A Flint Athlete’s Journey From High School Stardom To Optometry

Remastered edition: re-edited and shortened for clarity and pace.

We trace Jeff Natchez’s path from Flint open gyms and sandlots to a Detroit Tigers draft pick, rookie ball under a young Jim Leyland, and a second career in optometry. Honest reflections on choices, mentors, and coming home frame a story about resilience and community.

A Flint kid grows up in the city’s golden era, spends every spare hour on open courts and dusty diamonds, and learns how far grit can take you. That kid becomes a Tigers draft pick, rides the rookie-ball buses with a 26-year-old Leyland, and shares a field with future stars like Lance Parrish and Mark Fidrych. Then spring training delivers the phone call that changes the dream’s shape—and what happens next is the heart of this conversation.

We sit down with optometrist and former multi-sport standout Jeff Natchez to trace the full arc: Saginaw Valley showdowns with Flint Northern and Pontiac Central, the scout who believed early, and the surreal shock of patrolling right field at Tiger Stadium as a high school senior. Jeff opens up about the hard fork at eighteen—college under Bo Schembechler or a pro contract—and why hindsight suggests a different choice, even as the minors delivered priceless lessons in professionalism, poise, and preparation. The details are vivid and human: cold opening nights in Clinton, Iowa, clubhouse laughter, and the way Leyland handled teenagers like a steady metronome.

The turn toward optometry isn’t a retreat—it’s a reinvention. A long drive to Las Vegas sparks a plan, Ferris State University sharpens the craft, and a role in Reno with an ophthalmologist builds a second life anchored in precision and care. Jeff explains how the same fundamentals that defined Flint—accountability, mentorship, and access—shaped his work and his return home. We also honor the mentors who mattered, from playground supervisors who taught the basics to local legends like Rick Leach who showed what “it” looks like up close.

If you love Michigan sports history, underdog resilience, or stories about changing course with grace, this episode belongs on your list. Subscribe, rate, and review—and tell us: what choice at eighteen would you make differently today?

The Mitten Channel is a network of podcasts.  

👉Subscribe to The Mitten Channel

Join us for the full experience. Subscribe to The Mitten Channel on Substack to receive our latest narrative essays, audio stories, and deep-dive reporting directly in your inbox.

Explore Our Series:

• Radio Free Flint: Narrative storytelling and community perspectives on industrial resilience.
• The Mitten Works: Essential history and analysis of labor and economic policy.
• Flint Justice: Critical insights into the legal and institutional challenges facing our state.
  
  

Visit our Mitten Channel website for our complete library of podcasts, videos, and articles.

The Mitten Channel is a production of Radio Free Flint Media, LLC. © 2026 All Rights Reserved.

Transcript

Growing Up In Flint’s Golden Era

Arthur Busch 0:00

Okay, this is Arthur Bush. We're at Radio Free Flint, and I have a great show for a change. Of course, all our shows are pretty good, but this one's gonna be exceptional. We have Jeffrey Natchez, who's a Flint area uh optometrist, and he has a great story to tell. So without any further ado, Jeffrey, welcome.

Jeffrey Natchez 0:24

Well, uh, thank you for having me.

Arthur Busch 0:27

Jeff, uh you uh you were uh a Flint native and attended Freeman School, McKinley, Southwestern, and had uh quite a quite a career during that time in sports. Why don't you why don't we start there and and uh explain to the fan uh the your fans out there a little bit about that?

Jeffrey Natchez 0:54

So I grew up on Dearborn Street off of Atherton Road. Was a great place to grow up, great neighborhood, good kids. Parents took care of us. It was the golden age of Flint. The schools were outstanding. We had access to all the sports fields and the gyms, and we played ball from sunup until sundown, and it was just a great time to grow up in Flint.

Arthur Busch 1:26

Now, Jeff, you were uh played several sports in high school, and I I remember going back that far in the class of 1971 that you played not just baseball, but you also played basketball. And I'm I couldn't remember if it was football as well. Football too. And you your position in football?

Jeffrey Natchez 1:54

Wide receiver.

Multi‑Sport Years And Valley Battles

Arthur Busch 1:57

Okay, and tell us a little bit about your sports career in high school.

