Alpine Cowboys Baseball at Historic Kokernot Field

June 3, 2022

Chris talks with Alpine Cowboys General Manager Kristin Cavness, Team Manager Sean Persky and Third Baseman James Prockish talk small-town baseball! Alpine’s beloved Cowboys baseball club start their 2022 season off at the start of June and face some brand new oppponents in the Pecos League. And all of the action happens in beautiful, historic Kokernot Field, built in the 1940s on the o6 Ranch by Kristin’s Great-Grandfather, Herbert L. Kokernot, Jr.

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Transcript for “Alpine’s Music Scene”:

Intro
Welcome to the Heart of the Big Bend. It’s time to kick back, put your feet up, grab your favorite beverage or snack as we discuss, declare, proclaim, publicize, and articulate about the wonders, magic, beauty, music, and happenings here in the area known as the Big Bend of Texas.

Chris Ruggia
Hello, welcome, and thank you for joining us again for Heart of the Big Bend. This is a podcast and radio show coming to you every other week about visiting the beautiful Big Bend of Texas. Specifically, we will cover what’s happening in Alpine, an incredibly friendly small town nestled in a desert mountain valley at the heart of the Big Bend region. With easy day trips from Alpine, you can take in everything this amazing region has to offer. I’m Chris Ruggia, Director of Tourism for the city of Alpine. And today we’re talking about something very special to the Alpine community, the Alpine Cowboys baseball team and their home park, Kokernot Field. So today we have Kristin Cavness, the general manager of the team. We have Sean Perske, the team’s manager, and James Prakash, one of the players. So welcome, you guys. Thanks so much for joining us.

Kristin Cavness
Thank you.

Chris R
Yeah. So as a broadcast, you guys are just about to start. You just started your season, but your home game, your first opening home game, is just about to happen on June 7. So, you’re going to play 7th through the 9th against the Austin Weirdos. That’s a new team for the Pecos League. Tell us a little bit about the Cowboys and the League that you play in.

Sean Perske
So, the Pecos League has been around for over a decade now. And there are two divisions. There’s a California/Arizona division, and that’s called the Pacific Division. There’s eight teams over there. And then here on the Mountain side, that’s what our division is called. And there’s eight teams scattered throughout Colorado, New Mexico, here in Texas and then Kansas. So, this year we do some road trips over to Arizona, New Mexico, Kansas, and then Central Texas to play teams in Austin and Weimar.

Chris R
Yeah. And those are new to the League, is that right?

Sean P
So, two new teams on our side: the Austin Weirdos and the Weimar Hormigas. Sorry, I butchered that, but yeah, two new teams. They’re decently close to us. So that’s nice for us in terms of travel, for the road games and everything. So, it’ll be nice to have a fellow Texas team here and be able to take the guys over to some new parts of Texas.

Chris R
Yeah. And we’ll be introducing our home audience to both of these new teams because your first series is with the Austin Weirdos, and then the Weimar Hormigas are going to be the second right after that, we have unbroken series of six nights of home games, which I know the whole town is looking forward to.

Sean P
It’ll be a great time after our opening series in Garden City, Kansas, where we open up on the road. We travel back and we’ll have those two series here at home against those two teams and really looking forward to seeing what the fellow Texas teams have and what we’re going to be facing up against for the rest of the season against them.

Chris R
Right. And then halfway through your second series, you’ve got an opening event that you guys have done for seven years now. The Alpine Cowboys home run, 5K and 10K. So, tell us a little bit about that.

Kristin C
Katie Hector is heading that up, and she’s been really successful in getting people to sign up. I think she said we’re close to 50 or 40. I believe Big Bend Brewery will be providing some of their, maybe, the cowboy blonde beer for the runners after they finish and they’ll get some swag and stuff like that. So, it’s really cool. They run around the loop and then they finish running 1st, 2nd, 3rd (base) and finish at home. And that’s the finish line.

Chris R
Great. Where I found that, there’s a Facebook event on the Alpine Cowboys Facebook page. Is that the best place for people to; how should they sign up if they want?

Kristin C
Yes, she has it set up where you can log in and purchase your spot and you’ll get a T shirt, et cetera. The medals this year are leather, and it has a branded 06 on it with some laces. It’s really neat.

Chris R
All right. So, James, let me ask you, how long have you been with the team?

James Prakash
This will be my second year on the Cowboys.

Chris R
How did you wind up here in Alpine playing baseball?

James P
Sean. He got me out here and just loving the experience so far.

Chris R
Yeah, excellent. And let’s go ahead and introduce the listeners to Kokernot field. So, this is a beautiful Wrigley-style, like a miniaturized version of Wrigley field, in this native granite. But how does it compare, James, to the other ballparks that you’re playing in?

