How the Impossible Became Inevitable: Reflecting on the Big Train’s Season with Sal Colangelo

Manager Sal Colangelo accepting the championship trophy (Mark Thalman)

The Bethesda Big Train only lost three games in the month of July, taking its hot streak all the way to winning its 11th Ripken League Championship. The Big Train was virtually unbeatable down the stretch, but there were times earlier in the season where such success seemed almost impossible. Manager Sal Colangelo shares his thoughts on how the Big Train went from a team struggling to stay above .500 in June to a powerhouse dominantly marching to the championship victory.

This conversation has been lightly edited for clarity.

The Big Train absolutely dominated the playoffs. For a good chunk of the season, that seemed impossible. How could something that seemed impossible in early June become seemingly inevitable just weeks later?

It's really one word. It’s believe. Believe in your abilities. Believe in what we’re trying to accomplish. Believe in why you’re here. And then we go from there. You're trying to develop that outstanding team. You’re trying to build morale and a competitive nature. It took the month of June, really, to figure it out. We just told the guys one thing: believe. We’re with you. We got your back. We do these things, and it’ll work out. And the guys believed it. They look at you and they think you’re upset when you lose, but you’re not mad. You're not upset. You got to change your ways. So I had to change my ways. We’re always positive, but really being very positive with the guys and letting them know you believe in them and letting them know you care, letting them know we’re doing this journey with you, that it’s not just you. And then let’s work. How do we work? Let’s get there early. Let’s talk about hitting approaches. Let’s talk about how we’re going to pitch this guy or this team. When you start putting a combination of all that together, good things happen. And clearly it happened.

Coach Lopez reminded me: “Just keep doing what you do. Don’t change it because it’s going to click later than it normally does.” And it did. Once July hit and we started playing like we did, no one was beating us. It doesn't matter who we were playing. No one was beating us.

Big Train players after winning the championship (Mark Thalman)

The Big Train dipped below .500 at a few points this season, with the last time being on July 1st after a loss to the Senators dropped our record to 12-13. After that game, the Big Train went 9-2 to finish out the regular season and won five straight playoff games. What happened then that caused the turnaround?

That was about the point where we just talked to them about ‘Boys, we are so close with everything we’re doing, just stay with the process, don’t change it.’ We lost that game to Southern Maryland because we weren’t mentally prepared to go play a quality team. The guy that pitched against us beat us. He physically beat us for six innings. We had no answer at the plate. And then we got beat pretty badly, 12-5, against Gaithersburg because we didn’t show up. So we just reflect. We talk to the guys, we reflect, we have competition offensively. There’s not a single guy who was on the bench that I couldn’t put in a game and he wouldn’t give us a chance to win or be successful. Everybody stepped up in some time, in some situation. That really propelled us, so once we got up on the Giants in the playoffs, we just kept going.

Big Train players after winning the championship (Mark Thalman)

Trevor Orth pitched in this league last season but wanted a bit of a break this year. He became the Big Train’s concessions manager, but he told you he was always there if you needed him. Orth pitched in his first game on July 13th. The Big Train lost that game to the Giants but went on to win nine straight games after that en route to claiming the title. Of course, more than Orth caused the turnaround, but there’s no denying he had a hand in it. Can you pinpoint how his contributions helped change the trajectory of the season?

He was throwing hot cheeseburgers, hamburgers, and sliders all in one, and they couldn’t hit it. They were hot, right off the grill, and he threw strikes. I’ve known Trevor for a while. I knew what he would be able to do, but I gotta be loyal to the guys I have. And then once people started dropping off, I needed to have pitchers, we got to finish the season. I went to Trevor, and he basically was like, ‘Are you kidding me? I’m ready to go.’ I said, ‘Good, when you’re done grilling, put on your uniform, and get ready to pitch.’ Obviously the rest took care of itself. Having him come in gave the guys a lot of confidence as well.

Trevor Orth surrounded by teammates after the championship (Mark Thalman)

From the very beginning of the season, coaches and players alike commented on the immediate closeness of this group. Even when the results weren’t showing up on the field, how did that unique bond push this team into becoming champions?

If you just watch them after and before they came, I think that speaks for itself, the brotherhood and the relationships that they had. Before the game, the players go and do their thing with praying and really having that bond of baseball, life, and religion. It got contagious, and everyone bought in. It was all driven by them, and they stuck together. They stood together, and before you knew it, we went on a roll. They weren’t down at each other. No one ever pointed fingers. They just knew they had to get better. We had to catch the ball. We had to throw strikes. We had to have better two-out at-bats. We had to reduce our strikeouts. Coach McIntyre, every game at the end would say, ‘All right, guys, it’s getting better. We’re down from 15 strikeouts a game to 10 a game.’ Then it was ‘Okay, guys, we’re down from 10 to six.’ And then after that, it was less and less because they went up there, they learned, and they got better. It just took off, and everyone had each other’s back.

Big Train players praying before the game (Mark Thalman)