Wood Bats or Bust: Tourney Honors Chehalis Tribal Baseball Elder

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    It’s been 14 years since Ray Secena, Sr. passed away, and his presence can still be felt in the dugouts of Tomahawk Stadium in Oakville.

    A man that enjoyed fishing from the Bull Hole on the Chehalis River almost as much as the crack of a wood bat, Secena was a modern-day elder on the Chehalis Indian Reservation, despite his death at 57.

    “He had two real loves: one was baseball, and his other was fishing,” said his son, Ray Secena, Jr. “He helped the ballplayers around here a lot, and they had a lot of respect for him.”

    “He was everybody’s grandpa,” Nisqually tribal member B.J. Medina, 30, said. “That’s just who he was to everyone: ‘Grandpa Ray.’”

    Six teams from four Northwest tribes showed up to honor Secena by playing in the Ol’ Man Memorial All-Indian Wood Bat Baseball Tournament and Dinner over the weekend.

    The strict use of wood bats is the biggest tribute, though.

    “He didn’t like aluminum bats at all,” Secena said. “He wouldn’t say no to players using it, but you could tell by the look on his face that he didn’t approve. It was just the way he was brought up.”

    He was skilled with them, too, as well as a top pitching force in the area, according to his son, who said his dad used to talk about a tryout with the Tacoma Rainiers he would have had, had he not joined the armed forces.

    The emblem on the prize apparel featured simply a baseball and a fish, symbolizing Ray Sr.’s two passions. And on Saturday, the event served a traditional salmon dinner for the players and the community, a generous quality that Secena, Sr. was known for.

    “Say a family had a birthday, my dad would go out and catch a fish and give it to ‘em,” Ray said. “That’s why we have the fish dinner here every year, to keep that spirit of giving alive.”

    “We feed all the ballplayers so we get them a good supper and things like that,” announcer and son, Sam Secena, said. “And everybody gets to have fun and have a good time honoring my dad.”

    Nisqually coach Farron McLoud, Ray, Sr.’s nephew, said baseball’s become a tradition on coastal reservations, and that he’s happy to keep help keep it in tact.

    “I’ve been here all my life. I’ve been playing hardball at this field for a good 20 years,” he said. “Good tournaments happen all the time here. To play for my uncle’s memorial is kind of a dream come true.

    “He was just a very respectable man, a good ballplayer, and that’s why we keep this tournament alive — out of respect for him.”

    McLoud coached Nisqually to the tournament’s championship game, where they fell to Little Boston — a group from the Port Gamble S’Klallam tribe — 12-6.

Different Generations

    A month after helping the South Thurston 13-Year-Old All-Stars to third place at the State Babe Ruth Tournament, you can still find Gary Ortivez, Ray-Ray Lopez and Shawn Youckton out on the playing field.

    They never stop.

    They are the only players on the field with the discipline to tuck their jerseys in, hustle to the dugout, and fully take in what their coaches, who are now the elders, tell them. They are the next generation of  baseball players from the Chehalis Tribe.



    “There’s nothing better than baseball,” said Ortivez, a catcher for Willie’s Sports Shop that guaranteed he would start as an eighth grader on Oakville’s high school team this season. “I love to play, and I love playing with my family and my tribe.”

    As one of the tournament’s oldest players at 51, Ray Secena, Jr. is almost limited to first base, but also enjoys watching the  nearly 40-year difference in age.

    “It’s fun playing with these guys,” said Secena, who coached high school baseball three years ago at Oakville. “There’s about three generations here. I look at a lot of the younger players here and see their dads abilities in them.”

    It’s also a good way to keep them away from the drug and alcohol problems that plague reservations around the country.

    “I try to keep these young ones active; keep them doing something; keep them out of trouble; and this is part of it,” said McLoud, who is also employed by the Nisquallys as a Youth Director. “It gives them something to do, and baseball’s a good sport.”

    The same applies right here in Oakville, where the drug and alcohol free tournaments aim to make a positive impact in the community.

    “What it does for the youth for the Chehalis Tribe is we try to explain to ‘em that there’s a different way,” Sam Secena said. “Growing up on the Chehalis Reservation there’s a lot of challenges you face anyways, so what we try to do is explain to them that there’s different choices to using drugs and drinkin’ and stuff. And we hopefully try to lead by example.”

A Game of Degradation

    Constant degrading of the opposing team is a staple to this style of game, but they’re a little easier on the younger guys.

    “The old timers always play tricks on younger kids out there,” Ray Secena said. “You know, hang on to the ball, letting them lead off, and tagging them out.”

    “It’s tricks like that, we learn from the older guys, because that’s just the way they were,” he added. “I guess it’s to teach to stay in the game at all times.”

    As Puyallup pitcher Sam George fired a low-paced fastball that hit the backstop, a player from the opposing dugout immediately yelled, “He must of seen that deer in the dugout,” causing an uproar of laughter from the crowd.

    Announcer Sam Secena even got into the act, mocking his pitching with an “Is that Fernando Valenzuela out there?”

    “Stuff like that makes the game more enjoyable,” he said. “Seven inning games are long games, so the kiddin’ around is good for the fans out there.”

    One person that would really let you have it was Ray Secena, Sr., though.

    “When you made an error, you knew he’d be waitin’ to talk to you when you came back to the dugout to tell you where you messed up,” Ray Jr. said, laughing.

    And it wasn’t just his own team. Everyone knew that it was Ray Secena, Sr.’s way of being a tribal ambassador of baseball.

    “During the game, he’d go to opponents’ dugouts just to visit and joke,” Ray said. “He just enjoyed the game, and sportsmanship was his thing.”