By the end of this Friday night, the home team has a 3–1 win over Tri-City and Pat Borders has to like what he saw: a lanky 18-year-old Venezuelan right-hander, Francisco Morales, going five strong innings, giving up just one run for his third win against no losses in his fifth start; a leftie, Keylan Killgore, lights-out the rest of the way for a super-sized save.

The Crosscutters aren’t going to be a playoff club but that’s not what this is all about. A bunch of his players did the little things right and the big things fell into place. There was the ordinary stuff: The season-ticket-holder with the coffee beans dropped off another bag. There was the little out of the ordinary: The league confirmed that Borders would be managing in the New York-Penn all-star game. It was, in the end, a good night. While the equipment managers pack up for a weekend road trip, coaches check in and out of Borders’s office while he types up his reports for the big club, going through his lineup, player by player, and seeming content with his lot.

Seeming. Says Don Bridges: “[Pat] Gillick knew Pat could be a good manager, a good coach, when he was asking him to take a job in the Phillies organization. Pat has a lot of knowledge about the game to pass on to his players but there was stuff that he had to pick up about managing … He had to put in time managing just like he had to learn how to be a catcher. And he’s probably ready now. He can work at a higher level. He can work in the big leagues. And the time is right now. Short-season in the minors was great because it gave him a chance to see his sons playing at [the University of South Florida] but they’re done there now. That frees him up for bigger things.”

Borders acknowledges the idea that Williamsport might not be his last stop. “I’m happy here but it’s not like I’m not taking calls,” he says. “I enjoy this town and this team. Would I like to be part of something bigger? I’ve been in those things before and I know what it feels like. Anyone would.”

Borders can’t know what lies ahead. At this point in time no one can. Before the 2020 season, MLB will announce the culling of more than 40 teams in the fall, Williamsport among them. When Borders next manages a game — when baseball at every level restarts — it will be in Clearwater, home of the Phillies’ Florida State League high-A affiliate. He’ll be able to commute to games, sleep in his own bed. All he and his wife will miss will be relief from the mid-summer Florida heat. And even then, maybe Clearwater will only be a stop on the way to still-bigger things.

But that’s far-off stuff. The weekend’s two-game series is in Brooklyn, and I ask Borders if he’s going to get time to see the Statue of Liberty. “Maybe,” he says, though that would be a bigger outlier than he ever was.

A version of this article was originally published in August 2018.