Jeffrey Natchez 2:02

So as a sophomore, I didn't go out for football. My junior high coach, Coach Williams, told me I was probably should just stick with basketball and baseball. He said I was too fragile and I would get hurt playing football. So I listened to him and I didn't go out for football as a sophomore. Played JV basketball until Christmas time, and then Herb McDaniel and I got called up to the varsity, and we ended up both starting on the varsity. And Herb actually was going to be inducted into the Greater Flint African American Hall of Fame this year. It got postponed because of the virus, but he was a great player. We weren't very good as a team as sophomores and juniors, but by the time we got to be seniors, we won the Saginaw Valley Division and we made it to the regional finals, got beat by Flinton, our great Flint Northern team with Tom McGill and Wayman Britt and Barry Menifee. We lost five games that year, and three of them were to Northern, and one of them was to uh Pontiac Central to IMA with Campy Russell. So pretty good competition.

Arthur Busch 3:18

Did a Northern team go on to win? Didn't they win the state championship that year?

Jeffrey Natchez 3:23

They did. Actually, they played Pontiac Central twice in the regular season, and Pontiac Central beat him both times. The one at the IMA was packed, obviously, and Pontiac Central beat him by 33. And they didn't meet in the state tournament. They both made it to the uh semifinals, and Lindsey Harrison and Joe Johnson with Detroit Kettering beat Pontiac Central in the semis, and Flint Northern beat somebody else, and then Northern beat Kettering in the finals.

Arthur Busch 3:58

Wow. Of course, Campy Russell, the great Campy Russell, went on to play at the University of Michigan. I I think he played professional uh basketball. Oh yeah.

Jeffrey Natchez 4:08

He probably played 10 years in the NBA, had a good career.

Draft Day And The Tigers Connection

Arthur Busch 4:12

Wow, that's amazing. Well, your basketball career was a lot of fun. I could see I could see the competition was certainly Flint style because you you played against some of the best, and with the best, Herb McDaniels, of course, was a terrific one of the better Flint basketball players in in our history. Jeff, you also played baseball, and that's really where you reached some pretty high levels for a high school kid. Why don't you tell us you were as I understand it, you were drafted in the sixth round by the Detroit Tigers, which made you the 134th pick in the amateur draft in 1971. How did that how did that all happen?

Jeffrey Natchez 5:01

Well, actually, when I was a junior, Bill LaJoy was a scout for the Tigers. He went on to become general manager eventually. He came to Flint to scout Mark Crane and Mike DeCou at Flint Central. And the game he came to, I just happened to, they happened to be playing Southwestern, and I was playing for Southwestern. And uh Bill LaJoy took a liking to me. And he followed me obviously the rest of that year and my senior year, and he was the main reason I got drafted.

Arthur Busch 5:37

Wow. And so you know, I spend a fair amount of time in the winter watching the Toronto Blue Jays training down in Dunedin, Florida. And I listened to the coach, I listened to the scouts talking, and and there's been several times when we I got in the middle of the debates about whether it was best for a high schooler to go to college or or pursue professional baseball. Tell us a little bit about your thinking there.

Jeffrey Natchez 6:11

Well, hindsight's always 2020. If I had it to do all over again, I probably would have gone to University of Michigan or to Kent State University and played baseball and football. I was recruited as a wide receiver to go to University of Michigan to play football for Bo. And I ended up signing with a Tigers, so I never I never made it to U of M to play in the big house. Probably not a good decision, but you know, when you're 18 years old, that's a tough, tough thing to decide. You're not sure which way to go.

Arthur Busch 6:57

Sure. And that year in the Major League Draft, you had some classmates who were also drafted by the Detroit Tigers. And why don't you tell us a little bit about that?

Jeffrey Natchez 7:09

So the number one pick that year was Tommy Veriser from Long Island, New York. Great guy, great athlete. Tommy probably ended up playing almost 10 years maybe in the big leagues. When I was when I signed with the Tigers, when I got to Bristol, Virginia, the rookie league, Jim Leland was our manager. And that was quite a quite a team. Bunch of 18-year-olds home away from home for the first time. And that was Jim Leland's first year managing. So it was it was pretty interesting.

