“I said I didn’t know I was that popular,” Thomas said with a smile.

At media day, he then joked and asked when the next mayoral race was so he could run.

Given how popular he’s become with the Cutter fans, he’d no doubt get some votes.

Thomas is back for his third year — second as manager — to once again lead the Crosscutters and is more than happy to be back in the area.

Manager Kenny Thomas of the Crosscutters watches his players take batting practice during Media Day at Bowman Field Sunday afternoon. DAVE KENNEDY/Sun-Gazette

“I love baseball and Williamsport, it’s my third year here and I’ve enjoyed it so much. I’ve met so many people,” Thomas said. “Baseball, I love the sport. I love being on the field and in the dugout. For the last two or three months, I’ve been sitting and ready to go. I live in a beautiful place in Hilton Head Island (South Carolina), but there’s nothing like being in that dugout.”

Bowman Field is celebrating its 100th year this season and, while the stadium doesn’t hold the highest amount of fans capacity wise compared to other teams within the MLB Draft League, Thomas pointed out the Cutters’ fans make up for it with their passion he sees night in and night out.

“I told so many people there. One hundred years old and golly, I love telling people that. It’s just an honor to be here and you know what’s funny, we are the smallest seat wise, attendance wise, out of how many it seats in the league. But we have the most passionate fans of anybody, it’s crazy,” Thomas said. “I have fans now that are on social media with me that talk to me on social media all year. It’s just so amazing. I absolutely love the fans here, I love the fans because they’re so passionate, just like me. They’re passionate about the game.

“To me, it’s the only game. I like football, somebody wants to talk to me about football, I might talk a little bit, but there’s no game like baseball,” Thomas continued, “and that’s the way these fans are. They love their Crosscutters.”

Thomas has been around the game of baseball for decades. He was a college coach for 34 years, including coaching 22 years at Division 2 USC Aiken in South Carolina, going 1,279-639. With the Crosscutters, he was part of a championship-winning team in 2024 and suffered a disappointing campaign last year with a 31-43 record.

He knows what it’s like to win in the MLB Draft League and what it’s like to unfortunately lose.

“I used to say coaching in college all the time that after 10 or 12 games, you got to sit down and say ‘OK, this is who we are.’ It’s not going to change much. Whatever happened in those first 12 games … a lot of times it was different than you thought,” Thomas said. You might have went into the season thinking we’re going to be a great pitching team and after 12 games your ERA is 7.0 so you have to change your strategy and same thing here.

“The key here is to figure out as quickly as possible, what makes you tick, what makes you go and what kind of team are you?” Thomas continued. “Are you a power hitting team? Are you going to manufacture runs? Are you a defensive pitching team? The key is to figure that out as quickly as you can.”

A new season means a new roster for the Crosscutters, and Thomas and his staff of pitching coach Anthony Macon and hitting coach Sean Miller are ready to get the season rolling.

“You have to play with the cards you’re dealt so sometimes it’s a little hard on you. It was hard on me sometimes last year because our roster was down at times, we had some key injuries last year,” Thomas said. “I mean, especially the second half, we had two or three injuries that just murdered us. It’s the cards you’re dealt so you have to deal with that.”

The Crosscutters have 20 pitchers on the roster including Wyalusing graduate Blake Morningstar, a junior at Wake Forest. He’s the only Pennsylvania native on the pitching staff. Also on the staff is Montoursville native Nick Barone, a senior at Liberty, who is on the roster as one of the team’s six outfielders.

For Thomas, his expectations are to develop the players on the Cutters roster and in turn, get wins on the board.

“My expectations have always been the same: I want to develop these players, I want to make them better players, but as I tell them, when the first pitch is thrown, I’m here to win the game,” Thomas said. “I know I can’t control a lot of things like the roster, I can’t control that, but I can control how that roster plays and how hard we play and that we hustle out a ton. I’m trying to teach the game, and trying to win the game once that first pitch is thrown.”

Entering the MLB Draft League will be a change for all the players. The majority of them have some college experience but three — Covington, Georgia’s Chris Guillory, Fresno, Texas’ George Malone and Hilton Head Island, South Carolina’s Slaide Burd — who just wrapped up their senior years of high school. Going to the next level means an obvious transition to better competition and some independence, and that’s what Thomas is helping the guys adjust to in his third year in Williamsport.

“We’re trying to teach them what it’s going to be like in pro ball as they move up the ladder. All these guys are going to move up the ladder, there ain’t no question about it. Every time you move up, it gets a little bit different so you’ve got to learn how to handle that. So that’s part of what I’m going to do here,” Thomas said. I’m not going to baby them going out and stretching with them every day, they have to learn to do that themselves. I’m not going to baby them by checking the curfew tonight. They’re going to have to deal with that themselves. That’s the way it’s going to be as you move up the ladder. This is who I am and I have to control myself and protect my body and make sure my body’s ready to play every day. So, it’s a learning process for most of them and that’s part of what I do is try to teach them that.”

And Thomas noted that while numerous players in college play upwards of 30 or more games in a single season, they aren’t playing every single day. That’s the toll that makes up the MLB Draft League: 80 games from June 2 through the season’s conclusion on September 1, and not many days off, similar to the MLB schedule.

And with that comes dealing with losing and failures. Thomas had his share of it over his 40-plus year coaching career, and he’s stressing that to the entire Cutters roster. It’s adversity they need to deal with and adjust to.

“It’s a whole new experience. Even the college guys, they didn’t play every day, you know? It’s an all new experience for them. I said it so many times that if you can’t deal with failure in this game, you aren’t going to go very far. That’s one of the key things you have to learn. You’re going to fail in this game,” Thomas said. If you can’t deal with it, you’ve got serious problems. I still have to train myself to deal with failure because I hate failure. I’ve always been a guy that wins, you know? I like to win, it makes me go, it makes me tick. I enjoy winning; I can’t help it. I try to get used to losing, I haven’t gotten used to it yet. I’m an old man, I don’t think I ever will.”

For Thomas, his staff and the players who will don a Cutters uniform, the season gets underway on Tuesday at Bowman Field.