- PoliceSoftball.com - Complete Guide to Police Tournament Softball

Name	Nate Baez
Nickname	Nate Dog
Uniform #	8
Team	LAPD Blue
Agency	LAPD
Assignment	Real-Time Analisis and Critical Response
PS.com Nick	lablue8

Nickname (and story behind it):
Nate Dog. I grew up with it. I don't know who started it, however it stuck.

Sports background:
I grew up playing baseball and basketball.

Softball History:
I started playing softball a few years after college with friends and hated it. I only joined the department softball team, because it was the closest thing to baseball. Even my early experiences with LEO softball were uneventful. Obviously, I've come full circle with my outlook on softball. I am heavy into both LEO and civilian softball.

Past Police Teams:
I started with the LAPD Red Dawgs and even a played a tourney or two with the LAPD Lawmen.

Proudest Police Softball Moments: No better moment than a few years ago in Vegas. We were down in the semi-final game to a team from Texas. We were down 26-0 after one. The winner was going to play DEA Combo. DEA was watching our game and these guys start yelling, "DEA, you watching! We're coming!" I mean, these guys were hitting bomb after bomb. And to add insult, every homerun had a sound affect to it, "Boom!" In a close game, cool, when you go up 20-25, the sound affects aren't necessary. Anyways, we could of tucked our tails, instead we chip away, score 10, then 7, then another 12, then all of a sudden we got a ball game. We ended up winning the game. It felt like we left them on the field (I hope we did / I don't remember). I was proud of our team. We didn't have the intimidating player(s), we didn't have sound affects. We never gave up, made plays when we needed them, and won a game that seemed impossible.

Lowest Softball Moment:
I'm a positive guy, it takes A lot to get me down. Even in defeat, I try to be the "keep your head up" guy. There was a time, right before last season, when we lost our identity. We had
key guys get hurt and guys move on. We lost some for family reasons, etc. We were trying to compete and maintain, however the results on the field were brutal. We were losing to small market teams. It was a pretty low point for our team.

Future personal goals in Police Softball:
Not sure. I would say, stay healthy. We have a veteran on our team, Phil Smith. He's going on 18-19 years with LAPD Blue. He bats 2nd or 3rd, still hits .750-.800 a tourney, it's amazing. I would love to be at his level when I get up there in age. Of course, I'd like to win the World Series.

Where do you see our sport in 5-10 years:
I see it bigger and more competitive than ever.

MISC:
To everyone involved in starting and maintaining our website, keep up the good work and thank you!