Rockford baseball team 'feels the love' after gear stolen in Battle Creek
The Rockford Rivets returned to Rivets Stadium Monday after a week on the road, and while the team had the misfortune of having all of their equipment and game gear stolen from their bus one night, they are feeling nothing but love.
Sometime late Friday or early Saturday during an overnight stay in Battle Creek, Michigan, the Rockford baseball team was robbed. Players and coaches awoke Saturday to find their motor coach's undercarriage storage compartments cleared out.
"Bats, balls, player bags," all of that stuff was taken," said team General Manager Chad Bauer. "The fortunate thing was a lot of the uniforms were being washed by Battle Creek that night at their stadium so that we could take them on the road the next day. But we did lose some uniforms that were in the bags."
What happened next was the real surprise of the weekend, Bauer said.
Supporters of the team and the Northwoods League turned to social media and their pocketbooks to replace what was stolen. A GoFundMe account created on behalf of the team with a fundraising goal of $10,000 had collected over $13,500 by Monday afternoon.
Before playing their next game Saturday night in Kalamazoo, Michigan, the team went to a Dicks Sporting Goods store to replace what they could.
"People in the area heard what had happen and they were literally calling Dick's and buying $50 and $100 gift cards saying, 'Hey. Put it toward their bill,'" Bauer said. "So, that was really cool. ... Kalamazoo (Growlers) helped us out a little bit, too. They gave us some bats, helmets and catcher's gear and stuff. It was nice.
"It's cool to see that there's still a lot of good people out there."
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Assistant coach Lloyd Tyler Fletcher, who created the GoFundMe account, said the team has thrived on adversity all season long.
"As a coach, this was the most fun weekend I have ever had in my entire life," he said. "Even though we had food poisoning on Wednesday, a short pitching staff and then all of our stuff got stolen on Saturday. Adversity is nothing to us.
"Yea. They're sad that their stuff is gone. But they know they are going to get it back, and it's just materials."
If the theft was meant to hamper the Rivets, Fletcher said, the opposite is happening.
"I've never seen a clubhouse with this type of grit," he said. "We came out and scored eight runs in the first two innings that night.
"I have personally gotten messages from players around the country who want to come play for us because they heard our story. I've had some big baseball influencers in the social media world reach out and say how sorry they are. They've shared our story and now big baseball manufacturers are reaching out saying, 'What can I do to help to replace some of this stuff?' So, it's been pretty cool.
"We feel the love."
Chris Green is a reporter for the Rockford Register Star. He can be reached at 815-987-1241; cgreen@rrstar.com; @chrisfgreen
This article originally appeared on Battle Creek Enquirer: Rockford Rivets' baseball gear stolen in Battle Creek
