When you look out at the third base coaching box at Bowman Field, you see the seemingly happy-go-lucky and jovial Cutters Manager Kenny Thomas clapping his hands and offering encouragement and direction to his Cutters players, but behind that apparent cheerfulness is a man who probably cries inside and remembers the beloved wife that he lost to cancer three years ago.

Kenny suffered the unspeakable loss of his wife, Judy, to cancer in 2023.

“We were living in a retirement community in Hilton Head, South Carolina, owned by singer Jimmy Buffett, when Judy was diagnosed with liver cancer in 2021,” Thomas told Webb Weekly. “She soon started to take chemo treatments for the cancer and was battling the disease. Jimmy Buffett heard about her cancer battle and kept dropping her lines of encouragement, as well as calling each week to see how she was doing. That meant a great deal to her, and that helped her deal with her battle.”

Interestingly, Buffett was fighting his own battle with cancer. He died not long after Judy did.

“Judy was always a very competitive and active person. She played pickleball, tennis, swam, and enjoyed sports in general,” Thomas said. “I think the competitive urges she got from those activities helped her in her fight with cancer.”

Thomas himself knew the value of the competitive impulse as a good athlete. Thomas spent 34 seasons as a college baseball head coach, retiring after the 2021 campaign. He spent 12 years at Volunteer State Community College (TN) and 22 at Division II USC Aiken (SC), compiling an overall record of 1,279-639. Thomas led USC Aiken to a national number-one ranking during the 2013 and 2017 regular seasons and is a 2-time National Junior College Athletic Association Eastern District Coach of the Year. Over 60 players he has coached have been drafted professionally. He has also served as a local scout for the New York Yankees (1980-81), Cincinnati Reds (1981-82), and St. Louis Cardinals (1982-88.

“When Judy died three years ago, I was devastated. I didn’t know what I was going to do, and I felt so alone,” Thomas said. “I was lost, and then Sean Campbell, president of the MLB Draft League, asked me to coach in the league, and I said yes. At first, they were going to assign me to Mahoning Valley, but then they switched me to Williamsport.”

Thomas said the call to come here couldn’t have come at a better time.

“Getting back into the dugout saved my life,” Thomas declared, “I don’t know what would have happened if I hadn’t returned to baseball.

“There isn’t a day that I don’t think about Judy. I miss her so much.”

There is a poem that I came upon not long after my wife, Mary, died titled, “As I Sit in Heaven.” I hope it brings some consolation to Kenny Thomas. I know it helped me.

As I sit in heaven

And watch you every day.

I try to let you know with signs.

I never went away

I hear you when you’re laughing.

And watch you as you sleep.

I even place my arms around you.

To calm you as you weep

I see you wish the days away.

Begging to have me home

So I try to send you signs.

So you know you are not alone.

Don’t feel guilty that you have

Life that was denied to me

Heaven is truly beautiful.

Just you wait and see

So live your life, laugh again.

Enjoy yourself, be free.

Then I know with every breath you take

You’ll be taking one for me…