Athletes golf to raise money for Post 12

Temperature around 90, not a cloud in the sky. The boys of summer reserved a perfect day in the last week of October to reconvene in the Wiregrass to help Dothan Post 12’s annual golf tournament at Dothan National this week.

Tampa Bay’s Gabe Gross, his brother Bo and his father, Lee, participated in the event.

“I had a blast. This is the first golf course I ever played in my life,” Gabe Gross said. “My dad took me out here when I was little. This tournament’s jut about the only chance I get to play it. Plus, I know I’m going to have a good time and get to see guys I don’t see very often.”

Minor league sluggers Clint Robinson and Cody Johnson came back, too. Robinson spent the season in Wilmington, Del., in high A ball and just returned from a month in the Kansas City Royals’ advanced instructional league in Arizona.

“It feels like being home in Alabama again,” Robinson said.

Johnson probably didn’t want the season to end. He hit 32 homers this season in high-A Myrtle Beach and finished the summer in Class AA Pearl, Miss., with the Braves’ Southern League team.

“Last year I was out here in pants and a jacket just hoping I caught the ball square off my irons so I could feel my hands the rest of the day,”
Johnson said.

Some other familiar names attending included former Marlins player Pookie Wilson, Braves’ minor league pitcher Jake Chapman, former Mets pitcher Grant Roberts, Braves’ minor leaguer Tyler Wilson of Andalusia, two-time Auburn All-American Bobby Huddleston and longtime AUM coach Q.V. Lowe and his assistant, Marty Lovrich.

The crowd wasn’t limited to baseball. Former Auburn quarterback Ben Leard, Tiger All-American and former Miami Dolphin Dave Campbell, three-sport Mississippi State letterman Max Fredericks and former Alabama standout Siran Stacy were all participating.

“It’s all about Post 12 baseball,” manager Larry Tubbs said. “It’s about our eighth or ninth year we’ve done this thing. We bring all these players and these coaches back. … I get to see guys I haven’t seen in several years. Guys I coached with and coached against and players that I coached. So it’s a lot of fun.”

Gabe Gross said this season underscored how fine a line there is between winning and winning big. A year ago, of course, he played in the World Series as the Devil Rays took on the Phillies.

Tampa Bay missed the playoffs this season.

“It was frustrating,” he said. “We didn’t come out of the gates well, put ourselves in a hole. We played real well for about three or four months and just kind of ran out of gas in September.

“We had a team, I think, that was just as talented, if not more talented, than we did before, but just didn’t have the wins that we did.”

Gross said his offseason routine won’t change much.

“For the most part I try to get a little better every year, a little stronger,” he said. “I’m going to work on my swing, like I always do. Just get myself in position to help some team win. If Tampa Bay wants me back, it’ll be with them. If not, I’ll go try to make another club.”