Donnie's View: Not Just from the Booth

Story and photos by Aubrie Tolliver

SYRACUSE, NY -- Passion has the ability to push limits, to drive someone past barriers or restraints. Whether those barriers are physical or mental, it makes no difference, as long as passion is the driving force behind it.

For Don "Donnie" Johnston, the passion has always been sports.

Johnston says, like anyone, there are days when he faces his greatest challenges. But, a close friend once told him to “have the passion.” Since then, he says he’s been living by that motto.

"That keeps me going some days,” Johnston said between bustling about his duties at NBT Bank Stadium, Wednesday night. “There's rough days in sports, there's rough days in life. You just need the passion.”

His Barriers

As a kid growing up in Cleveland, N.Y., about 40 minutes northeast of Syracuse, Johnston wished he could to play sports. But what happened to him when he was an infant kept him from being able to.

Johnston was abused by his birth mother when he was just six weeks old and suffered a fractured skull, broken legs and ribs. He was in the hospital for four months.

From then on, Johnston grew up in a foster home, but the damage from the abuse was evident. The injuries he experienced left him with a speech impediment, physical impairments and a lifelong battle with depression.

In the Press Box

 “I wanted to be a radio broadcaster, I wanted to be a newspaper reporter,” Johnston said. “It took me within the last three, four or five years to go ‘Don, you’re good at being a press box manager, you’re good at making people happy, you’re good at doing what you do every day.”

Learning to accept his limitations has allowed him to thrive both personally and professionally, he says.

Johnston, also known as “Syracuse’s Donnie Baseball,” is the press box manager for the Syracuse Chiefs minor league baseball team. He shares the "Donnie Baseball" nickname with former N.Y. Yankees' All-star and L.A. Dodgers' manager Don Mattingly.

During the season, he can be found governing the press box, doing anything that’s needed of him. Whether it's making copies, greeting guests, moderating interviews or restocking the kitchen, 
even making sure Chiefs' mascot Scooch is fed and watered.

Johnston does it all and does it eagerly; all while exerting the greatest amount of energy and enthusiasm.

Every now and then he’s able to steal a moment to himself and take advantage of the watching the baseball game from the best seat in the house. 

But, just as he begins to settle in, he looks behind him and notices a new guest walk through the doors of the press box. Without hesitation he gets up to greet the new arrival --practically running to the door--and goes right back to work.

There is no off season for Johnston. Once baseball is over, it’s on to the next sport—football. Then basketball. Then hockey. He helps teams compose statistics for their games and seasons.

Johnston submerges himself in the sports world, and there is no other way he would rather it be, he says.

“Have the passion.”

Now at 56, Johnston says he has discovered his niche, or passion, in the sports world—numbers. And not just with sports statistics. Johnston is able to make large calculations in his head. In less than ten seconds, he can tell someone how old he or she is in days, not forgetting to take into account leap years.

Johnston says although the story of his life is full of difficulty and sadness, he hopes that by sharing it, he will inspire others to not only to find their own passions in life but to push past personal adversities keeping them from happiness. 

Just like he has.