- Associated Press - Wednesday, August 7, 2019

NEW BEDFORD, Mass. (AP) - It’s not hard to find Edwin Medina.

Pick a day, pick an hour, he’s probably over at the fields.

If you catch him in the morning, he’ll be mowing.

A few hours later, he’ll be fighting off an afternoon rainstorm to ensure another night of games. On the weekends, he’s raking and lining fields as softball tournaments roll on around him.

“He’s invaluable to us,” said Greater New Bedford Youth Baseball League president Tommy Rowan.

About 10 years ago, the league was struggling to afford a groundskeeper, so Rowan approached Medina, who runs Eddie’s Landscaping.

“I said we couldn’t pay much,” Rowan said. “Really, we couldn’t pay anything.”

Before Rowan had even finished asking, Medina volunteered.

“He said he wanted to do it for the kids,” Rowan said. “He’s all about the kids.”

In the decade since, Medina has spent his springs and summers meticulously maintaining the complex’s three fields. He’s there upwards of three or four hours a day during the week and often from 6 a.m. until dark on the weekends.

“I told them I would do it for free because I want the kids playing,” Medina said. “I want the kids to have somewhere to play.”

There’s something a little whimsical about Medina’s passion for the fields. He talks excitedly about his own youthful days playing Little League in Puerto Rico.

“What can I say? I loved it,” he said, pausing before adding: “I still enjoy it.”

He grew up moving back and forth between Puerto Rico and New Bedford, never playing here but always playing catcher at some level - Mickey Mantle, Sandy Koufax, Class A - in Puerto Rico.

“In those days, I figured I would learn more over there,” he said. “We played year-round. I continuously played over there.”

He moved to New Bedford permanently at age 16 and started working. He fulfilled his baseball passion by playing in the Livesey Club fastpitch men’s league.

“One day, I was sitting at home and one of my nephews (Noah Ford) was playing at Whaling City,” Medina said. “I said to myself, ’I know the game, let me get involved.’ I got involved and they gave me a chance to do the fields here.”

In addition to maintaining GNB’s fields, Medina coaches with the New Bedford River Cats in the Autumn Baseball League, with the Dartmouth PONY team and with the Dartmouth 16U All-Stars.

“I see, in this city, a lot of young kids doing nothing,” he said, eyes scanning the diamonds on a warm Thursday evening at dusk. “The kids that play over here, they get to learn something. You have to remember one thing. It’s not all about winning championships, it’s about teaching the game.”

When Rowan first asked Medina if he could help out maintaining the fields, he assumed it was a short-term venture.

“I thought he would do it for one year and be like ’Heck with this!’ and be done,” Rowan said. “But he’s still here every day. If it rains, he’s out here trying to get the water off the field so we can drag and line and play that night. He’s an invaluable asset to us.”

Rowan has offered to pay Medina in the ensuing years, but he declines every time. Even when he fills in as an umpire, he tries to reject the accompanying check.

“He fights to not get paid, but we pay him,” Rowan said. “It’s like, ’No, you’re getting paid for this.’”

From the concession stand, Ligia Freitas, who is with the league, chimes in about how Medina will try to pay for a drink after a hot, sweaty day of mowing the fields.

“It’s a lousy one dollar drink and he wants to pay,” Rowan chuckles.

Even when the fields lay ready for another night of cleats and gloves and slides into second, Medina can’t bear to leave.

“He knows all the kids,” Rowan said. “He talks to them about baseball. Everybody knows him. He’s great. He has a heart of gold. He’s willing to do anything.”

“All you have to do is call him,” Freitas adds. “He lives three minutes away.”

Medina’s summer season begins each year in late March.

“He’s here every day getting the fields in shape after the winter,” Rowan said.

The league brings in college and high school volunteers, but that doesn’t mean Medina takes a break.

“He’s here with them,” Rowan chuckled.

There’s another program with the Bristol County Sheriff’s department.

“He’s here with them, also.”

Over the course of each summer, several hundred children will play on Medina’s fields. That’s not lost on the families that play on his crisp fields each summer eve.

“He does a great job,” Rowan said. “He’s a great guy. That said it all.”

___

Information from: The (New Bedford, Mass.) Standard-Times, http://www.southcoasttoday.com

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