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He would have been glad my address to the field below me was short.

He‘d rather I’d just have yelled "PLAY BALL!"

Because life is too short to spend it sad.

Especially at a ballgame.

That’s just the kind of guy Bill "Pod" Podmayer was to his teammates, friends and family.

But I knew long before team captain Jeff Gifford brought his lineup to my scorer’s tower at Fort Lewis College’s Birch Field that I would have to. And Gifford knew that I knew he’d ask.

Tri-State CareFlight had survived a hit-or-miss season in Durango (Colo.) men’s ‘Rec 3’ play, entering their June 28th 6:10 PM game against Can-Do Paint. A heavy downpour of rain threatened to wash out the night’s games on two of the three FLC fields, but Birch was a go.

I’d been scheduled to announce/scorekeep on Aspen Field that night, but took over at the request of fellow scorekeeper Amy Mohr when she volunteered to try and patch up Aspen and Cedar Fields with a spur-of-the-moment grounds crew.

Gifford, whom I’d known since the day I first took up a softball public address microphone back in 1999, brought up his lineup as he’d always done. He’d been the captain ever since I could remember, ever since his team used to fly under the Taylor-Raymond Jewelers banner. Pod was on the lineup then too, just as he was for the wet-and-wild encounter with the camouflage-clad Can-Do crew.

Things went well for Care Flight, as they improved to .500 (4-4) with a high-scoring win.

But nobody knew it would be the last game Podmayer would play.

While most people were preparing for the usual Fourth of July fireworks, barbecues, fun and sun.

Bill Podmayer was being called in to work on June 30th--two days after his team’s last regular-season game.

Tri-State CareFlight was not only the sponsor of his team, but also a work environment--a high-risk, high-altitude occupation frequently seen over the skies of southwest Colorado. Podmayer was a senior flight nurse aboard the Agusta Spa Koala 119 helicopter and part of the three-man crew dispatched to assist an injured logger in the San Juan National Forest west of Durango.

But eight miles northeast of the small town of Mancos the red-and-white chopper, tail number N403CF, crashed into the Helmet Peak area and claimed the lives of: Podmayer, 49; pilot Jim Saler, 40; and paramedic Scott Hyslop, 33.

Though I did not know his crewmates, I had known Podmayer the softball player.

But I really didn’t know what to say before the hushed diamond below me.

The night of July 19th had been loud and active as the first round of Tuesday night league tournament action was in full swing on all fields. However, warm-ups on--ironically--Birch Field had stopped and all heads were facing me.

I mentioned what had happened, whom it involved, a little something about the man and asked for a moment of silence--trying not to choke up. And I still felt like something was missing.

But Tri-State CareFlight’s first-round game was still go for take-off.

And this is where my story begins:

It’s not about a championship team.

It’s not about a runner-up team.

It’s about a team who soldiered on and played the game for their friend.

A friend who would have wanted it like that.

July 19, 2005--9:30 P.M. With a previous newspaper photo of Podmayer hanging in their dugout, and red strips of tape with ‘POD’ in black letters on their sleeves, CareFlight went to work early, leading 8-2 after two innings of inspired ball.

Pitcher Todd Tillotson had set the tempo with a headlong dive to snare a pop-up that barely got eight feet off the ground on its way back to the hill, and I knew whose game this was.

Wildcat Canyon Liquors rallied to take a 9-8 lead in the top of the third on an RBI single by Andrew Griffith scoring Jimmy Hedemark. But CareFlight responded to re-take a 12-9 lead in the bottom half of the frame, highlighted by a centerfielder’s error off the bat of Dave Minton that scored Ted Hall and Tillotson.

Dan Rottman’s home run brought WCL back to 12-10 beginning the fourth inning, but CareFlight put the game out of reach in their at-bat. After 14 batters dug in, nine had scored, starting with a leadoff homer by Ryan Beyer. Minton smashed a 3-RBI triple to make the TSCF lead 16-10 at that point, and the outbreak concluded with Tillotson--the man who brought the picture for the dugout--plating Beyer with an RBI single.

Wildcat Canyon Liquors managed nothing in the top of the fifth, and the game ended by run rule with CareFlight cruising into the second round by a 21-10 rout.

Most important in the win was the absence of a game the following week while the elimination brackets began to take shape.

One quote summed it up best, from Gifford and echoed by the entire team:

"This one’s for ‘Pod’!"

Field supervisor Linda Eckart penciled it next to the CareFlight name on the master bracket in the display case for all to see. For CareFlight weren’t just talking about the win. Well they were, but the motto became CareFlight’s calling card for their tourney stay to the end.

