Old Field, New Dreams on Grill Road: The Story of Mark Bogle and Carolina Thunder Baseball

By Jay Worley

There are plenty of youth baseball organizations that talk about player development, but many are like the wild west, where anything goes in order to win a tournament. The player churn in a lot of the top organizations is high, and the pressure to perform starts at an early age, sometimes as young as 7 or 8 years old. The parents, fans, and coaches of these young players add extra pressure by making the hard game of baseball even harder. Imagine an 8-year-old kid at bat in front of all the people he loves, trying to hit a baseball and please them while they yell instructions like "swing level," "keep your elbow up," or "eye on the ball."

A Different Kind of Program

In Clayton, NC (Cleveland area), Mark Bogle created a different concept that put team first and player development ahead of winning and personal success. That program is Carolina Thunder Baseball (CTB).

To join, parents had to agree to and sign a document promising to cheer only with positive remarks and let the coaches do the coaching. Parents were not to shout out hitting instructions during at bats or bring snacks to the dugouts. CTB also had rules the coaches had to agree to enforce in order to be part of the organization. These rules were stricter than the sanction rules that governed the tournaments, but better for the young players.

A big example was pitch counts. A 9-year-old could throw 6 innings in a weekend at a Top Gun tournament, for example. Bogle did not like that rule and implemented a pitch count system instead. No matter the score or the importance of the game, the rules could not be broken without consequence.

I remember coaching a championship game, and in the excitement of the situation, I failed to pull our pitcher when he reached his limit. Immediately I was getting text messages from Bogle, who was following along at home through GameChanger. He politely warned me and asked that I call him the next day to discuss.

The Hours Nobody Sees

There is no telling how many hours Mark and his wife Katheryn have sacrificed for CTB, whether it was keeping the fields mowed, ordering uniforms, signing up 4 or 5 teams for upcoming tournaments, holding parent conferences, taking phone calls with sponsors, or running coaches training. I remember going to his house on many occasions to pick up a player's jersey or hat and walking in to find his entire dining room and living room filled with CTB gear. He would joke that his wife was going to kill him if he didn't clean it all up, but really, she enjoyed it too and loved the passion Mark had for the game and the kids.

This was not his daytime job. He has held a demanding corporate job with a local pharmaceutical company for nearly 30 years, with a lot on his plate to make sure his department was running efficiently. Still, his passion for CTB couldn't be contained to outside the office. He routinely found himself taking care of CTB duties while at work and chatting about his teams and players around the office water cooler. According to a co-worker, this got him in some hot water a time or two with the suits above, but his value to the company would get him out of it.

A Lifelong Connection to the Game

Mark's connection to baseball goes back long before Carolina Thunder. A Clayton High School and Johnston County Legion standout, Mark went on to play baseball at Mount Olive College before transferring to NC State after his freshman year. His playing career included being part of NC State's ACC Championship team, and he received the Sam Esposito Award that year.

His relationship with baseball didn't end when his college playing days were over. He played many years of men's league baseball, traveling all over the East Coast, and he pitched well into his forties. He continued coaching and working with young players at multiple levels, including middle school, American Legion, and high school baseball.

Those experiences eventually shaped the philosophy behind Carolina Thunder Baseball. That philosophy has always been about more than simply putting together a winning team. It's about teaching the game, about fundamentals, preparation, teamwork, and developing young men who understand that baseball is only one part of what they are learning.

Carolina Thunder was built around giving young players an opportunity to develop their skills in a competitive environment while keeping the emphasis on teamwork, character, and player development. That sounds simple, but in reality it takes an enormous amount of time, commitment, and sacrifice. Youth baseball requires coaches to invest countless hours away from their families, and it requires people like Mark who are willing to keep showing up on a daily basis, 11 months a year.

Over the years, Carolina Thunder has grown into an organization serving multiple age groups and competing in tournaments throughout the region. The storage shed behind home plate is full of trophies, rings, belts, and banners. But perhaps the most telling part of its story isn't found in a tournament bracket. It's found at a baseball field on Grill Road.

Bringing the Grill Road Field Back to Life

For years, the Grill Road baseball field had been a place where men's league, high school, and youth teams played. Eventually, however, the field fell into disrepair and was abandoned. Then Mark Bogle saw an opportunity. What others might have seen as a neglected baseball field, the people involved with Carolina Thunder saw as something that could be brought back to life.

He went to the owner of the field, Mr. Linwood Jones, who lives next door. Mr. Jones gave him the green light to fix up the place and charged him only $1 per year in rent. He just wanted to see the old ballpark come back to life. Mr. Jones's grandson is MLB pitcher Cody Whitley, who saw firsthand how a kid's dream could come true, and Mr. Jones wanted to see kids out there playing again. He also served on the advisory council that would help address disputes and make sure the Thunder brand was being represented properly by parents, coaches, players, and fans.

This was not going to be an easy or cheap task. The field had drainage problems, the parking area needed a lot of attention, the batting cages needed repairs, the bleachers had deteriorated, the lights had all kinds of electrical issues, and the playing surface needed extensive work.

Led by Bogle, a group of volunteers got to work. Dirt was brought in, the infield was regraded, and drainage was addressed. Batting cages were renovated, lighting was updated, bleachers were installed, and a bullpen was developed. Little by little, the field became a baseball facility again. More importantly, it became a place where another generation of young players could play the game.

That is an important part of Mark's story. He wasn't simply interested in having a team. He wanted to help create a place where baseball could continue and thrive again, like it did in his glory days as a young ball player.

The Legacy on Grill Road

Recently, some of the high school seniors who started with Thunder as young kids received college baseball scholarships. They are talented ball players, but more importantly, they have great character that stands out, and that seed was planted at Thunder Field on Grill Road. There will be many more Thunder players going on to play in college and potentially beyond, and all of the boys will have a great advantage in life because of the lessons they learned on Grill Road.

At the end of this fall season, Mark will be hanging up his coach's turf shoes and cutting the lights off at Thunder Field for the last time. With his son aging out and two daughters in college, he has decided to spend more time with his family. Although if you know Mark, you know he will not be able to turn the passion off. It will remain. Mark may be retiring and CTB may be coming to an end, but the legacy will live on through the players, and they will pass it on for generations to come.