College vs Pros: The Big Fork

Arthur Busch 7:47

And Leland, of course, became the uh manager of the Detroit Tigers, and and also he was the uh manager of the Pittsburgh Pirates, uh as I remember. And I think didn't Leland win win a World Series championship with a Florida team? Was it a Florida team?

Speaker 8:08

I want to say Marlins, maybe 1997, maybe. I might have the year.

State of MI Archivist 8:16

Go ahead.

Speaker 8:17

I'm sorry. I might have the year wrong. But is Leland in the Hall of Fame? I don't think he's there yet, but you would think with the amount of wins that he accumulated over the years, you you probably think he might get in at some point.

Arthur Busch 8:40

Yeah. Now, Jeff, what was it like playing for a guy like Leland? I mean, he's a guy that's he's kind of a player's coach, as I understand it.

Jeffrey Natchez 8:50

He was quite a character. He was only 26 years old, and he was trying to babysit a bunch of 18-year-old kids, so it was it was quite a time. I've got some few a few stories, but probably can't tell all of them on camera. I remember one incident where we were we stopped at a truck stop to eat, and when we got back on the bus, bus drivers started pulling away, and the the police came and blocked the bus. And of course, you know, the manager sits in the front row on the right there, and it was and Leland gets off the bus and talking to the policeman, and about 10 minutes later, here comes Leland and the policeman, and they walk back through the bus and they they get Mo Horton, who I believe is related to Willie Horton. I don't know if it was they were cousins or Mo was a nephew or whatever, but turns out Mo forgot to pay for his meal, and that didn't go over too well, and they ended up taking Mo off the bus, and we never saw Mo again. I'm not sure. It seemed kind of a stiff penalty for just uh hot lunching up, but you know, that's what happened.

Arthur Busch 10:16

What was it like to play? Uh you ended up playing in Lakeland.

Rookie Ball With Jim Leyland

Jeffrey Natchez 10:21

I played, excuse me, I played twice in Lakeland. I played in uh 72 for the first half of the year, and then in 75 I played. That 75 team had Lance Parrish on it, Mark DeBird Fidridge. I'm probably leaving off a couple other guys, but what was Fidridge like? He was a great guy. Hey, he all they wore was a white t-shirt, cutoff blue jeans, and low top converse purple tennis shoes. And Lance Parrish and I had a had a difference on that. He he said they were high tops, but I'm pretty sure they were low tops. But great hard worker. You saw him running all the time. He's in great shape, he had really good stuff, but he was he was just a normal guy. He wasn't off the field, he wasn't the bird, he was just Mark. But yeah, he I believe the next year of 76 was his 19 and 9 year, and and the city of Detroit fell in love with him.

Arthur Busch 11:27

No kidding. Talking to the baseball, that's what I remember. He talked to the baseball before he threw it. Amazing.

Jeffrey Natchez 11:34

He did that, he did that in when I knew him as well.

Arthur Busch 11:37

That's crazy. And so, how long was your minor league career?

Jeffrey Natchez 11:43

I played until the spring of 76. I got released in spring training in 1976.

Arthur Busch 11:51

I see. Now you played not just in Lakeland, but I I assume you played in another city or two?

Jeffrey Natchez 11:57

I played in Clinton, Iowa. I played in Anderson, South Carolina, and then I played in Bristol and Lakeland.

Arthur Busch 12:06

Wow, Clinton, Iowa. That's that's a hot spot.

Jeffrey Natchez 12:11

That was interesting. I was just talking to my wife the other night about this because uh we were talking, it was snowing outside, and we were saying it's baseball season and it's snowing. But at first night in Clinton, opening night, it was 32 degrees because I remember I had a turtleneck on, and then another shirt, and then my base, and then my baseball shirt, and it was cold. And actually, a guy came out of the stands and streaked across the outfield and shimmied up the flagpole, and then stood on the top of the fence and jumped over. I remember that was opening night in in Clinton, Iowa.

