50 surgeries later, Roy Muller finds new baseball home at Pinnacle

Roy Muller was a baseball lifer at Paradise Valley, where he finally stopped coaching two years ago after 38 years and 624 wins and 45 surgeries and fusions to repair everything from his shoulders to his hips to his knees to his back.

He said he has had five more surgeries since he left PV in 2014, but when Phoenix Pinnacle called him less than two weeks before tryouts, Muller seized the opportunity to lead a program again.

Pinnacle, scrambling to find a coach since John Casey led the program last year, had three starters leave as Muller quickly tried to put a staff together. A few weeks into the season, with his team at 5-5, Muller says he still is trying to learn everybody's name.

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But he is back doing what he loves and he is embracing each day on the field.

"I didn't plan on being a head coach again," Muller said. "I was ready to start coaching again. I thought I'd help my longtime assistant at Apache Junction.

"The day before I was headed there, Pinnacle called me. I was floored. They asked if I'd come over. I didn't plan on it. People have been wonderful. I always wanted to coach again."

Pinnacle started Muller's new coaching era 5-2 before hitting a skid, losing its last three, including an 8-6 loss to Scottsdale Desert Mountain, where Casey is now the head coach.

The good-natured Muller gets around using a bat as a cane.

When he left Paradise Valley, he was on medical leave. He still is rehabbing from what seems like never-ending surgeries. His heart has never had to be repaired for this game.

"I'm just blessed to be on the field with them," Muller said. "We've played some good teams. We're good, too. We've been our own worst enemy most of the time. But that's OK. They're getting used to me."

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