"I still have great passion for the game. Obviously I haven't played in a long time but I still love to be around the game, be associated with it."
It's been 20 years since Rance Mulliniks' last Major League appearance.
Mulliniks was fortunate to end his 15-year career with a World Series ring. He has plenty of stories and, this week, an audience way too young to remember any of them.
"I can't say that probably any of them knew," smiled the 56-year-old ex-ballplayer. And their heroes are the athletes of today, as it should be."
Rance Mulliniks recently passed the state exam to sell life insurance. But he's not moving on from baseball.
Even if he wanted to, Thad Reece wouldn't let him. Or any of the others.
"They're great guys. They bring the game down to Earth, said Reece, who played 12 years of professional baseball and who created the "Finer Points of the Game" baseball camp.
"It's not too above these kids, their mindset. So I just love working with them...and just saw the need from our community to get some baseball instruction to these young kids. And so the response has been amazing. I only wish, and I've heard this over and over from all of the instructors, if we only had something like this when we were growing up."
Added ex-Fresno State Bulldog Adam Pettyjohn, "I don't think I've ever turned an opportunity down to come out and work with kids and just share some of the baseball knowledge that I've had."
Pettyjohn's last Major League appearance was 2008. He's 35 years old: closer in age to the kids at the camp than Rance Mulliniks, but still old enough that their parents would be the ones to recognize him.
Or grandparents.
"My grandpa collected cards and he gave 'em to all of us," said 12-year-old Arley Landis from Springville. "My dad was looking through the cards and he found Rance's cards."
'What did Rance think when you showed it to him?' asked CBS47.
"He didn't say anything, he just signed it," said Landis.
"I love learning from these guys, I love just listening to 'em talk," said Nick Haskins, an infielder and pitcher from Porterville High who assisted Reece as one of the camp's instructors.
"I don't even have to ask them any questions. It's great."
Added Mulliniks, "To be able to realize my dream of one day playing in the Major Leagues, for me was just a tremendous experience. My first night in the big leagues, Nolan Ryan was the starting pitcher, Rod Carew is in the opposing lineup.
"Just a tremendous thrill."
