MLB trainers recount their time spent with Bisons

Anyone who is in the majors didn’t automatically start there. Toronto Blue Jays’ first baseman Vladimir Guerrero Jr. had to work his way through the minor league level, including Buffalo, to make it to the MLB. The same goes for trainers, who many have gone through the Bisons to the big leagues. There are a few current MLB trainers who worked with Buffalo.

Minnesota Twins trainer Nick Paparesta worked with the Bisons when he was still part of the Cleveland Guardians organization. Paparesta worked in Buffalo from 2001 to 2004 and got an early taste of the professionalism of the MLB.

“When we were in Buffalo, you were treated like a major league player, a major league staff member, a major league athletic trainer,” Paparesta said. “For example, if there was a certain type of dugout jacket that the Indians had that year, you would have that same dugout jacket, but it would have the Buffalo Bisons logo on it. We would always travel with two buses back then, which was unheard of in the 01’, 02’, 03’ era. There was just an outpouring of graciousness from Bucz [Mike Buczkowski] and from Jon Dandes in the front office to our family members and anyone who was with us in the summers in Buffalo.”

Being with the Bisons in 2004, Paparesta is proud to be a member of the team, as they won the IL Championship.

“It’s something that I make sure everyone is aware of whenever I speak to them from the Buffalo group at any point in time,” Paparesta said. “Championships mean a lot to competitive people like Mike Buczkowski and Jon Dandes at the time, and I know it means something to them to have won a championship there.”

Although the 2004 IL Championship was very memorable for Paparesta, it wasn’t the only thing he looks back on fondly while in Buffalo.

“My last year in [20]04, our manager, Marty Brown, and maybe Carlos García, who was the first base coach; they both got thrown out of the game,” Paparesta said. “Dusty Wathan, who is a legend in Buffalo, ended up having to be the manager as a player and actually, we won the game. We walked them off to win the game. I think we were in Buffalo at the time, so it was a pretty cool time.”

After his time with the Bisons, he was with the Tampa Bay Rays as their minor league medical coordinator from 2005-2007. Paparesta then was the Rays’ assistant athletic trainer from 2008-2010, before working as the Athletics’ head athletic trainer for 11 years. From there, he took on the same role for the Twins in 2023 and has been with the team ever since.

There is a former Bisons trainer in the MLB who was in Buffalo when the team was part of the New York Mets’ organization. Brian Chicklo still works with the Mets as their director of player health and medical services.

Chicklo worked with the Bisons in the 2009 and 2010 seasons. Originally, Chicklo was with the Pittsfield Mets in 1999 before working with the then New Orleans Baby Cakes from 2007 to 2008. This was until the team relocated to Wichita, Kansas, and Buffalo became the new Triple-A team for New York. The change was something Chicklo greatly appreciated.

“Being in Triple-A in New Orleans meant that we were in the Pacific Coast League and had to travel to the Midwest and West Coast for the majority of our games,” Chicklo said. “With New Orleans being one of the most eastern-based teams, the travel for a Triple-A team was extremely tough. The first time I met Jon Dandes, Mike Buczkowski and Scott Lesher from the Bisons, I could sense that they ran a very good organization. While they wanted to make the fan experience great, they also cared a lot about winning, which I loved...not to disparage where I had been previously, but the Bisons seemed to have it all together and were run like a Major League Club.”

One of the Bisons’ past trainers stayed with the Blue Jays’ organization and got to eventually work in Toronto in 2017. This came for Voon Chong, who was born in Ipoh, Malaysia, after first working as the athletic trainer/equipment manager for the Canadian U-20 National Soccer team in 1997 and 2001. Chong even worked for the Canadian U-23 National Soccer Team in 2001 and the Olympic National Soccer Team in the 2003 Olympic Qualifying Tournament.

When he made the switch to baseball to work for the Blue Jays organization, Voon made stops in Medicine Hat (Rookie-A) in 2002, Charleston (Single-A) in 2003 and New Hampshire (Double-A) from 2004-2009, until working for the Bisons from 2010-2017.

The move to Triple-A was a learning experience for Chong.

“When you get to Triple-A, there’ll be more involvement with the front office here when they’re asking questions about ‘who is healthy and who is not,” Chong said. “‘Can he come up? Can he play? Can he not play? Will he be able to help us?’ All that kind of stuff. You have more and more direct contact with the Major League team as you get higher and higher. If you have players that are more Major League ready, then you have more contact with the GM or a scout or the Major League trainer at that point.”

For each trainer, being in Buffalo helped them advance their careers to the MLB. It wasn’t anything strictly on the medical side of being a trainer. It was being able to build connections with people.

“I think it’s more of how to deal with people when you get to Triple-A,” Chong said. “It’s more of dealing with all the personalities, learning how to talk to people and all that kind of stuff. That happens at the higher level because you’re dealing with the people who’ve been there and done that...you do learn how to be a big leaguer in some ways...things are more crucial, things are more urgent. In Triple-A, you learn if somebody’s hurt, you got to tell the front office real quick because you can’t dilly-dally because they might need him the next day.”

Through being able to communicate with others and building connections, friendships have developed for these trainers.

“Most athletic trainers have a special bond because we all know the sacrifices we make to get to where we are,” Chicklo said. “Sacrifices being the go-to person for everything, being away from our family and loved ones, not being there to witness our children’s first steps, missing major life milestones and the list could go on and on. It is truly wild to think about all the athletic trainers that have had the privilege to be associated with the Bisons that have achieved their career goal of making it to the Major Leagues...I also speak often with Nick Paparesta and Todd Tomczyk [Pittsburgh Pirates Director of Medicine] in regard to trades, and free agent signings.”

All three trainers achieved their goal of making it to the MLB. Although they might all be on different teams, each one got to learn at the Triple-A level with Buffalo. However, it wasn’t just a learning experience for these trainers. It was an experience of what it is like to work with the Buffalo Bisons.