As a relief pitcher for The Washington Nationals, Chris Schroder had the outcome of a game on his shoulders. As the executive director of the Association of County Commissioners of Oklahoma (AACO), Schroder\u2019s days look different now, but that doesn\u2019t mean there\u2019s any less pressure.<\/p>\n
In Major League Baseball, a few bad games can get you demoted to Triple A, but Schroder said he feels more in the \u201chot seat\u201d representing Oklahoma\u2019s 77 counties than he did on the mound, because of the unpredictable nature of government.\u00a0 \u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cIn baseball, I worked out of a bullpen, so I would get nervous warming up before coming in the game,\u201d Schroder said. \u201cBut once I got in the game, at that point it was a battle between the pitcher and the hitter. It wasn’t necessarily thinking long term. It was more focusing in, pitch to pitch.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think I had a lot more control of the outcome in what I did as a baseball player, whereas sometimes in government, the control can be out of your hands, whether it’s the legislature, or other issues.\u201d<\/p>\n
In Schroder\u2019s first major league win, he was tapped to pitch an inning after Barry Bonds hit his 756th home run, breaking the all-time record. The energy in San Francisco\u2019s AT&T Park that day was electric, he said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cThe whole stadium just flashed on every pitch,\u201d Schroder said. \u201cEverybody taking a picture, trying to catch the home run.\u201d<\/p>\n
There\u2019s nothing that compares to the rush of taking the mound, Schroder said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cYou can’t really get that anywhere else,\u201d Schroder said. \u201cEspecially as a reliever, warming up in the sixth or seventh inning and getting that call to run out of the bullpen in front of 40,000 people. I mean that’s a moment.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cIt’s hard to describe that feeling \u2014 especially those first few times you do it \u2014 but it\u2019s such an adrenaline rush to be out there competing and playing the game you love in front of so many people.\u201d<\/p>\n
After pitching professionally for a decade, Schroder retired and returned to familiar territory: County government. Schroder\u2019s father, Keith, served as a county commissioner in Kingfisher County, Okla. for 20 years and Chris interned for ACCO in college, working on road and bridge projects.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Throughout the years, Schroder kept in touch with his ACCO colleagues. They watched him play during his time at Oklahoma City University, and when he made it to Triple A, he would drop in to the office when he was in town for a game.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Dale Frech, ACCO\u2019s safety director, worked with Schroder during his time as an intern and attended a 2000 exhibition game where Schroder pitched OCU to an upset victory over Oklahoma University.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cChris was their star pitcher,\u201d Frech said. \u201cThey beat OU, and that wasn\u2019t supposed to happen. OU was supposed to bully this itty-bitty team, and Chris smoked them.\u201d<\/p>\n
After leaving baseball, it felt natural to return to ACCO, Schroder said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cIt always felt like home to me,\u201d he said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Schroder worked for the OK Cooperative Circuit Engineering Districts Board for 11 years before becoming ACCO\u2019s executive director in 2021.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was like this position was created for Chris, so to speak,\u201d Frech said. \u201cHe was just such a natural that he eventually evolved into the director’s position because he\u2019s so qualified. I\u2019ve worked with five different executive directors, and Chris is right up there with [the first ACCO executive director, as the best]. He treats staff like we\u2019re a team.\u201d<\/p>\n
In baseball, Schroder\u2019s objective was straightforward. In government, the landscape is always evolving. Every day on the job is different, but that\u2019s what Schroder loves about it.<\/p>\n
\u201cJust when you think you’ve had all the questions from counties, it seems like every day, every week, you’re getting something new that you haven\u2019t experienced or there’s new programs, say ARPA, coming down from the feds \u2014 it\u2019s always changing,\u201d Schroder said. \u201cAnd on a county level, it’s always changing.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
As ACCO executive director, Schroder serves as the voice of counties at the state level. Property tax is the \u201chot button topic\u201d right now for the Oklahoma Legislature, he noted.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cWhether that’s adjusting it, lowering it, different homesteads or how much it can increase,\u201d Schroder said. \u201cBut, we also push that it funds a lot of essential services \u2014 law enforcement, health departments, fairgrounds, transportation, roads and bridges \u2014 so, it’s something we have to educate on.\u201d<\/p>\n
It\u2019s important that counties have a seat at the table, so that they can help inform policy by sharing on-the-ground impact, Schroder said. The best part of being ACCO\u2019s executive director is getting to work alongside the county officials, he noted.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cThere’re so many different personalities, and you go through an election cycle, you get a whole group of new ones,\u201d Schroder said. \u201c\u2026 There\u2019re a lot of other areas that most of them have been in in their career before they run for office, so being a resource for them, helping them answer questions, getting them through difficult situations and forming a lot of really good friendships is [my favorite part of the job].\u201d<\/p>\n
Schroder\u2019s father taught him to approach every day doing the best he can, which is advice he\u2019s applied to his careers in baseball and county government, he said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
These days, Schroder has a \u201cworn-out\u201d shoulder and has been out of major league baseball longer than he was in it, but he\u2019s taken the field in a new role, as a coach for his daughters\u2019 softball teams.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cThat’s kind of my fix,\u201d Schroder said. \u201cIt’s not baseball, but it’s close. I’ve come to really like softball, and I love being around the girls. You can work all day, and then go up to the practice field, and it’s like a stress release.\u201d<\/p>\n
Schroder now acts as coach not only on the field, but also in the workplace, Frech said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cHe’s just an outstanding person, an outstanding supervisor, and he literally is like a coach to us,\u201d Frech said. \u201cHe lays out the game plan and works with each of us for that vision.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"As a relief pitcher for The Washington Nationals, Chris Schroder had the outcome of a game on his…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":588163,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[65],"tags":[257121,363,99],"class_list":["post-588162","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mlb","tag-intergovernmental-affairs","tag-mlb","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/588162","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=588162"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/588162\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/588163"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=588162"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=588162"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=588162"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}