2013 Trinidad Triggers Season Recap - The Season That Put Trinidad and the Pecos League on National Television
The 2013 Trinidad Triggers season became one of the most unusual and important seasons in the early history of the Pecos League. Trinidad was only entering its second year of professional baseball, but during the summer of 2013 the Triggers weren't simply trying to win baseball games and establish themselves at Central Park. They were doing it with television cameras following virtually every part of their season.
A production crew from 44 Blue Productions came to Trinidad to document life at the lowest levels of independent professional baseball. The cameras followed the Triggers throughout the 2013 season, capturing the players, manager J.D. Droddy, life in Trinidad, road trips, roster moves, financial realities and the daily struggle of players attempting to keep their professional baseball careers alive. The resulting six-part documentary series, "The Pecos League," would debut on Fox Sports 1 in May of 2014 and introduce the Trinidad Triggers and the Pecos League to a national television audience.
Behind the television story was also a successful baseball season. Trinidad improved substantially from its inaugural year, finished 37-31 and qualified for the Pecos League playoffs for the second consecutive season. The Triggers battled Santa Fe until the final days of the schedule for the second Northern Division playoff position before clinching their postseason berth on the final day of the regular season.
For a franchise that had only existed for two summers, 2013 was the season that established the Trinidad Triggers as one of the defining teams of the Pecos League.
J.D. Droddy Takes Over the Triggers
J.D. Droddy took over as manager in 2013 after serving as an assistant with the Triggers during their inaugural season. Droddy had been involved with the Pecos League almost from its beginning. He had attended the league's first game in Ruidoso in 2011, worked as a volunteer and host family with the White Sands Pupfish and assisted with the Carlsbad Bats before becoming part of the Trinidad organization.
Droddy was unlike the traditional image of a professional baseball manager, which made him particularly interesting when the television cameras arrived. He was tasked with managing a roster of players trying to advance their careers while dealing with all of the challenges that came with operating at the lowest level of professional baseball.
There were long bus rides, roster changes, limited resources and the constant pressure of winning enough games to reach the playoffs. In 2013 there was an additional complication: almost everything was happening with cameras nearby.
The combination of Droddy, the players and the community of Trinidad provided exactly the type of story the producers were looking for.
The Television Cameras Come to Trinidad
The decision to follow the Trinidad Triggers transformed the 2013 season. What normally would have been a relatively obscure independent baseball season in Southern Colorado suddenly became the subject of a professional television production.
44 Blue Productions followed and filmed the Triggers throughout the season. The goal wasn't simply to produce a traditional baseball documentary filled with highlights and standings. The production focused on what life was actually like for players at this level of professional baseball.
These weren't Major League players traveling on charter flights and staying in luxury hotels. Pecos League players were chasing professional baseball opportunities while earning very little money, living with host families, traveling long distances by bus and knowing that their roster spot could disappear at virtually any time.
The cameras documented that reality through the Triggers.
They also documented Trinidad itself. Central Park, the local fans, businesses, team staff and residents became part of the story. The television series wasn't simply about a baseball team. It became a look at an independent baseball team operating in a small Colorado community and the people who helped keep that team alive.
The production added another layer of difficulty to an already demanding season. The Triggers still had baseball games to play, players to manage and a playoff race to navigate while the production crew attempted to capture everything happening around them.
Trinidad Improves in Year Two
Despite all of the distractions surrounding the television production, the Triggers improved on the field.
Trinidad finished the regular season 37-31, a significant improvement from the team's inaugural 2012 campaign. The Triggers scored 525 runs while allowing 514, giving the club a positive run differential during its second season.
The Northern Division developed into a race between Las Vegas, Trinidad and Santa Fe. The Las Vegas Train Robbers eventually emerged as the division champion, but Trinidad and Santa Fe spent much of the summer battling for the remaining playoff position.
Early in the playoff race, Trinidad had performed particularly well against Santa Fe while struggling against Las Vegas. That made the head-to-head games with the Fuego increasingly important as the summer progressed.