James P
By far the best one, by far the best, not only with the field itself, but the atmosphere and the crowd. It’s a special thing to be a part of.

Chris R
All right. Well, Kristin, you have a family connection here with the ballpark. Would you tell us a little bit about how this thing came to be?

Kristin C
In 1947, my great grandfather built Kokernot Field. It was the only thing out here except for maybe a building at Sul Ross at the time.

Chris R
Right. Herbert L. Kokernot Jr. And the o6 brand you were talking about with the medals for the 5K. That’s the brand of the o6 Ranch, which is all of this land where the Kokernot Field is, and there’s a big municipal park right next door. And in fact, the radio station where we’re doing this broadcast, all this was the o6 Ranch that Herbert Jr. generously donated to the community.

Kristin C
Yes, he loved baseball, for one. But then he had a dream and built this field in it cost him, I believe, a little over a million dollars at the time. That’s a lot of money.

Chris R
Yeah. That’s 1940s dollars

Kristin C
He brought in Georgia clay on train cars and used, all the rock that’s on the outside of the walls, is off of the Ranch. And he started off, I think, across town somewhere in just a metal fence field. And his father drove by one day. And, of course, he had just a painted o6 or Alpine Cowboys. And he said, “if you’re going to put our brand on something, you better do it right.” I guess he took his word for it and went ahead and did it. So fast forward, we are in our 75th year at Kokernot Field this year. So, we’re celebrating that. The field is definitely old, has so much to offer in nostalgia, as both of them said that it’s amazing to go in there. The crowd is awesome. We’re a nonprofit organization, and so all of us are volunteers. The players, they come from all over. And just to bring in people to Alpine. And I think the field also is a staple facility that people love to go look at. So, it’s historical. And we’re constantly trying to raise enough money through our season to be able to keep putting things into Kokernot and fixing it.

Chris R
Yes. The most striking thing visually about it – so, if anybody can make it for a home game, they absolutely should. But even if the timing is off, just a walk around the outside, the thing that’s most striking to me is the ironwork. They’re on all the gates and everything. They’re painted red with the little baseballs, those wrought iron baseballs. And “o6” is set into everything. It really is a craftsmanship of an earlier time. You really get that feeling.


Kristin C
Yes, absolutely. Everybody should visit at least once. And our food and concession is amazing when you do come for a home game. So, we’re fortunate.

Chris R
All right. So, Sean, in past in the last few years, you’ve done very well competitively in the season. You’ve been champion a few different times. Give us a little overview of how things have gone in the past and what you’re hoping for.

Sean P
Yeah. So obviously, back in 2019, we won the Championship for the League. And that was a remarkable season. A lot of great talent that we had on the team. And then we had the COVID year in 2020. And so obviously, guys are getting older, moving up to higher leagues and things like that. And so then last year, in 2021, we had to bring in a lot of new players, a lot of new faces, a lot of new talent, very young talent. So, we had four players who are returners from our 2019 Championship season. That was it. And so, we basically had to build from the ground up. And we still made the playoffs and just came up one run short against Roswell last year. But this year, we got 20 players back from our 2021 squad, and we’ve brought in quite a few new guys to fill in any holes that we had in our lineup and our roster. And so, we’re very talented this year, very experienced. We’re going to be utilizing that a lot this year and looking forward to putting up a lot of runs for the Cowboys and winning a lot of baseball games.

Chris R
All right, so how do you go about recruiting? What’s the process there?

Sean P
We have an individual named Ryan Stevens, who was the manager for the Cowboys starting back in 2011, correct?

Kristin C
Yes. He came in, I think, in the middle of 2010 when the Big Bend Cowboys were here, and then he became our manager in 2011.

Sean P
And so, he’s up in New York and he coaches at Wells College. And throughout the year, he’s looking at players and he’s sending me names of recommendations, and then we’ll talk about it, and then we’ll decide on whether we think that they’d be a good fit, and then we invite them down to spring training, which is where we’re at right now. And then also for myself, doing research, watching film that players send. And it’s kind of a two-man system there. And then we also rely on Eli Gallego and Derek Pollacchi here in town for any Sul Ross talent for the Cowboys.

Chris R
How often does that happen?

Sean P
It’s happened every year, except for this year. This is the first year where we don’t have anyone from Sul Ross. They had a pretty young roster. And one of the players that we’re interested in, Eli’s younger brother Isaac, he’s decided to go into the workforce instead baseball. So this year we don’t have any Sul Ross players joining us, but I can definitely tell you in the future there will be some more.

