Mike Tyson paced back and forth in his black trunks awaiting his bout in June of 2002 against Lennox Lewis in Memphis. Lewis stood across the blue canvas on the other side of the ring while Michael Buffer introduced the two in a white tuxedo.
Max Eckert sat in a brown, leather lazy boy in his living room in Takoma Park, Maryland, watching the fight. Former Thunderbolt Bret Underwood sat in another lazy boy in the wood-paneled room, spending his summer with Eckert’s family as they hosted the infielder.
The rest of the T-Bolts’ roster, invited by Underwood, sprawled across the room’s gray carpet. The group shouted at the flat-screen TV as Lewis dropped Tyson with a right cross in the eighth round. Eckert recalls a “rowdy” atmosphere while surrounded by the Bolts players as a 16-year-old.
Now, the 38-year-old is posted in the third base coach’s box with a red or blue pullover every game for the Silver Spring-Takoma Thunderbolts. Eckert serves as the Director of Player Development and an assistant coach two decades after hosting a player as a child.
Eckert, known as “Skip” to his players, hopes to establish a sense of community within the team and the surrounding Silver Spring-Takoma Park area.
“There’s a sense of pride here,” Eckert said. “I grew up in Takoma Park … I’m very big about community. We watch out for each other, we’re there for each other.”
“Skip” remembers walking in the Takoma Park 4th of July Parade as a teenager with the T-Bolts’ roster. Eckert was draped in a double-XL Thunderbolts shirt given to him by Underwood as they strolled down the city’s streets with the entire team.
After Eckert joined the team’s coaching staff in 2022, he noticed only six players took part in the parade. Takoma Park’s citizens noticed too, and drew Eckert’s attention to the lack of player engagement in the community event. The T-Bolts’ assistant was just as frustrated and made it mandatory for players to attend.
Last season all but one player marched through Takoma Park during the parade. The players sported their blue practice jerseys with red numerals on their backs. A large white sign stretched across the formation bearing the team’s logo.
Eckert noticed more fans began to attend home games at Blair following the team’s participation and exposure at the parade.
“The more that we can be in the community, they’ll see what we’re about and then the more people will come,” Eckert said. “Players realize they’re a celebrity for doing the parade … People are clapping and screaming for you. It’s fun. I feel pretty honored to be a part of it.”
He also hopes to foster a community within the Thunderbolts’ — which features 35 players from 22 different schools. Eckert wants to be a constant welcoming presence in the dugout.
Outfielder Matthew Walters reached out to Eckert in the past offseason, asking for help with finding a job. The assistant then spoke to his heaps of connections to see if anyone would hire the Cornell student. Walters remembered he began getting responses less than thirty minutes after Eckert sent an email out.
“He’s there if you need him and there if you don’t need him,” Walters said. “He’s created a comfortable atmosphere. A lot of guys are having fun and getting the work in.”
Eckert is determined to build relationships with every one of his players. He noted he wants to know about their lives outside of baseball and the type of person each player is. He said it builds a basis of trust with each other.
It’s the same principles he utilizes as the foundation of Wild Bill Sports, Eckert’s youth baseball organization he founded. The coach created Wild Bill Sports in 2016 with Jackie Robinson’s nine values as a guide: courage, determination, teamwork, persistence, integrity, persistence, commitment and excellence.
The organization’s website states the coach hopes to teach “baseball skills both for on-field performance and as a metaphor for life.”
“He makes sure that he not only cultivates good baseball players but also good people,” said Bobby Laird, a coach for Wild Bill and former player for Eckert at Bradley Baseball Academia.
“Skip” first met Bolts’ head coach Brock Hunter while Wild Bill faced Hunter’s Waves Baseball in 2021. Eckert raked Langley Fork Park’s flooded infield after heavy rain, hoping two youth teams could play, when Hunter introduced himself. Two weeks later, the T-Bolts’ coach called Eckert and offered him a role on the coaching staff.
Eckert instantly accepted the position.
With any baseball-related venture, Eckert is focused on maintaining a community. For the Thunderbolts, it means more. “Skip” grew up in Takoma Park and cheered for the T-Bolts. He wants to keep that population close to the team like it was for him as a child.
“I really love the community,” Eckert said. “People care about Takoma Park and what the culture of Takoma Park is because it’s very different from the surrounding area.”
Photo Courtesy of Max Eckert