Lakeland Memories And The Bird

Arthur Busch 12:57

We don't generally associate Clinton, Iowa with uh streakers climbing the flagpole at the at the baseball game. Uh Jeff, uh you eventually you're one of the few major leaguers that probably made it to Tiger Stadium before he got drafted, right? I my research says that that you had a chance to play as a senior in the high school all-star, Michigan high school all-star game, which was at Tiger Stadium.

Jeffrey Natchez 13:32

Technically, technically, it wasn't an official all-star game. It was a a collection of high school kids that Bill LaJoy recruited to play in Tiger Stadium. And there was, it was it was an unreal thing for me growing up being a Tigers fan, got to play right field that day. We we actually played two games, and I I just put this on Facebook a few days ago when Al K Line passed. It was kind of surreal for me because I was roaming around the outfield where Al K-Line, you know, had been, and still was at the time. And I I was kind of awed by the whole thing, and I didn't really look around to pay attention to where the wall was. And in the top of the first inning, I was playing right field, big left-hander, left-handed hitter came up, and I just knew he was gonna hit the ball, you know, to me. And sure enough, he yanked one down the right field line, and I went flying over and uh ran right into the wall and full speed. And luckily, the wall was only waist high, so I went flipping over the wall, banged my knee up pretty good, and didn't realize that I hurt my toe as well, because when I got home, I took my uh or when when we got out to the car afterwards, I took my shoe off and uh my toe swelled up really bad. And it was just about a week before football season started, so I was a little bit worried that I was gonna get in trouble with Coach Jobson for being injured in a baseball game, but it it healed up okay. But yeah, it was Gary Mays from Carmen also played in that game, and he he pitched on the other team. I we got to I got to bat against him. And unfortunately, Gary at that point had hurt his arm, so he what he he he lost a little bit on his fastball, but when he before he hurt his arm, he could really bring it, and he was a great hitter as well. So just that that was fun. That was in but that was right before we started our senior year.

Arthur Busch 15:51

Oh, amazing. And Jeff, uh you honed your skills on the playground, pretty much. I was reading something you wrote the other day that talked about playing at uh Freeman School and McKinley School as a kid. Uh tell us tell us about that experience and what you thought of that. Well, just a memory or two, if you can.

Minor League Towns And Tales

Jeffrey Natchez 16:22

I remember pitching. I I could throw it pretty hard, but I had no clue where it was going. So the guys were a little bit leery to step in there against me. Scott Taylor was the catcher. And one year, one or two years, I remember that Paul Krause was our uh supervisor at Freeman. And he was about 6'4, and you know, of course, we were little guys, he we just really thought he was something else. And every once in a while, somebody say Paul hit hit one, and somebody pitched one to him, and he was a left-handed hitter, and he would jack them. There was a parking lot out in right field, and he would, and then there was a tr a bunch of trees beyond that, and he he would jack them up into the trees, and we were just kind of awed by him.

Arthur Busch 17:13

He's an amazing guy, isn't he? Let's let's explain a little bit about him. He he became an NFL legend, really led the uh NFL in all-time interceptions. I think that record might still exist.

Jeffrey Natchez 17:28

I I think you were right. He was a fabulous athlete, arguably the greatest all-around athlete to ever come out of Flint. You know, you'll hear some different names, but he gets mentioned quite a bit along with Rick Leach. He also played baseball, I think, at Iowa. And I've heard stories about how great a pitcher he was, but he also hurt his arm. And back then they couldn't fix arms. So, you know, he that that pretty much probably what led him to football.

Arthur Busch 18:00

Now, another guy that another guy that supervised you in the summer months, and the rest of the the fellas was Fred Carroll, who was longtime uh teacher in the Flint School District. You remember him?

Jeffrey Natchez 18:15

Oh yeah, he was a great guy. He's left-handed. He used to play in the Flint City League, he was a pitcher in the Flint City League, but he was a great baseball guy. He he taught us all the fundamentals, and so we were by the time we got to Southwestern, we were we knew how to play the game.

Arthur Busch 18:35

That's right. Well, my career in baseball ended on that field at McKinley when I was playing in the summer, and there for some reason I usually played catcher, but your friend of mine, Scott Taylor, went to to baseball camp. You two went together, as uh as I later understood.

