my family, do some things that normal people do and just enjoy life.”