Mike Utley was one of the founding members of our league. He was outspoken, tenacious, and always thinking of ways to find a win even during the off-season. Mike was a personal friend of mine and the one who was the instigator into my foray of tabletop baseball gaming. While someone may have eventually started an Inside Pitch League, I most likely would not had he not introduced me to my first baseball board game that started my own winding path into this lifelong passion.
Mike wasn’t new to leagues. He and I had been in a Pursue the Pennant league back in the 80’s. Times changed and he found his way into a new league a few years later when I started the original Fat Elvis Baseball Collective using Dynasty League. Mike’s addiction, however, was always Statis Pro Baseball by Avalon Hill. For decades (!!) he replayed the 1978 Texas Rangers season. Year after year he played and couldn’t find a way to get that ballclub to a championship. The last decade or so he would call at the start of the “new” season and say, “I’ve made this trade…” They were always incredibly lopsided, one that the other team would never had made in real life, but it was his hobby/fantasy baseball world. He played nightly after his wife and kids went to sleep in the pursuit of making the 1978 Rangers the World Champions. Who was I to argue his “insanity” when I have my own? 🙂
The Inside Pitch League was the latest league that he and I were in together. He didn’t know the game, but he loved baseball from the 70’s and trusted my judgment on IP being a great game for him to learn. IP frustrated him though. He couldn’t just look at a card and immediately know whether the player was good or not other than the stat line at the bottom. Mike was a creature of habit and he always preferred things he already knew to something new. But he also loved the challenge of trying to be an excellent general manager and to find ways to win. While he didn’t make it to the World Series his fierce competitive nature pushed him. In one of our more recent conversations Mike told me, “I don’t care if I finish 6-48 next year as long as all six of my wins come against you.” That was Mike.
In 2016 Mike was involved in a tragic car wreck with two of his three children. While he was seriously injured, it was his middle daughter receiving the most critical injuries. Careflight was called in and she would spend weeks in the hospital with a traumatic brain injury. The community, family and friends all rallied for Mike’s daughter, Liberty. He and Shannon, his wife, would be her biggest advocates fighting for her as she fought to survive. They maintained vigil every step of the way even after she was able to be released to go home. With so much ongoing care needed, Mike became a stay-at-home dad to take on the fulltime care during the day while working various courier services in odd hours to help provide for his family. He often talked of how Liberty was his warrior — battling the TBI and all the things that came with the challenges she faced. And that is how his league team came to be called the Liberty Warriors.
Faith was always a major driving point behind much of what Mike would do in his life. While naturally a shy person, Mike talked like a man on fire when the subject of Jesus would come up in conversation. His faith was a strong point in the Utley household and one that you can see impacted every person in his home. We don’t always understand why things happen when they happen. While Mike had a strong faith before the accident and it only grew more after. It was their faith that carried the family through the day when, three years after the accident, Liberty passed away due to complications from her injuries. I was amazed to see the strength and resilience in each member of the family as I talked with them. It was their faith in God that carried them through the most difficult season of their lives.
Almost daily phone calls were normal for Mike and I. We would talk about what we were studying in the bible, or about baseball, or politics (he made most conservatives look like liberals – LOL). We had been friends since 8th grade. He was my best man at my marriage and vice versa. We both grew up in households filled with sisters and no brothers. Between our faith, our love for sports, and escaping the girls in both households that it just kind of happened that we became best friends. More than that — brothers. I spent half my life at his house and his parents were like my own.
On December 23rd I got a call from his wife at 5a. Mike had passed away unexpectedly in the early morning hours. It seemed like a horribly bad joke. I kept thinking this can’t be real. The next couple of weeks were pretty difficult personally. I lost my best friend, my brother, my league member, my most fiercest opponent.
Family and relationships have always been extremely important to me. They seemingly become a focal point in almost any situation. This league is just another example. I have not met any of the other league members personally. But I have shared conversations with all of them and each one have become someone I can call my friend. I care about them and what’s going on in their lives and they seemingly feel the same way.
When I shared the news about Mike to the league, it was apparent they all felt the same way about him. They all wanted to do something in his memory. Some knew the story of why Mike’s team was called the Liberty Warriors, some didn’t. But still they wanted to do something. In our winter meetings prior to the 1971 season we decided to change the name of our league from the generically labeled ‘Inside Pitch League’ to the Liberty Inside Pitch League in tribute to Mike. This is our way to honor both Mike and his daughter, Liberty, who was the ‘Warrior’ in his life.
— Rick Queary