Buck's Return Provided Big Boost for Madison Legion
College baseball players are always a big question mark for Legion coaches as they are never quite sure who will return for another summer of town ball and who will elect to play elsewhere. Consequently, the athletes on the Madison Senior Legion baseball team and Coach Travis Lapointe sure are glad Jeff Buck decided to come back for another go-round.
"I chose to come back early on because I knew all the kids coming back were ready to play baseball," Jeff says.
After a successful career at Hand, Jeff headed north, joining the Central Connecticut State University baseball team this year as a red-shirt freshman. Jeff was a backup catcher for Central and came back to Madison this summer to take on an equally important role, quickly establishing himself as the leader of the team and manning the all-important No. 3 spot in Lapointe's lineup.
"He was huge from a leadership perspective, he taught a lot of guys how to lead, he helped create more leaders, which was probably his biggest impact," said Lapointe.
Jeff knew right away that this team needed him in that leadership role.
"[Being a leader] kind of came naturally," says Jeff. "I came back early to watch a couple of [Hand] games and no one in the dugouts was cheering. So I tried to focus them on always striving to get better and playing hard."
Jeff has been a catcher for as long as he's been playing baseball. His father was a catcher and Jeff naturally gravitated to the position, enjoying the control he had on the game's outcome. Outside of a starting pitcher, one could argue that no one position has as much impact on a game as the catcher.
"I catch a game based on how well I know the pitcher," he says. "If I know he is aggressive, I'll call more aggressive pitches. If the pitcher is more laid back and calm, I'll be constantly reminding them to calm down and just throw strikes to get batters out."
But as a college freshman, knowing all the different personalities and dynamics of a new pitching staff can be tough. Those first few times he had to take the 60-foot, six-inch stroll out to the mound to calm a Central pitcher were quite nerve-wracking.
"At first it was difficult because I didn't know how the pitchers would react in certain situations," Jeff says. "I'd let them work it out, talk to them, and try to help them too. As time went on I learned what to say around them to get them relaxed or less mad."
While he was the youngster at Central, back in Madison Jeff really helped bring along a young pitching staff.
"He was a great defensive catcher who helped a younger pitching staff," Lapointe said. "He brought a certain intensity to every pitch and at-bat that was contagious to the rest of team."
Those experiences made Jeff's return all the more important for a Madison Legion team with aspirations of making the State Tournament. Jeff was one of three college players on Madison's roster as center fielder Flynn Donovan and first baseman Matt Maghini also came back. While Lapointe asked all three to step up and lead the team, Lapointe said Jeff took over that role from day one.
Still, Jeff's leadership abilities didn't lead to early-season success as Madison staggered out of the gates, starting the summer 4-10. Madison did finally get things turned around and a six-game winning streak put them in the heat of a playoff hunt as the schedule dwindled down. Jeff and Madison came up short, finishing the year at 11-13 and unable to climb out of the big early-season hole.
"The slow start hurt us; we were all down in the dumps because we couldn't figure out why we were losing the tight games we lost," says Jeff. "Overall, what we take out the season is that we learned how to lose, but we also learned that losing isn't fun and you have to be doing things the right way to have a fun time."
It was a disappointing way to end Jeff's final run with the Madison Senior Legion team, although there is still plenty of baseball left in Jeff's tank as he hopes to move up the depth chart at Central next year as a sophomore and then take on a bigger role for the team. And while he admits his first year of college ball took some getting accustomed to, Jeff was more than pleased with the outcome.
"My first year was a blast, to be around great players who love the game of baseball," he says. "Going into the year I was a little nervous about how everything was going to work out, but once I got the gist of it I just started playing baseball every day after school and loving it."