Like most baseball lifers, new Windy City ThunderBolts manager Tom Carcione has his share of stranger-than-fiction stories.
There was the time in 2005 when Carcione, now 59, was the head coach at a small college in South Dakota that closed in April — even though his baseball team was allowed to finish out its final season.
Three years later, Carcione took over as interim manager of the Ottawa Rapides of the Can-Am League. He did well enough to lose the interim tag and was given a three-year contract — only for the team to fold just before the 2009 season.
Carcione played 10 seasons of minor-league ball before retiring in 1998 and moving into coaching. He hopes his second stint as a pro manager is less bumpy.
He’s no stranger to Windy City, having served as the ThunderBolts hitting coach in 2015.
It’s also a homecoming in another way for the native of northwest suburban River Grove who graduated from now-closed Holy Cross High School and also had a stint as an assistant at Northern Illinois University.
Carcione is the fourth manager in four years for Windy City. White Sox World Series hero and fan favorite Bobby Jenks ran the team in 2024 and was set to come back last season, but was diagnosed with stomach cancer and went on medical leave in February 2025. On July 4, Jenks died at 44.
Toby Hall, Jenks’ battery mate in Chicago, joined the Windy City staff after previously working alongside Jenks in the Pioneer League. Instead of serving as a coach, Hall was the interim manager and the T-Bolts finished 36-60.
Hall left to become manager of another Frontier League team, the Florence Y’alls, and Carcione comes in to help the franchise turn the page from last year’s tragic storyline.
“When I went through the process of being named the manager, I talked to Toby Hall,” Carcione said before the ThunderBolts’ season opener on May 7. “Toby was the one I talked to first before any of the players … just getting a feel of everything.”
That was an emotional discussion, as were the talks Carcione had with players back from last season.
“We addressed that stuff and talked about what had happened last year during that process,” Carcione said.
Now, the focus has shifted from the past to the future.
“I really haven’t brought (the 2025 season) up as we’ve been here,” he said. “None of the players have brought that up. We talked about it in the offseason.”
The talk going forward will be on improvement. Windy City hasn’t reached the postseason since 2010 and hasn’t finished with a winning record since 2017.
“We’re going to be young,” Carcione said. “… I guess we’re more experienced on the offensive side. … They put the bat on the ball during spring training, so that’s a positive. But now the lights come on and we’ll see what they do.
“And then on the pitching side, I’m a big believer in strike throwers — especially in this ballpark. Traditionally, it’s a pitchers’ ballpark.”