Anyone who is into baseball can’t help but enjoy being around Karns City High School coach Josh “Sluggo” Smith.

This guy eats, sleeps and breathes the game.

He shows how into the sport he is while he coaches a game.

When the Gremlins are at the plate, Sluggo is involved with everybody — the batter, the base runners, even the dugout. He consistently asks for energy from his dugout while his team is hitting. He wants everybody engaged and into what’s going on.

The Gremlins execute the running game on the bases, whether it’s stealing a bag or moving a runner up. They are aggressive at the plate, lead-off hitter Hobie Bartoe recently crediting a 4-for-4 day at the plate to his coach, saying he “preaches to us to watch for the first-pitch fastball and attack it.”

When his team is playing the field, Sluggo is perched on the top step of the dugout, paying close attention to his pitcher and his fielding alignment.

In terms of fundamentals and strategy, nobody gets an edge on this guy.

Much the same can be said about other high school baseball coaches, but there is something different about Sluggo. Still an active competitive softball player, he works full-time outside of the educational realm, yet still makes time to passionately coach the Gremlins.

A Karns City graduate and former Gremlin baseball player himself, the coach he used to play for became one of his assistants. Sluggo teaches the game of baseball the same way he learned it.

His latest effort is to get a new baseball field constructed close to the high school. He wants to give Karns City a true “home” field, rather than his team, the players’ parents and interested KC baseball fans having to drive a half-hour to Pullman Park.

He wants to give members of the Karns City community an opportunity to come outside, set up a lawn chair and watch a local high school game, minutes from their home, on the spur of the moment.

Sluggo remembers his grandfather having such an opportunity to watch him play at KC during his high school years.

That new field in Karns City is likely to happen, sometime, somewhere. The where and when are difficult to pinpoint. Whether Sluggo is still coaching the Gremlins when that new field is in plsce remains to be seen.

Here’s hoping he is — because he deserves to experience that and Karns City baseball players deserve to have such a passionate coach.

The Gremlins are playing for the District 9 2A championship on Memorial Day in DuBois.

Whether they win that game or not, one thing is certain.

Sluggo and his Gremlins will be thrilled to don that uniform this late in the season.

John Enrietto is sports editor of the Butler Eagle