Thomas University coach Boo Taylor, right, shakes hands with outfielder Jeremy Crosby, a Cairo graduate, during a game last season.

TIFTON — Billy “Boo” Taylor had an arm tailor-made for the Major Leagues. His heart is tailor-made for coaching.

The 6-foot-8 Taylor fulfilled his childhood dream of playing professional baseball. Now, an assistant coach at Thomas University, Taylor is helping others achieve their goals.

“It was what I wanted to do,” Taylor said. “I didn’t want to get away from baseball totally at that time because I loved it so much. It’s still fun to me every day that I do a private lesson or if I go coach a game or work with kids in the bullpen.The fire is still in me to teach and try to help somebody get better.”

Taylor’s fire was kindled at an early age. When he was 18 and a senior at Thomas County Central, Taylor was chosen in the second round of the 1980 amateur entry draft. However, a trip to the major leagues wasn’t instantaneous. Taylor spent 14 years in the minor leagues before being called up.

“There were several times I said, ‘Maybe I do need to move on in my life and pursue another career.’ But then you know, I still felt healthy. My body was still in good shape. I didn’t have an injuries that held me back. I just decided to stay with it and take it as far as my body would let me go,” Taylor said. “It panned out.”

Persistence paid off for Taylor. The relief pitcher earned a spot on the 1994 opening day roster with the Oakland Athletics when he was 32. Taylor remembers the moment like it was yesterday when he was called up to “The Show.”

“I worked so hard to get to that particular goal in my life. Once I got there, it was almost like it was a load off my mind,” Taylor said. “Year after year I was in Triple-A and putting up great numbers, not getting a chance to get called up to the big leagues. It was a lot of frustration and also it was like, ‘What else do you have to do?’ Once I was told I had made the big league roster with the A’s in 1994, it was a load off.”

Taylor enjoyed a seven year big league career, appearing in 317 games with a 16-28 record, 100 saves and a 4.21 ERA. He struck out 307 in 324.2 innings.

“Being in that position to be a closer in the big leagues is an extremely tough position. You can’t afford to go in there and walk people, you have to throw strikes. My walks to strikes ratio was always real good. I made them put the ball in play,” Taylor said.

Following Taylor’s playing career, he became an assistant coach and then head coach at Brookwood and was part of the Warriors’ back-to-back state championships in 2003-04. Taylor also coached at Tallahassee Community College before arriving at Thomas University.

It has been more than a decade since Taylor toed the rubber in a real game. He still has flashbacks to those glory days with the Athletics, New York Mets and Pittsburgh Pirates.

“I miss it some still, now. That was the time of my life, doing something I enjoyed as a child, getting paid for it and having fun,” Taylor said.