PONY has a Key leader
President has overseen organization’s growth since 1995
Until he wakes up one day and finds his enthusiasm for leading PONY Baseball and Softball has waned, count on Abraham Key to be there.
Key, the president and chief executive officer for the past 30 years, is proud of his work and legacy, and he is respectful of the foundation that was laid when PONY formed in the early 1950s.
“When I started to work at PONY, I had a great foundation,” Key said. “I had guys like Lew Hays, Roy Gillespie and Leo Trich who were mentors for me. They taught me and each of them had their strengths. From each one, I was able to acquire skill sets that have led me to a wonderful and humble career. I had great mentors, great leadership prior to me that really set the stage for me to do some additional things.
“Those three took me under their wing and taught me how to deal with people and to appreciate the job we do providing an opportunity for kids to play baseball and softball. I’m not on the field every day.
“I’m in an office. I’m on a phone. I’m on my computer. We’re dealing with problems,” he continued. “I feel sometimes like a fireman. We’re putting out fires daily. And I’m probably as close to a politician as a person can be because our role here is to try and create a wholesome, fun atmosphere for kids to play baseball and softball and to have a safe atmosphere. To do that, you must bring together a lot of people with a lot of personalities and a lot of people who have maybe different sets of goals than we do. Our goal at the end of the day is to make sure that every kid, regardless of their ability, has an opportunity to play baseball and softball in their community. I think we’ve done that.”
Key became president of PONY Baseball and Softball in January 1995. He joined the staff on a full-time basis after graduating from West Virginia University’s School of Journalism and School of Business in 1981. He had worked five years as a part-time employee at PONY while in high school and college.
Key has served on the USA Baseball Board of Directors and on many other international baseball and softball boards. He was active in the World Baseball and Softball Confederation and received a Meritorious Service Medal from President Riccardo Fraccari, Italy, in 2013 for his service. He received the 2019 Xavier Mateu Award from WBSC-Europe.
A lifetime member of the American Baseball Coaches Association, Key has served on its Executive Committee and the Board of Directors. He was awarded the ABCA Meritorious Service Award in 2006 for his contributions to amateur baseball.
Key has been a member of the Washington Lions Club for more than 40 years and received the Melvin Jones Fellow Award for dedicated humanitarian services.
He and his wife Susan Mondik Key, a retired partner in the Washington law firm of Peacock, Keller, have adult children, daughter Casey (husband David Hall) and a son Lincoln (fiancée Ella Britt).
Key is responsible for the daily operation of PONY. He was elected to the Pony Baseball and Softball Wall of Fame in November 1986 and was inducted into the Washington-Greene County Sports Hall of Fame in 2014 for youth service.
“I’ve been doing it for 30 years and it’s been a wonderful career,” he said. “I’m not quite done. I still have a little bit of gas in the tank. I’m looking forward to seeing what the next, three, four, five years bring.”
Key said the support he receives from staff and volunteers remains integral to the operation’s success and longevity.
“We’ve always had wonderful support here from a staff perspective,” he explained. “My international board of directors – they’re all volunteers. They come from many different walks of life. They’re business owners, teachers, athletic directors, newspaper owners, boxing promoters. The skill set that this board of directors brings is varied. And for them to have the confidence in me on an annual basis to manage the organization is paramount.”
A few issues that create problems for PONY include the size of the Pony field. The 14-and-under travel players and junior high baseball are contested on a Major League Baseball-sized diamond – 90-feet between bases and 60 feet, 6 inches from pitcher’s mound to home plate. Pony League is played on a field that features 80-feet between bases and 54 feet from pitcher’s mound to home plate.
“I think at the end of the day, Pony Baseball and Softball is still an organization that welcomes all players, regardless of their skill,” Key said. “I still think there is a passion for kids to play with their classmates, the kids to play with their neighbors, the kids to play in league-appropriate age groups on league-appropriate field sizes. I think there’s still benefit to that. Not everybody is a major leaguer. Not everybody is going to be a college player.
“Some of these kids probably aren’t even going to play high school baseball or softball but there is an opportunity for them to play with their friends. I think there’s value in that. That is our core mission, to create an opportunity for kids to play in a local community organization that every kid can play in and get better at and be coached and acquire new skill sets and create opportunity for success.
“There are roadblocks to that. The proliferation of travel baseball. Twenty-five years ago, we saw travel baseball coming, and other organizations focused on the financial opportunity to take advantage of players and families so they formed travel organizations. Today, that connotation of travel ball, the definition has changed. Today, travel ball is any parent whose kid can afford to pay extra to play more games and travel to play them. Travel ball is here to stay. We recognize that. We’re seeing a lot of athletes, however, come back and participate in local leagues. And then on the weekends, if they want to, they play travel ball. So, we’ve seen a lot of organizations embrace travel ball to give an opportunity for a pre-selected number of kids to play more baseball if they want, but also keep them in the local league.”
Key notes
Key points out some of what he thinks are the most important accomplishments of his tenure. It all started with a belief in a young man eager to learn and listen.
“Lew, Roy and Leo felt they saw something in a young guy that maybe I had the bandwidth to carry this organization and this mission forward,” Key said. “I’m eternally grateful to them and to our international board at PONY for seeing that in a young guy.
“‘First and foremost, for me is the continuity of the organization. We lose a few leagues, we gain some leagues, but we’re still doing the work that we set out to do in 1951, trying to get kids off the street and onto the playing field.
“We’re very proud of the new building (headquarters). That’s probably one of my legacies. We took a leap of faith to build it; our other building was showing a bit of age. In 2006, we decided that we needed to start talking about it, and we talked for years about it. Leo (Trich), the former commissioner of PONY, was involved in the Frontier League and had an idea to build a baseball stadium here in Washington, which I was a part of and we did. And I said that might be a logical place for us to locate a new facility. It is a wonderful showcase of PONY Baseball and Softball history and a great atmosphere to work out of and host people from all over the world.”
Some of Key’s other accomplishments:
• The international expansion of the organization.
“For many years, we had two or three countries – Puerto Rico and Venezuela. I was an officer of USA Baseball and I started circulating in areas where I met a lot of people from other countries. And Major League Baseball invited me to England to attend one of their coaching clinics and talk to England about youth baseball development. So, I started going to meetings and conferences and eventually had an opportunity to get in front of a lot of people who were interested in the model of PONY Baseball and Softball. Through hard work, perseverance and time, our international footprint grew from three countries to almost 60.
“We have China, Japan, the Philippines, Indonesia, Taiwan, and Korea. The list just goes on. Our latest and probably most upside zone is Europe.
We have 20 countries participating in Europe. And we didn’t have any 15 years ago.
• Continued softball growth.
“About the time I started as a part-time employee in 1976, we saw a need,” Key explained. “So, that year, we started softball, and it was probably 70 percent slow pitch and 30 percent fast pitch. Now, it’s 90 percent fast pitch, and there’s very little slow-pitch softball anymore. The girls are no different from the boys. They want to participate. They want to play. They want to be part of a team, and they want to get the same life lessons.”
What’s next?
“We don’t know what the next 20 years looks like,” Key said. “We do know that sports will always have a part in our society. PONY still stands for Protect Our Nation’s Youth, and we think that that mantra, that slogan, that acronym will continue to be important to players and their families and the game of baseball. Though we’re facing a possible Major League Baseball shutdown in 2027, we will continue to flourish, and we will continue to provide the opportunity for kids to participate, regardless of their ability, and we feel that PONY Baseball and Softball will have another 75 in front of us.”