Chris R
Excellent. So, James, what position do you play? Tell us a little bit about where should we look for you when we come to the game?

James P
I’ll be over there at third base. That’s my main position, so I’m going to be playing third.

Chris R
All right. How did you pick – how do you make that call, Sean?

Sean P
One, where is the player primarily been playing in college. And then from there, it basically comes down to where do I see them fitting into the roster. And one, being able to produce for the team efficiently and effectively night after night. And then two, is the player comfortable there? So, for an individual like James, he was our everyday third baseman in 2021, was an All Star for us, was at the top of the list for League MVP last year.

Chris R
Congratulations, James.

Sean P
So for me, it’s a pretty easy choice who’s going to be at third base primarily for us, and that’s James. It makes my job a lot easier.

Chris R
Right. Well, what’s the trick for third base? Tell me why. I don’t know anything about playing third base. Tell me, how are you approaching it? What’s special about that position?

James P
Well, I don’t know. It’s fast over there. So it’s got to be super aggressive on all the hops and learn to – I guess when you’re not aggressive, be play back. A hot corner.

Chris R
Good to know. All right. So yeah, one thing, I guess you guys always have a July 4 game. That’s a big weekend in Alpine so people can look forward to a parade and fireworks, outdoor theater usually, and a baseball game. So that’s going to be a favorite that we want to put on people’s calendars to look for that. Is there any other particular – anything happening in Alpine, any other series that are glowing on the calendar for you?

Sean P
For me, it’s always the home opener, that’s always a very exciting one. We always have the local Little League and Softball teams out and they come out and show their support. It’s always a packed Stadium. And I mean, even last year we had some pretty intense rain and the Alpine faithful were out in force and we had a full crowd for the entire game. So opening day is always a very exciting time here in Alpine. Kokernot, when it’s full, you have a lot of energy, a lot of passion. There’s pageantry in it. So, it definitely is something special. And you don’t see it anywhere else in the League.

Chris R
Interesting. Yeah. Well, and I know that you guys get out in the community a lot, all through the season. We’ll have meet and greet opportunities for particularly the kids, but anybody in the community, to meet the players. Have you got anything on tap this year? What do you have planned?

Kristin C
We’re going to try to do that before they go on the road. This weekend is kind of full for Alpine graduation and then the Beef and Wine festival. We’ll probably pick a day next week before they hit the road. Probably have to be Monday or something, but we’ll definitely put it out on Facebook.

Chris R
Everybody keep their eye out on that. I know in the past you guys came over to the Visitor Center last year and we had a great visit with the players there. And does  anything else come to mind that we want folks to know before we sign off?

Sean P
My biggest thing is the city of Alpine and the local surrounding communities. When they come out and they support the team, it’s greatly appreciated by the guys. Like, I was just saying, the energy and the atmosphere here at Kokernot is unmatched. I know all the opposing teams when they come here. They’re extremely grateful that they’re getting to play on such a historic surface out of Kokernot Field. And then they’re always also regretting the fans and have them against their back and the heat that they’re facing from the fans and everything. But the people of Alpine have always been first class and I’m not saying that just because we’re here, it’s definitely special and it’s something that’s brought me back year after year and I know that the players every time that they finish up a season here, the first thing that they say to me in the office is I want to come back and I want to be a part of Alpine and the Cowboys so it’s definitely a special area.

Chris R
Yeah. And you mentioned the historic quality of the field. There’s been some famous players, back in the 40s and 50s when Mr. Herbert had the field and the team, I know Satchel Page played and that Cubs team came and did a demonstration game and they weren’t the only ones.

Kristin C
Like I said, he had a vision and he really loved baseball and I really think that now that we’re nonprofit and we’re trying to continue on his legacy, I think he would be extremely proud of it and he would be very happy with our team. Sometimes we do sacrifice talent over character. We really have to have these guys fit in Alpine. They live with great, amazing host families and we want to make sure that we find respectful men that will come into this community and leave it the way they found it or maybe better.

Chris R
Yeah, no doubt. Well, thank you guys so much for joining us today and to all our listeners, you heard that we need to keep that energy up, so everybody be sure to come out for that opening series and keep supporting the team through the whole season. Thanks again, and thank all of you for joining us again for Heart of the Big Bend, you can find more info on visitalpinetx.com/podcast and listen to us on Apple podcasts, Spotify and most other podcast apps. And for those folks listening on the radio, we’ll be back in two Fridays. Thanks a lot.

Outro
You’ve been listening to the Heart of the Big Bend. Hope you liked what you heard that you’ll find the time to experience all that the Big Bend has to offer. See you soon, partner. Bye.