FAYETTEVILLE — Baseball and family have been big parts of Tommy Boggs' life. The two have come together with Austin Slam Baseball.
Boggs started the organization 26 years ago in Austin, Texas, following a 13-year professional baseball career, including pitching seven seasons for the Atlanta Braves and Texas Rangers. He turned down coaching opportunities in pro ball after his playing career ended in order to be closer to his family.
"Doing this gives me free time," Boggs said. "With two kids who were athletic, I was able to go to every one of their practices and watch him (son Austin) through college ball."
"It's been great, a fantastic deal for me," Boggs added.
Boggs' Austin Slam has two teams playing in the Premier Baseball National Sophomore Championship this week in Northwest Arkansas and the River Valley.
One of the Austin Slam teams coached by Austin Boggs won the tournament last year.
The elder Boggs said his group was a pioneer of select baseball in the Austin area in the late 1980s.
"We saw a need for what we do here," said Boggs, who also serves as the baseball coach at Austin's Concordia University. "That's get kids out and get them exposed to colleges and do things to get them to the next level."
Austin Boggs said he wanted to come back and coach following his playing days and help younger players.
"They have some of the same goals that we had and we want to help them out the best way we can," Austin Boggs said. "If it's talking to the kids about the mental side or helping them physically out on the field. It's something I love and I can live my baseball through them now."
Select baseball teams and academies have exploded all over the country, turning into a money-making business in some instances.
And Boggs acknowledges Austin Slam has become a business with as many as 10 to 12 teams at times. This year Austin Slam has nine teams beginning at age 13.
"I started this thing really as just something fun to do," Boggs said. "I paid for this out of my pocket for the first four years really. Over the years it's grown, not out of design, but out of necessity. More parents would ask and want to be a part of it.
"More and more people are getting into it," Boggs added. "Some for good reasons. Some for not so good reasons."
Boggs said that was one reason for affiliating with Premier Baseball.
"We felt like we could corral the scouts, corral the college coaches and know you're going to go out on the field and play a good organization," Boggs said.
That's not always the case, Boggs added.
"A lot of them out there, I don't want to say they don't want to play, but you never know if they're going to show up," Boggs said. "They have different colored uniforms, shirttails hanging out. That's not what I'm about.
"For what we're doing, I think Premier Baseball is the top of the food chain," Boggs added. "I preach there's a right way to play this game and that starts on the field, but carries off the field. That means in the dugout or in a hotel with your family."
Steven Ponder serves as the pitching coach for the Austin Slam Braves Navy team and shares coaching duties with Austin Boggs. But Ponder has deep ties to Austin Slam. He played for the team from the ages 13-19.
Austin Boggs served as a bat boy for Ponder's Slam team and the younger Boggs followed Ponder to play baseball at Texas A&M.
"Steven was a graduate assistant when I was a freshman at A&M," Austin Boggs said. "He was my coach and now we're coaching together."
Ponders even recalls Tommy Boggs' wife, Suzette, fondly, too.
"She's like my second mom," Ponder said. "I spend as much time with their family as I did with my own family."