Simon Kenton baseball coach Brady Smiley was playing one of his trivia games with ballplayers one day during the offseason. It’s an activity combining aspects of preparedness and high school history in a playful format.
“I’m big on the fact you have to learn how to compete before you learn how to win,” said Smiley, an English teacher. “It was during one of our winter workouts when we were all together and playing the game.”
One of the answers was John Finn, the Pioneers’ former longtime head man who retired in 2011 after 39 years in coaching. Everybody playing the trivia game was a preschooler when Finn coached his last baseball game at Simon Kenton 15 years ago.
“Three kids knew who he was,” Smiley said of Finn, who’s still going strong long after his retirement. “I thought that was a lot.”
It is a lot when you consider that 15 years is literally a lifetime for a high schooler. That Finn’s name remains rightfully remembered by young people he’s never met is a testimony to his legacy. But that’s John Finn, a man who was all about baseball and his ballplayers and impacted the community in many ways.
Finn helped start a local baseball tournament that doesn’t bear his name. The annual Doc Morris Invitational, now in its 36th year, is Finn’s brainchild. Longtime Dixie Heights coach Chris Maxwell is head of the Doc Morris Invitational Foundation Committee and the tournament’s unofficial historian.
“He got the ball rolling on the coaches’ end with Mike Foulks who was an umpire and a school principal,” Maxwell said of Finn. “Back then when it started, there were 16 teams. It was a single-elimination tournament. Everybody played one game and we gave out one $500 scholarship.”
Nearly 40 years later, the Doc Morris has become part of the fabric of northern Kentucky high school baseball, an event that brings together some of the best teams in the area while continuing to raise money for worthy causes. At one point, the event more than doubled in size and tripled its charitable funding while expanding its reach as a key fundraiser benefiting local baseball players in need.
Smiley, a history buff, loves all that history.
“We all know who John Finn is, but the fact three kids know who he is right off the top of their head? That’s pretty cool,” Smiley said. “He’s important.”
And so was Doc Morris. He passed away in 1990. A civil engineer who worked for the Kentucky State Highway Department, Morris was also an admired baseball umpire and local football official. He was so well regarded that Finn and Foulks created a baseball tournament in his name soon after Morris died at the age of 50.
Doc Morris, John Finn and “Max.” That’s three generations of baseball caretakers pulling on the same rope to benefit the game and local kids. The least that current Simon Kenton coach Smiley can do is make sure Finn isn’t forgotten, give Maxwell his due, and put on the field the most competitive Pioneers team possible this week at the Doc Morris Invitational.
The big-school tournament starts Thursday at various sites including Beechwood, Dixie Heights, St. Henry and Simon Kenton. The small-school tournament is next week. There have been as many as 36 teams in eight brackets at nine sites and this year’s totals will be similar, with 27 squads signed up so far.
Simon Kenton soldiers on
The Pioneers are in good hands this season because they are armed and dangerous, handy with the bats and brimming with upperclassmen under the direction of a young, heady coach.
“This is a good team,” said the 30-year-old Smiley, whose 8-2 squad opens tournament play 5:30 p.m. Friday at home vs. Scott. “We’ve got some really good pitching and we have hitters.”
The Pioneers’ 2026 prospects would make Finn proud. He knew talent. He also retired with 564 wins. His teams won a dozen 32nd District titles and advanced to the regional tournament 19 times. Finn sent over 60 ballplayers to college programs. Smiley has won 26 games in a season and a half after taking over for Troy Roberts, now Simon Kenton athletic director.
As any history buff would, Smiley appreciates his place in the program and the Pioneers’ position in Doc Morris lore. He played in the tournament for Conner when he was in high school. He looks at the event as sort of a delicious dessert in the middle of the regular season’s main meal. Winning some games at the competitive event would be icing on the cake and tell him something about his team.
“Back when I played when it was an elimination tournament, not a round-robin, Conner won it one year,” Smiley said. “The thing I remember most is we got free T-shirts; the simplicity of a 15-year-old. But I still want to win.”
Things are a little more complicated as coach but no less fun, and Smiley is enthusiastic about his ballclub. His players pay attention. They know where they came from. They compete with purpose.
“You can see through the results who we are and what we’re good at,” Smiley said. “With our pitching, we can throw seven or eight guys, and we’ve got some hitters.”
Simon Kenton’s engine and unofficial team captain is senior catcher Brett Bockmon. The 32nd District all-tournament pick is hitting .357 with a home run and team-high 13 RBI and making sure all those good pitchers are hitting the strike zone.
“A lot of my job is behind the scenes and making sure everybody’s good to go in the ball game,” Bockmon said. “But I also get the pitchers to hit the zone, and I hit the ball in the box.”
Senior Logan Judd is batting a team-best .462, followed by junior Jordan Johnson at .444. Senior Caleb Uhl, hitting .364, and junior Jude McDaniel are tied for second with 10 RBI for the four-time defending 32nd District champion.
“This is one of the oldest teams I’ve been around,” said Smiley, who rosters 11 seniors and 11 juniors. “And the way the younger guys have played has been huge for us.”
Jacob Piper is one of 11 seniors on the Simon Kenton baseball team. Photo provided | Charles Bolton
That’s backed up in the box scores where the Pioneers’ patience and pluckiness have turned a decent .277 team batting average into a lethal .440 on-base percentage thanks to 47 bases on balls and 23 hit batters in 10 games. While that may hurt a bit, it has largely been the Pioneers inflicting the pain because of their mound work.
Pitchers settle in, let the games begin
Five Simon Kenton hurlers are working with season ERAs 1.37 and lower. They are led by seniors Jacob Piper (0.00), Caleb French (0.00) and junior Jeffrey Young (0.75). They are a combined 2-0 with two saves in eight appearances with three starts.
They’re not even the workhorses. They are juniors Billy Dennis (2-0, 1.35 ERA, all in relief), Luke Gabbard (3-0, 1.37 in four starts), Landon Johnson (3.15 ERA all in relief) and senior Tre Beach (3.77 ERA). Beach is the best at minimizing base runners. He has struck out 15 and walked just two in his first 13 innings over two starts and two relief appearances.
Team ERA? That would be a tiny 2.03. But it’s no small feat for Simon Kenton. It’s one giant leap. Last season’s team ERA in Smiley’s first season was 3.54. That means Pioneer pitchers have cut that number nearly in half. It’s early, but it’s promising.
And that’s one of the themes at this year’s Doc Morris: promising teams and players looking to make a statement.
Also in on the fun is every team in the Northern Kentucky Baseball Coaches Association preseason top 10. This includes top-ranked Beechwood, third-ranked Highlands and fourth-ranked Covington Catholic from the Ninth Region.
There’s second-ranked Campbell County from the 10th Region and fifth-ranked Simon Kenton from the Eighth Region. There’s also a smattering of other Kentucky teams and squads from Ohio.
“To me, it’s a great atmosphere,” Bockmon said. “You can tell they’re big games.”
He’s right. The Doc Morris Invitational is much more than a baseball tournament involving good competition and top-notch players. It is a community memory object and a civic ritual. It’s a generational handoff and a piece of local baseball mythology. It’s also a pretty good way to pass the time with America’s favorite pastime without leaving the neighborhood.
Batter up.