Aces’ GM lauds Carson’s Matt Williams

The Reno Aces baseball team’s general manager hawked his wares in Carson City Tuesday, which afforded him the chance to direct kudos at a hometown hero who made good.

Rick Parr spoke at the Rotary Club’s luncheon and afterward fielded a question about what he thought of Matt Williams, the Carson Crusher, a former major league third baseman and now manager of the National League’s Washington Nationals.

“He’s a great manager,” said Parr, who added his belief that anyone making it to the major leagues in any capacity is a winner. The Nationals, with a 23-21 record, were second in the National League East behind Atlanta at mid-day Tuesday.

Parr urged his listeners to view the Aces and other Pacific Coast League AAA players as men on the make in the national pastime.

“They’ll do whatever they have to do to get to the major leagues,” he said. “They are superstars waiting to happen.”

Speaking of superstars, Parr also zeroed in on Brett Butler, another longtime longtime major leaguer and the manager who led the Reno Aces to a AAA national championship in 2012. Parr said Butler has moved on to the Miami Marlins, where the former leadoff hitter and outfielder is a coach. Even coaches and managers in AAA, he said, prepare for opportunities to ascend to or return to the majors.

The speaker told the tale of the 2012 Reno Aces’ triumph in Durham, N.C., to win the championship, and told stories of former Aces’ stars such as Adam Eaton, now with the Chicago White Sox. At the same time, he praised former major leaguer Phil Nevin, the new Aces’ manager.

Parr noted that the Aces are closely tied to Wolf Pack athletes at the University of Nevada and voiced the hope his ball club could do the same with Western Nevada College’s Wildcats in the future.

Exporting enthusiasm, the Aces GM even led the Rotarians in a rousing rendition of “Take Me Out to the Ball Game” as he touted his team’s value to the region and pushed for people to pack the Reno stadium regularly.

“There’s a lot of things that we do in Reno that affects everybody in the region,” Parr said.