After more than three decades working in professional baseball, and a few more coaching within the college ranks, perhaps it is fitting that Gary Ruby's retirement has taken him back to the ballpark.
The Eynon native and former pitching coach, coordinator and adviser for several major league organizations including the Philadelphia Phillies, Pittsburgh Pirates and Houston Astros was recently named the Lackawanna County government's liaison between the Scranton/Wilkes-Barre RailRiders and the New York Yankees.
The liaison's job, created in 2024 and held by Abington Heights legend and former San Diego Padres infielder Cory Spangenberg before he resigned earlier this year, is to maintain lines of communication between the county, the Lackawanna County Stadium Authority that owns PNC Field in Moosic, the Yankees and their Triple-A affiliate. It also deals with hospitality for county-related events.
The position pays $26,000 per year, and Ruby said his approach to the job will be a simple one: Lean on a lifetime in baseball to make the experience at PNC Field easier for the parent club and its affiliate.
"Between the county, the stadium authority, the RailRiders and the Yankees, I have pretty good status with all of those people and relationships from the past," Ruby said. "As a liaison, I'm going to keep being a communicator and keep putting sides together. I can't solve their problems, but I'll be the one that they should know will get the proper information back and forth."
That might be the literal job description, making him a vital cog in an era when conditions at ballparks are often a sticking point in relations. But for Ruby, the best part of his new role might be the frequency with which he gets to talk baseball with the fans who approach him at the yard.
There are plenty of stories to go around, starting perhaps with his time as the pitching coach of the old Red Barons in 1998, his work developing young Astros pitchers like eventual Cy Young Award winner Dallas Keuchel on his way up through the system in the 2010s, or perhaps even his more recent time as an assistant coach with Keystone College or in the prestigious Cape Cod League.
"It's a job where the commissioners want me to be there to take care of people, talk baseball in the box, things I love to do anyway," Ruby said. "It's comfortable for me; the commissioners are treating me tremendous, with the RailRiders, you know I know everybody there. And with the Yankees, I have relationships there, too.
"It kind of fits perfect. It's nice to have an open door where you can walk in and talk with somebody you know."