'Now we're brothers'

(Special to the Times - Donovan Quintero)

TOP PHOTO: Naa`taanii pitcher Josh Bilison winds up for a throw Saturday in Farmington.

BOTTOM PHOTO: Wind Talkers hitter Malcolm Yazzie connects for a single against the Braves Saturday at Ricketts Park in Farmington. The Wind Talkers defeated the Braves 15-7.

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Being laid off from his Phoenix job may have been the best thing that's happened to Lester Nez.

But it's probably an even more important factor to the 15 young men that make up his Wind Talkers baseball team from Chinle.

Nez has played baseball all his life so when he returned to Chinle he wanted to make it a part of the lives of young men in the area.

"There was no baseball here," Nez said. "I started playing baseball when I was five. For some reason basketball took over."

But Nez made sure basketball wasn't the only option for boys in the area by starting up a Little League.

He started in 2000 but it didn't last very long.

"It kind of died off," he said. "There wasn't enough interest to keep it going."

He ended up with seven players left on the team, including his son Colin Nez.

He said he wanted to give boys like his son the baseball experience he had.

"I played baseball in Farmington in Connie Mack," he said. "I wanted him to have that experience, to play in Connie Mack... That was our goal, to maybe one day represent the Navajo Nation."

This is the first year the team has entered the Connie Mack league in Farmington. They are the only all-Navajo team and the youngest group of players out there - and it shows.

Having fun

The group likes to have fun but that is  something Nez stresses.

"My philosophy is, No. 1, have fun, win or lose, it's still a game," Nez said. "I even joke and say they're not making millions yet, don't take a loss, don't take it with you."

Nez said the team has played in the youth baseball league in Farmington and has moved up the system into the Sandy Koufax division.

The team has also been a part of the Farmington Amateur Baseball Congress. And now that they're finally old enough, the Connie Mack league.

With a core group of seven players the team has also done their fair share of traveling.

"Been traveling together to tournaments in the Southwest, Albuquerque, Las Vegas, Nev., Tucson and Durango," Nez said, among other places.

But even with their experience having played together for years, the team's playfulness sometimes gets the best of them.

"Things changed when they became teenagers," Nez said. "Half of our guys are younger and that kind of hurts us."

That's because the 15 players don't look at themselves as players on a team, instead they are brothers sharing an experience.

There is one 15-year-old on the team, five 16-year-olds and the rest are 17 or 18. All have something to contribute.

For example, Colin Nez, the coach's son, was nine years old when he started with the team. He shares pitching duties with Xavier Hardy.

Colin Nez said there are a lot of differences in Connie Mack baseball compared to other tournaments and leagues.

"It's different now," he said. "We're younger than the guys (on other teams) but we've been together for a long time. We're used to using aluminum bats but this year we're using wooden bats."

For Hardy, the criticism that the team is too young and inexperienced is justified because they are playing against more experienced players.

Team chemistry

But the two say their connection is what separates them from other teams.

"If you take the game too seriously it takes the fun out of the game," Hardy said. "We can be serious sometimes, we have team chemistry. I learned a lot about my teammates. We all have a lot in common. The first year we knew each other as friends, now we're brothers."

Nez will be a senior at Chinle High School and Hardy just graduated from Many Farms High School and plans to play baseball at the University of New Mexico.

Brian Keesie, from Rough Rock, Ariz., will be a senior at Many Farms High School in the fall. He's been on the team for three years and is the team's catcher.

The 17-year-old said playing in the Connie Mack league has been a real challenge but he is enjoying every second.

"It's much tougher and better teams to play," he said. "I like the challenge. We're struggling to find ourselves when we play because we haven't played teams this hard before."

As for Allen Silversmith, his contributions are his overall baseball skills and his sociability.

"He's one of these guys that don't take it seriously," Lester Nez said. "He makes us laugh, you need that in a team."

Lester Nez said he knows his team is young and there is much for them to learn.

"We're always learning," he said. 'I just want to see an all-Navajo team make that Connie Mack World Series. I kind of use Jacoby Ellsbury as an example. He's broken that barrier as the first Navajo to play professional baseball."

Loss of players

Nez said a loss of players has made things rough for the team. Their starting centerfielder, Gavin Hardy, was killed in a head-on auto accident on May 9 as he was returning from the Arizona state high school baseball tournament.

Nez said he lost two players to another Connie Mack team, Naa'taanii.

"It was really hard for us," Nez said. "We're just adjusting for that for next year."

The team will not compete in this year's Farmington city tournament for the right to be the host team for the Connie Mack World Series, and it's for a good reason.

Nez said his team was only guaranteed one game in the tournament because they are ranked No. 8 or 9 and have a 1-7 record.

They would play more games at the Native American Basketball Invitational in Phoenix, which also hosts softball and baseball tournaments beginning July 12 and where they placed second last year.

"I judge it by where we finished the league," Nez said. "We have a better chance out there."

Nez said he also makes sure his team is well rounded outside of baseball and encourages them to lend a helping hand where they can.

"With our guys I tell them you have to give back to the community," he said. "They have practice with younger kids, 10 and under, they teach them, the young kids really relate to them."

The young kids look up to the players just as the players once looked up to their role models.

Nez said when the team members were young kids their name was Lil Wildcats, off the Chinle High School mascot Wildcats. But later, they decided to change it to Wind Talkers.

"Me and my assistant coach, Mike Lamothe, we came up with the name after watching the movie," he said. "We used to be the Lil Wildcats. We had that name since they were 10.

"I thought (the name change) would be a tribute to our past," he said. 'I thought it was a pretty special thing."

And so far, the Wind Talkers have tried to live up to the name.

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