Family forged in fast balls, power bars

Grafton couple’s boys of summer turn out to be the sons they never had

JOHN AND LINDA Taylor of Grafton (far left and right) hosted three Lakeshore Chinooks this season, including from left, Jesse Slinger, James Hulbert and Brendan McGuigan. Photo courtesy of Linda Taylor
By 
MITCH MAERSCH
Ozaukee Press staff

John and Linda Taylor of Grafton have three grown daughters, but their family grows every summer.

The couple has opened their home to Lakeshore Chinooks players the last five years. Since housing two players the first season, they have taken three each year after, filling their three empty bedrooms upstairs.

“The boys we never had,” Linda said of her summer baseball sons.

The feeling is mutual for the college players.

“They were very open to me and welcomed me in and treated me like I was family,” pitcher Jesse Slinger said.

Linda’s baking has become a highlight for their house guests.

“Mrs. Taylor does make a very, very solid power bar,” Slinger said.

The concoctions consist of peanut butter, honey, brown sugar, oatmeal, toasted rice cereal and cocoa and were always wrapped and ready for the taking in the closet.

“They’re great little pick-me-up snacks, good for working out or playing,” Slinger said.

That wasn’t the only new food Slinger appreciated. He admitted he is a bit of a picky eater, but he was willing to try salmon — his summer team’s namesake — after a charter fishing trip out of Port Washington.

“Mrs. Taylor cooked it up. It was superb,” he said. “The Taylors opened up my horizons.”

Slinger is from Pittsburgh and attended Lock Haven University in Pennsylvania. He will attend chiropractic school in Florida in fall. He had been to Wisconsin in 2017 when he played for the

Wisconsin Rapids Rafters in the Northwoods League — he enjoys Spotted Cow and Stevens Point Brewery beverages — but he hadn’t seen Lake Michigan. He loved being near the water.

“On the super hot or humid days with the lake there, you got a little lake breeze. It was cooler on the field,” he said.

John Taylor said most players don’t comprehend the lake’s size until they see it in person.

“They come here and look over the bluff on Lake Michigan they’re blown away,” he said.

Other Wisconsin staples players make a point to try include cheese curds and frozen custard. The Taylors take them to Hefner’s in Cedarburg, and this season and a couple went to Kopp’s.

The Taylors do more than just host, however. They attend nearly every one of the 36 home games.

The players come find them after each game and give their “mother” a big hug and chat for a few minutes.

“Linda lets them know what’s in the fridge that’s new,” John said.

Some players have stayed multiple summers and are more comfortable rooting around the fridge. One summer, Linda asked her trio if they tried the chicken she made and put in the back.

Two players did not, but the third, in his second season with the family, was braver and searched around for food.

Players usually get up around 9 or 10 a.m., have breakfast, go to work out, get lunch and then head to the stadium at Concordia University Wisconsin in Mequon for batting practice or the bus for road games.

It’s a rigorous schedule. The Chinooks play 72 games in 76 days — the most of any summer college league — and it’s right after the college season finishes.

Family time is short.

John said players can arrive at all hours on the Sunday of Memorial Day weekend — sometimes the couple gets a text, “I’m in your driveway” — with batting practice on that Monday and Chinooks games starting on Tuesday.

When the Chinooks have a day game, the Taylors take their players to a Milwaukee Brewers game at night. During the league’s all-star break, John had the players shoot his compound bow in the backyard. None had done that before.

One year, the players at the Taylors had a road trip canceled due to rain and found a way to get to Summerfest. They missed the bus home and took what Linda called an “expensive” Uber.

As much as the players learned in their time with the Taylors, the couple learned plenty about baseball.

One player holds his batting gloves in his hands when he’s on first base instead of putting them in his pocket. He told John it was so he didn’t break his fingers when sliding.

Players had their superstitions. Marshall Kasowski, now in the Los Angeles Dodgers’ organization, had a doll that every Chinook needed to touch in the dugout before games.

“They all admit they have a lot of superstitions,” John said.

Sometimes, that expands to host parents, though the Taylors don’t partake. One family, they said, didn’t park in their regular spot because the Chinooks were on a losing streak.

Several of the Taylors’ players have been drafted or signed as free agents. On Monday, pitcher Brenden McGuigan signed with the Seattle Mariners.

McGuigan played for the University of Richmond — the Taylors have had a player from that school each season — and this year pitched in the Major League Dreams Showcase in Madison, in which 100 of the Northwoods League’s top players perform for scouts.

Afterward, Linda called McGuigan’s mother afterward, who was in tears.

“‘You’re his mom out there,’” she said.

A couple of years ago, the Taylors hosted Matthew Mika, a Chinook fan favorite who is now in the Milwaukee Brewers farm system.

The Northwoods League, John said, is the second-highest ranked in the country for college-level ball during the summer. The legendary Cape Cod Baseball League on the East Coast is first since more scouts watch games, but it can’t compete for hospitality.

One player the Taylors hosted who had played in the Cape Cod League said players traveled on school buses to high school fields, did their own laundry and had to fend for themselves for meals.

The Chinooks have a charter bus with a veteran driver who everyone knows and likes. Players are amazed by the quality of its stadium. The team does players’ laundry and provides pre-game meals.

Slinger said for any players looking to go to the North Woods League, “the Lakeshore Chinooks is the place to be.”

Before they left, Slinger, McGuigan and James Hulbert each signed a ball together and one each individually, as well as photos, for the Taylors.

“I really enjoy the kids. These guys are all good. They’re very respectful,” Linda said.

The couple heard about hosting players through their nephew, who played on a traveling baseball team. Host families receive season tickets, preferred parking and 10% off Chinooks merchandise.

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Wisconsin’s largest paid circulation community weekly newspaper. Serving Port Washington, Saukville, Grafton, Fredonia, Belgium, as well as Ozaukee County government. Locally owned and printed in Port Washington, Wisconsin.

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