Alumni team works out the kinks before NBC World Series opener

Five years out of baseball, Alex Prieto is out of shape. He’ll admit that himself. But at age 39 — almost 12 years after his major-league debut — Prieto will join the Wichita Alumni team in the National Baseball Congress World Series.

Prieto is far from alone, though. Almost everyone on the alumni team, which was invited to the tournament, has been out of the sport for more than a year, including manager Gene Stephenson, who called himself the “grandfather” of the team earlier this week.

“I said, ‘I’m not ready to play, but I can play,’” said Prieto, who was an infielder for the Minnesota Twins in 2003 and 2004. “After consistent practices, you start to get better, but I haven’t played since five years ago. It’s crazy, but I’m going to do my best.”

On Saturday, the Alumni will meet its exact inverse in the Newton Rebels, a team of young college kids who played an average of five games each week of the summer. And it’s hard to say how the Alumni will match up.

Next to Prieto, three other former big-leaguers appear on the squad — Nate Robertson, Andy LaRoche, and Ryan Kohlmeier. Behind them, 14 others have played in farm systems. The remaining 10 players either have Wichita State or University of Kansas ties, spanning back to 2001 with Casey Walkup, who organized the team for the tournament.

“They’re going to be in better shape than us physically, and probably mentally,” said Erik Harbutz, a 2014 graduate of Wichita State, who spent four years under Stephenson. “Maybe we can try to use (wisdom) to our advantage.”

More than half of the team’s roster — 15 of 28 players — have spent time at WSU and played for Stephenson, who coached the Shockers from 1978 to 2013. After some coercing from Walkup over the past month, Stephenson decided to “coach” the squad once assistant Jim Thomas could commit.

“A week ago, I said I wouldn’t do it, not because I didn’t want to, but because JT wasn’t going to do it,” Stephenson said. “I’ll do whatever they want me to do, from the standpoint of being the coach.

“We’re all in, for what it’s worth. How long they’ll be able to stand up is the question.”

That’s exactly what it’ll be with this club on Saturday as they play in the primetime slot at Lawrence-Dumont Stadium: just wait and see.

Some guys, like Prieto, have been to every practice since the team got organized about a month ago. It’s been a big boost to his fitness, but he still doesn’t know for certain where he stands fitness-wise. He wasn’t able to compare his 39-year-old self to his younger self.

“Let’s not put it that way. There’s no number,” Prieto said of his fitness, laughing. “We’ll see Saturday.”

Even Harbutz, who ended his career about a year ago, wasn’t sure how he’d perform.

“I’m in some sort of shape,” he said. “For the most part, I feel like I’m ready to go. Time will tell. Hopefully we can work on those stand-up doubles so we don’t have to run too hard.”

This story was originally published July 24, 2015 at 6:21 PM with the headline "Alumni team works out the kinks before NBC World Series opener."