Tiger Stadium As A Teen

Jeffrey Natchez 18:58

That was that was quite an experience. I'll never forget that. It was it was a great time. It was Ted Williams baseball camp. I want to say it was in Lakeville, Massachusetts, but it was somewhere in Massachusetts. And Ted, we never saw Ted. Ted no, Ted never showed up, but anyway, it was a great, great time. There was a guy there named Eddie Wakis, who I believe was one of the Philadelphia Wiz kids. He showed me how to play first base, and we would play some of the local high school teams. And I remember one day, you could only, if you were a pitcher, you can only pitch so many innings. So the guy said, Well, who can pitch? Who can fill in and pitch? And I offered to pitch. So they let me pitch. Scott Taylor was catching, and I threw a no-hitter. And so that was pretty cool. Then about a week later, same thing happened. And unfortunately, that game I walked 13 guys, which is really hard to do because the the main thing with that is the coach or the manager, he's got to leave you in there for you to walk those 13 guys. You would think at some point they'd come out and say, Okay, son, you've had enough for the day. But yeah, and Scott Taylor had to had to go through that too. Can you imagine catching a pitcher that's walked 13 guys?

Arthur Busch 20:29

Yeah, I did I've done that in the park at Wendy Eight in my neighborhood in the south in the Flint. But I remember you two fellas coming back, and all of a sudden you left and you were at one level, you were here, and when you came back, you were like way out here in terms of skill and and growth as baseball players. Jeff, I'd like to switch bases here in just a minute. One of the things that you grew up with in Flint was the community school system, which you've described earlier as golden years. What was it about Freeman School which which made you think it was the golden years? And what was it that they did that that really gave you a boost?

Playground Coaches Who Shaped Us

Jeffrey Natchez 21:20

I remember I think they had a thing called Teen Club. A guy named Charlie Montpass had an organization called the Flint Olympian Club, which basically we would do all kinds of sports activities. He'd take us bowling, he taught us how to box. We had access to the gym whenever we wanted to. We always, if we wanted to play, there was always a place to play, either on the baseball field or in the gym. Bob Callis was instrumental in my life. I remember at hit when you had gym class with Mr. Callis. His rule was when he blew the whistle, you throw all the balls towards the office, and then he would put them in the office, and then you go take your shower, and then you go to your next class. And one day I was shooting baskets and the blue the whistle blew, and I didn't, I just kept shooting. And so he blew the whistle again, and I kept shooting. And finally he called me over to the office, took me in the office, and gave me a couple SWAT. Oh. And yeah, that that was okay to do that back then. And that that was a lesson for me. Like, son, the the world doesn't revolve around you. You know, you you're pretty good in sports, but you're you gotta follow the rules, you know. And he lit me up pretty good with that paddle, and I never did that again.

Arthur Busch 22:58

Jeff, I know one of the things that we you know, we work with young people I have over the years. And sometimes sometimes it isn't always the lessons in life where you're the champion, where you end up you know uh bringing home the trophy, so to speak, whether it's in law or whether it's in athletics. It's how a person deals with that disappointment. Sometimes it's even the agony of defeat. You know, you see young people who've lost the game and they you know they go into a tailspin. In your case, you had a dream to become a major leaguer, and you didn't make that dream come true, but you've had some terrific experiences both in athletics as well as in your professional life. And I'd like to know I'd like to ask you this question. What what did you do to make that transition and tell us what that transition was?

Lessons, Setbacks, And Resilience

Jeffrey Natchez 24:11

So when I got released from the tigers in the spring of 76, it was like, okay, now what do I do the rest of my life? I knew that I could go back to school and you know get a degree, but it was like, what do I get a degree in? It just so happened that in fall of 75, one of my teammates, Tommy Thompson, and I drove to Vegas to visit some friends in Vegas. And on the way there and the way back, by the time we got back, we had decided that I was going to go to optometry school. And Tommy was going to come back to Flint or come to Flint. He wasn't from here, and learn the optical business from my dad, who was an optometrist. And so we had this big master plan that after I graduated from optometry school, we'd go into business together. He would do the glasses part and I would do the exams. Sounded pretty good at the time. Fast forward a few months or whatever, Tommy decided he didn't want to do that. But I had already kind of made committed to going to optometry school. So I went back to school at Flight U of M and then finished up at UNLV in Vegas and then went to optimity school.