By the final week of the season, there was virtually no separation between Trinidad and Santa Fe. Every game mattered, and the possibility existed that the two teams might need an additional play-in game to determine who advanced to the postseason.
Frank Florio Leads the Trinidad Offense
Frank Florio produced one of the biggest offensive seasons on the 2013 Trinidad roster. Florio hit .410 while leading the Triggers with 16 home runs and 82 RBIs, providing a powerful presence in the middle of the lineup throughout the summer.
Sam DiMatteo was another major part of the Trinidad offense. DiMatteo hit .349 with 14 home runs and 68 RBIs while also stealing 23 bases. His combination of power and speed gave the Triggers another dangerous offensive weapon.
Jacob Fabry played 69 games and hit .306 while scoring 66 runs, adding another consistent presence to a Trinidad lineup that scored more than 500 runs during the season.
The Triggers weren't built around one player. They had enough offense throughout the lineup to remain competitive in a Northern Division where every victory became increasingly important during the second half of the season.
Pitching Gives Trinidad a Chance
The pitching staff also showed significant improvement. Benji Waite emerged as one of Trinidad's most dependable pitchers, winning six games and posting a 3.05 ERA. Chris Shaklee also won six games for the Triggers.
One player on the 2013 Trinidad roster would eventually reach Major League Baseball. Pitcher Eric Yardley continued his professional career after his time with the Triggers and eventually reached the Major Leagues, becoming an example of exactly what Pecos League players were attempting to accomplish.
That possibility was one of the central realities surrounding the television series. The players weren't participating in the Pecos League because it was glamorous. They were there because they believed another opportunity might come from continuing to play professional baseball.
For a small number of players, including Yardley, that opportunity eventually arrived.
The Playoff Race Goes to the Final Day
As the regular season entered its final week, Trinidad and Santa Fe remained locked in the race for the second Northern Division playoff berth.
Las Vegas had secured the Northern Division championship and would host Games Two and Three of the opening playoff series. The question was whether Trinidad or Santa Fe would earn the opportunity to host Game One at home.
Trinidad entered the closing portion of the schedule with a narrow advantage, but weather cancellations and an uneven number of games played complicated the standings. The Triggers had a game at Roswell rained out that could not be made up, while Santa Fe also had games affected by weather and smoke.
That meant winning percentage and every remaining result became critical.
The race ultimately came down to the final day of the season.
Trinidad faced the Raton Osos needing the victory that would secure its place in the postseason. The Triggers defeated Raton 2-1 in a rain-shortened game and officially clinched the playoff berth.
For the second consecutive season, professional baseball in Trinidad was headed to the Pecos League playoffs.
Central Park Hosts Playoff Baseball
The playoff berth gave Trinidad the opportunity to host Game One of its Northern Division semifinal series against the Las Vegas Train Robbers at Central Park.
The matchup wasn't an easy one. Las Vegas had been difficult for Trinidad throughout the season and had established a major home-field advantage at Rodriguez Park. The playoff format made Game One in Trinidad especially important because Games Two and Three, if necessary, would be played in Las Vegas.
The Train Robbers ultimately ended Trinidad's season by sweeping the series two games to none. Las Vegas advanced to the Pecos League Championship Series, while the Triggers' second season ended with a 37-31 regular-season record and another postseason appearance.
Roswell ultimately won the 2013 Pecos League championship, defeating Alpine in the Southern Division playoff series before winning the league title.
For Trinidad, the playoff loss was disappointing, but it didn't diminish what the organization had accomplished during the summer.
Kim Schultz Holds Everything Together
The television production created challenges far beyond what happened on the field. Trinidad had to accommodate a production crew while simultaneously operating a professional baseball team, dealing with changes in local government and maintaining the relationship necessary to keep the Triggers at Central Park.
Kim Schultz became one of the most important people behind the scenes during that process.
The Pecos League later named Schultz its 2013 Executive of the Year, specifically recognizing the enormous amount of work required to operate the Triggers during the television season. The league described the summer as hectic, with the organization balancing the needs of the production crew while also dealing with major changes in Trinidad's city government.