August 2, 2005. A true test awaited CareFlight in their second-round duel with New Life Chapel. Tillotson again took the ball for TSCF, opposing Jerry Martinez for New Life, and his team staked him to an early 4-0 lead. Pete Hall nabbed two RBI’s when his drive to right-center bounced off a diving Dale Strietzel’s glove.

But New Life--a name perfect for a softball team--struck for two in the bottom of the second and tied the score when Josh Newman scored on a Tyler Saunders single. Saunders eventually scored on a fielder’s choice to break the tie, and New Life went on to double up the lead in their favor, 8-4.

Still playing inspired ball, CareFlight stormed back as Minton scored on a single by John Maddox to tie the score at eight. Staying in swing, Tyler Schack knocked a single to score Kermit Barrett to regain the lead, and CareFlight added to more to close the top of the fourth with an 11-8 lead.

But New Life, as optimistic as their moniker sounds, struck for six in the bottom of the slow-moving inning to take a 14-11 lead. After TSCF failed to score opening the fifth, New Life were able to hit for three more runs before regulation time expired, sending CareFlight to the elimination bracket on the short side of the 17-11 final tally.

And now CareFlight would see how inspired they really were.

August 9, 2005--6:10 P.M. Tri-State CareFlight needed two to get back to the finals.

And they needed the victories in one night.

But "double-elimination" is a very accurate name to estimate the road a team must travel to survive--CareFlight’s ‘magic number’ actually wasn’t two, but double that. Whereas if they had beaten New Life Chapel they’d need to win only two more to take the ‘Rec 3’ championship. Now they needed three straight wins just to make it to the ’if’ game, and four to win it all.

And Team El Rancho, under captain Roger Smith, was about to grant no safe passage.

In another wild finish, characteristic in ‘Rec 3’, Tillotson ended up the winning pitcher thanks to a controversial 9-8 final score over "Gang Gray." Numerous times players from both sides questioned the home plate umpire’s rulings, but in the end CareFlight kept up their pledge for Podmayer with just enough bat and hustle to play again the same evening.

August 9, 2005--8:20 P.M. Talk about coming full-circle.

Blocking the path to the finals was Captain Ian Bray’s Can-Do Paint squad.

Though hustling for every ball in the field, making strong and accurate throws, the youngsters--many of whom, Bray included, played football for the Durango High School Demons--forced CareFlight’s outfielders to make too many plays. Hit after hit fell in, and Can-Do amassed a 10-1 lead entering the top of the sixth.

With time rapidly vanishing, CareFlight were able to score one more for their teammate before Can-Do Paint advanced, 14-2, as Minton crossed home on a John Maddox sacrifice fly.

But the ultimate sacrifice fly, which launched a brand of inspired ball that this writer witnessed firsthand, wasn’t forgotten by the players who didn‘t call it a season when a member of their squad was taken from this life.

"Pod" would have frowned on that notion.

Though some gloves were slammed to the dirt in disgust in the wake of the loss, the red POD insignias on their sleeves reminded the men to pick up those mitts and look to next season.

"Pod" was smiling on that notion.

Because he was there, still on Jeff Gifford’s lineup as a substitute.

As he’d been on all Gifford’s lineups for every tournament game.

August 9, 2005-9:45 P.M. Something was still missing to me.

After asking the players to pause for a team photo, I still needed assurance that my address to the FLC softball complex a couple weeks before was sufficient.

Jeff Gifford assured me it was, and that Podmayer would have appreciated it.

Though he probably would have been irked that it interrupted pre-game warm-ups....

And he’d probably tell me that I’ve written too much about him already.

But Bill "Pod" Podmayer, this one’s for you. And your team you still play with:

Jeff Gifford, Todd Tillotson, Ted Hall, Pete Hall, Mark Maddox, John Maddox, Kermit Barrett, John Livingston, Dave Minton, Matt Vickers, Ryan Beyer, Tyler Schack, Bill Burns, Drew Gifford, Zach Smith, Dave Pierce and Tony Van Dyck.

On September 16, 2005 Bill Podmayer’s name, with Jim Saler’s and Scott Hyslop’s, was unveiled on the side of a new replacement Koala 119 CareFlight helicopter, at a blessing ceremony on the Mercy Medical Center landing pad. Among those present were teammate and co-worker Ted Hall, another flight nurse as well as CareFlight’s (which operates in Colorado, Arizona and New Mexico) Durango base coordinator.

The perfect memorial to a man who lived his life saving the lives of other people.

Including my mother’s, after a heart episode landed her in Mercy’s Intensive Care Unit, where Podmayer--a 20-year employee at the hospital--was there to watch over her.

And now he’ll still take to the skies whenever summoned, whenever the job calls.

He’d have wanted it that way.

You just can’t keep a good man grounded.