Arthur Busch 25:47

Wow. Now tell us a little bit about what what that ended up, what that what what what the next step was.

Jeffrey Natchez 25:57

So I went to optometer school up at Ferris, and that was that was a great experience. I met a lot of lifelong friends, got a great education. And my wife and I, my wife was from Nebraska, my first wife, and we decided that we wanted to go back out west. So after I graduated, I interviewed with an ophthalmologist in uh Reno, Nevada, and ended up getting the job, and that's how I ended up in Nevada and lived there for about 15 years, and a great place to live.

Arthur Busch 26:33

And then eventually you came back to Flint?

Jeffrey Natchez 26:37

I did. We uh unfortunately got a divorce, and it just seemed like the right thing to do at the time. I moved back to Flint, and and that's been great. I met my second wife, Sam, and she's a great lady, and she's a great cook, which has served us well here in the last few weeks. But yeah, life life has been good to me. I didn't make it as I didn't wasn't successful in pursuing my dream, but I've had great life.

Arthur Busch 27:10

Good now. Are you practicing optometry today?

Jeffrey Natchez 27:15

Just a couple days a week in Brighton. Uh I'm semi-retired, so just working part-time.

Choosing Optometry And The West

Arthur Busch 27:23

Jeff, as we wind up here, uh is there any advice? I mean, you've had uh you've provided a lot of entertainment for people in the Flint area to follow and and to watch over the years, and then to serve the people of Flint later in the field of optometry. Is there anything you would give advice or suggestions to the people of Flint? And how is that you feel about the city itself?

Jeffrey Natchez 27:46

Well, I'm uh you know, the Mateen Cleves and that bunch, they they're the Flintstones, but there was a lot of Flintstones, you know, before that, and it was a great place to grow up. I cherish all those memories. Really lucky I'm back here and I get to see all a lot of my old friends, and we've stayed friends over the years, and yeah, it's it's been a been a great, great journey.

Arthur Busch 28:17

Who are some of the greatest athletes that you got a chance to see or play with?

Jeffrey Natchez 28:22

Well, in uh baseball, Ron LaFleur, I think Ron probably could have been an NFL running back if he wanted to, Lance Parrish. Well, I I saw so many, played with so many.

Arthur Busch 28:41

Ricky Leach was uh was a few steps behind you in uh class, but did you ever have a chance to play baseball with him?

Jeffrey Natchez 28:50

Yeah, when I got released from the tigers, I came back to Flint, and we got to play summer baseball in the in the city league a couple years. And you know, the great athlete, obviously. Ricky was you know one of a kind. He I think he was the first quarterback to ever start as a freshman at U of M. And I think he was third in the Heisman his senior year at Michigan. And yeah, just you know, Ricky had that what whatever it is that makes you special, he had it. You know, he he walked onto the field with that attitude that I'm the man and I'll be the best player on the field today.

Arthur Busch 29:43

Well, Jeffrey, you were the best person on the field for many years as I watched you grow up, both at uh Freeman and McKinley and Southwestern. And I appreciate all the things you've done to keep our classmates at Fun Southwestern High School together.

Coming Home To Flint

Jeffrey Natchez 30:00

We didn't get a chance to talk about this today, but Jeff regularly gathers a round table of various flintstones of all walks of life. And it's been without without your your effort, you brought a lot of great memories back to me over the years, and I'm really glad you could take a few minutes to talk to us here today. Thank you for having me. Appreciate it.

Arthur Busch 30:28

Hey, you're certainly welcome. And I know you, like everyone else, have been sitting around watching our beards grow.

Jeffrey Natchez 30:37

But yeah, I apologize I didn't shave today. Or for the last week for that matter.

Arthur Busch 30:44

I think we'll all get over that. But but anyway, we'll encourage everyone to stay home until the crisis is over. Thank you, Jeff.

Jeffrey Natchez 30:52

All right, stay safe.

Arthur Busch 30:55

Okay, you too. Bye bye. Thank you.

Jeffrey Natchez 30:57

Take care.