His unbridled enthusiasm is infectious.
He’s coaching, they’re all playing, but nobody is having more fun at Jubilee Field during any given Aces game than Rob Myrden.
Watch him dance while giving signs at third base and you'll understand.
It’s a passion for the sport he enjoys passing on to players younger and older alike, whether he’s guiding children just learning the ropes, or offering out encouragement to a batter with the senior Corner Brook Barons during a battle against the rival St. John’s Capitals.
“My line has always been, especially to parents, as long as you can tell I’m having as much fun as they are, everything is fine,” Myrden said.
He was still in his playing days — though he still makes the odd appearance at the plate if the Aces are struggling for bodies — when he began coaching, only in his early-20s, in fact.
At the time, the gig just meant summer employment, basically. Though it was worth more than money, since he got to spend time doing what he loved, in a spot that he loved to be.
The ability to share his knowledge and enjoyment of the sport with a younger age group grabbed hold of him and his coaching career went from there.
Now 60 years old, the natural assumption would be that Myrden has seen it all, but things are different from summer to summer, he insists, with a fairly fluid turnover in both players and coaches in the Corner Brook Minor Baseball Association.
Certain things stick with him though, those moments that hopefully occur every summer to someone on that field.
“A big thing is to see someone, especially in that mosquito or peewee age, think they’re not so good,” he said. “To get them that much better by the end of the summer. For me to see it, and more importantly, for them to see it and appreciate how much better they’ve gotten.
“That’s probably always been the highlight for me.”
When explaining why he loves the game so much, he struggles to find the words, but only because there are so many.
It’s the camaraderie among the players, it’s the — most of the time — nice weather and having a bit of fun outdoors.
But he also describes the beat.
There’s no contact, there’s not a ton of fast-paced play, but — “Thump, thump, thump,” he says slowly, to illustrate his point — the beat is different than any other sport.
There is certainly an X’s and O’s part to his role as coach, this past season spent with the bantam Barons, the local senior league’s Aces, and the senior Barons, and Myrden admits he always aspires to win, regardless of the level.
But his overall mantra is simpler than pondering matchups or picking lineups.
He wants every player to try as hard as they can, have as much fun as they can, and see what happens.
“Fun and 100 per cent effort are easy to attain if you do it right,” he said. “That’s always my aim.”
