SPRINGFIELD – Ron and Melinda Molony have spent the past dozen years visiting baseball diamonds to watch their grandsons.
From T-ball to Babe Ruth, Regionals and a couple of World Series, and more recently, Thurston High School and PK Park, if Maddox or Connor Molony are playing ball nearby, their grandparents are in the stands.
“Oh gosh, I couldn’t even imagine thinking about how many games we’ve watched,” Ron Molony said recently following a round of golf at Pine Ridge, where the 77-year-old can still occasionally shoot his age. “More than 600 or 700 probably. Like this year, Thurston has 26 games and Oregon will play 50 plus, and if we are not at the game, we are watching it on TV or on the phone.”
The exact number may lie somewhere in a family scrapbook.
“Take a look at all the old schedules, every home game and a few road games, they have been there,” said Ryan Molony, the boys’ father.
With Maddox starring at the University of Oregon and Connor looking to lead Thurston to a third straight Class 5A state title, the Molonys had been able to attend almost every home game for both boys during the past two years.
“Usually they are able to get to both of our games, but if not, they may be at my game and streaming Maddox on the phone so they see us both at the same time,” Connor Molony said. “They play no favorites.”
Viewing logistics
There was a recent Thurston doubleheader which started at the same time that Oregon hosted UCLA on Saturday afternoon and then a few days later, Oregon hosted Portland on the same night the Colts welcomed Eagle Point.
“We decided to go to Connor’s doubleheader on Saturday because I have the Big 10+ app so I can sit and watch the Oregon game on my phone,” Ron explained. “Then we went to Maddox’s game against Portland, so we work it back and forth.”
Next year, there will be no such problem when Connor joins the Ducks as a freshman pitcher while Maddox returns for his junior season at shortstop.
“It will be nice next year not having to figure out which games we are going to at different times,” Ron said.
You can find Ron Molony in the last row of Section 6 for each UO home game, watching his grandson wear the same uniform that he did as a catcher and first baseman for the Ducks from 1967-70.
“I was glad to see him decide on Oregon,” Ron said. “When Maddox was in high school he asked me if I thought he should go to UO because I did and I said ‘No, I think you should go to Oregon because you want to go there. Don’t think about me, think about you’.”
There may have been subliminal messages at home that also directed Maddox to the Ducks.
“We have one of grandpa’s old jerseys at my parents’ house,” Maddox said. “I think ours are better now, but it’s cool to see the jersey that he once wore and now I am wearing.”
Connor Molony committed to play at Oregon shortly after his brother joined the Ducks.
“It has been really nice that they stayed home,” Ron said. “I look at some kids playing whose parents rarely get a chance to get up and see them. It makes me feel lucky because they can’t be there all the time, and we get to be.”
The boys feel just as fortunate to have Ron and Melinda at the ballpark.
“It is incredible,” Connor said. “I know he is so proud of us because with his past playing baseball, there is no sport he enjoys more than that. For my brother and I to play baseball and have success, I don’t think there is anything that he enjoys more than coming to our games. I love seeing him in the stands every time I am on the mound.”
CRAIG STROBECK / CHRONICLE PHOTO
When the Ducks play road games, Maddox Molony always has a text from his grandpa following the game.
“It means a lot because baseball has a lot of ups and downs, it is a hard sport,” Maddox said. “You know that you will have their support after every game is great. They are a constant presence and always encouraging us.”
Support from the start
It has been that way since both boys started playing baseball.
When Maddox was nine, he threw a no-hitter in a Babe Ruth regional championship game in Helena, Mont. Connor helped his team reach the 10-year-old World Series in Hammond, Ind., and as a 12-year-old at the World Series in Branson, Mo.
“If the grandkids are playing, we are there,” Ron said.
Ron Molony was a longtime coach and athletic director at Mohawk High School before retiring in 2012, just about the time his grandkids started playing baseball. He spent 34 years compiling defensive statistics on the Autzen Stadium stat crew for the Ducks, often making his way around the media room before the games to brag to a reporter about his grandkids’ baseball success from an early age.
“With Maddox, I kind of knew baseball was his thing,” Ron said. “When he was 10 months old, we went to Seattle for a Mariners game and he sat on my wife’s lap the entire game and watched everything that was going on without crying or anything, just watching the ball. A couple years after that he started playing T-ball and Connor was on a similar time frame.”
Being two years apart, Maddox and Connor never played together until two years at Thurston culminated with a state championship in 2023. They will reunite next year at Oregon, but likely only for one year because Maddox is considered a first-round pick in the 2026 MLB Draft.
Maddox is a 6-foot-2 shortstop for the Ducks who recently earned midseason All-American honors while batting .336 with 11 homers. Connor is playing first base for the Colts, but will focus on pitching for the Ducks.
“You could always see the talent was there and the mental attitude, work ethic too,” Ron said. “They both have the attitude that no matter how well they do, they have to work harder and do better.”
Family tradition
Ryan Molony, who played baseball at Thurston and Lane Community College, coached many of their youth teams while Grandpa Ron was often the scorekeeper. Michelle Molony, mom of Maddox and Connor, was a softball star at South Medford who had opportunities to play that sport in college.
“Baseball and softball have been in Michelle’s blood, so she was often pitching batting practice and playing catch with the boys,” Ryan said. “With two boys, she and I have had to divide and conquer much of the time.”
Connor will stay home this summer to play for the Springfield Drifters, while Maddox will play in the prestigious Cape Cod League – both are wood-bat leagues.
CRAIG STROBECK / CHRONICLE PHOTO
“This has been a real fun time,” Ron said. “It’s amazing, I am so proud of them.”
That’s easy to see.
“Dad takes a lot of pride in the grandkids, he gets to brag about them, which he likes to do,” Ryan said. “He makes sure he’s at the game and sticks around to say hello to them after the game. As busy as Michelle and I are, it is good to always guarantee my mom and dad will be at the games. My dad was my coach growing up, so it is a generational thing that has been fun to watch happen again.”