There had even been uncertainty before the season about whether the Triggers would remain in Trinidad because of field-use issues. Schultz worked with the city, the college and the Pecos League to keep the team in Trinidad.
Almost immediately afterward came the news that Trinidad had been selected as the primary location for the television project.
Instead of simply keeping professional baseball alive in Trinidad, the organization suddenly had an opportunity to showcase the city to a national audience.
The Pecos League Comes to Fox Sports 1
The significance of what had been filmed in Trinidad became clear the following year.
On May 13, 2014, Fox Sports 1 debuted "The Pecos League," a six-part documentary series based largely around the 2013 Trinidad Triggers. Episodes aired on six consecutive Tuesdays and provided viewers with an inside look at the lives of independent professional baseball players chasing their dreams at the bottom of the professional baseball ladder.
Fox Sports described the series as an examination of the wild, difficult and rewarding life of players at the lowest level of professional baseball. The network promoted the Triggers as a second-year franchise attempting to survive a schedule of approximately 70 games in just over 70 days while pursuing a Pecos League championship.
The series introduced viewers around the country to J.D. Droddy, the Triggers players, Central Park and Trinidad itself.
For a league that had begun operations only three years earlier, national television exposure was enormous. The Pecos League had gone from playing its first games in small communities throughout New Mexico and West Texas in 2011 to having one of its teams featured in an original television series on a national sports network.
And the team at the center of that story was the Trinidad Triggers.
A Season That Changed the Identity of the Triggers
The 2013 season permanently changed the identity of the Trinidad franchise. The Triggers were no longer simply a second-year independent baseball team playing at Central Park. They had become the team that represented the Pecos League to a national television audience.
The television series showed both the entertaining and difficult sides of independent baseball. Viewers saw players pursuing professional careers despite long odds, a manager attempting to keep a roster together, a small community supporting its baseball team and the unusual personalities that make independent baseball different from affiliated Minor League Baseball.
That exposure also brought attention to the Pecos League itself. Player interest and merchandise sales increased after the series began airing, and people who had never heard of Trinidad, the Triggers or the Pecos League suddenly knew all three.
The Triggers had become one of the most recognizable teams in the league.
The Beginning of Trinidad's Strongest Era
The 2013 season also represented the beginning of an increasingly successful period on the field.
Trinidad had reached the playoffs in each of its first two seasons. Droddy returned for 2014 and again led the Triggers to the postseason. The organization continued improving, and the players who came through Trinidad increasingly viewed Central Park as one of the league's most distinctive places to play.
What made 2013 unique, however, could never be duplicated.
There would be other winning seasons, other playoff teams and other memorable players in Trinidad. But there would only be one summer when a television production crew followed the Triggers through the daily reality of an entire Pecos League season.
The 2013 Trinidad Triggers finished 37-31, reached the playoffs for the second consecutive year and established themselves as a legitimate contender in the Northern Division. Those accomplishments alone would have made the season successful.
Instead, the season became something much larger.
The cameras that followed the Triggers during the summer of 2013 captured a moment in independent baseball history. When "The Pecos League" aired nationally on Fox Sports 1 the following year, Trinidad became the city millions of viewers associated with the Pecos League and the struggle of players attempting to keep their professional baseball dreams alive.
For the Trinidad Triggers, 2013 wasn't simply their second season.
It was the season that put Trinidad on national television and introduced the Pecos League to baseball fans across the country.
2013 Trinidad Triggers
Regular Season Record: 37-31
Manager: J.D. Droddy
Home Field: Trinidad Central Park
Runs Scored: 525
Runs Allowed: 514
Postseason: Pecos League Playoffs
Northern Division Semifinals: Las Vegas Train Robbers defeated Trinidad 2 games to 0
Leading Hitter: Frank Florio - .410
Home Run Leader: Frank Florio - 16
RBI Leader: Frank Florio - 82
Television Production: 44 Blue Productions
Television Series: "The Pecos League"
Network: Fox Sports 1
Filmed: 2013 Season
Premiered: May 13, 2014
