Groton — Suddenly, Roger Bidwell was awash in bear hugs and back slaps, photo-ops and champagne. He laughed. He cried. He posed. He even begged. (Not to waste the champagne).

And there it was. Roger. His day. His time. His friends, his players, his program, all on this piece of familiar real estate, the area in front of the home dugout at Washington Park, where Roger Bidwell – the great Roger Bidwell – has celebrated many seminal moments in his career.

This was last week, a sunny Friday when Bidwell won his 1,000th game as the baseball coach at UConn Avery Point. He has 1,001 now this weekend as the Pointers take a swing at the program’s fifth trip to the World Series.

Fancy that: one thousand one wins and 1,001 reasons, you figure, as to why the question is inevitable. It happens to everyone of local celebrity. Why are you still here? Why did you stay? You could do this anywhere. Why?

It implies an inherent flaw in the decision to avoid the glitz of where the path may lead, but to instead enjoy your own green grass, not where it’s necessarily greener. It implies that unless you do what you do on the biggest, grandest stage, you are somehow deficient. Subordinate.

Enter John McDonald, a proud product of Avery Point, now the Special Assistant to Baseball Operations with the Cleveland Indians, following a 16-year professional career.

“Thank goodness Roger stayed,” Johnny Mac was saying one day this week. “I didn’t need Avery Point. I needed Roger Bidwell. I needed the environment he created. He made me believe. I didn’t think I was good enough to be a Major Leaguer. He told me I was. He believed in me. He told me he’d get me to a place where I’d realize my full potential. I needed that guidance. I bet hundreds, maybe thousands of kids now have gotten that same guidance.”

And there you have it. Roger Bidwell stayed because he was needed. Because this is home. Because it’s right for his family. He could have gone places. Many. But would he have the Johnny McDonalds of the world singing hosannas? Would he have 1,001 wins in the same place? Would he command such respect? Would he be the face of an institution? At Avery Point it’s water views, Branford House and Roger Bidwell, not necessarily in that order.

Roger Bidwell personifies what William Ernest Henley meant when he wrote “Invictus.” The words: “It matters not how strait the gate, how charged with punishments the scroll; I am the master of my fate, I am the captain of my soul.”

Here is the captain on why he stayed:

“I can go to Bravo, Bravo, Tony D’s and Anthony J’s and have a couple of glasses of wine. How could I survive without that?” he said, his sense of humor always his companion. “But in all seriousness, I’m here because the campus needs me.”

And this is when the man who often produces tears of laughter with his one-liners, needed a moment to wipe his own.

“It wouldn’t have athletics, I don’t think,” he said. “I think it would go away.”

Instead, the baseball program is Avery Point’s beacon.

“A couple of opportunities came at the wrong time. After coaching 25-30 years, you don’t just jump because it’s a higher level of coaching,” Bidwell said. “When I was 32, I had a chance to go to (Division I) NC-Asheville. I was ready. But it wasn’t the right time for my family and my wife. I remember the salary to go there was exactly the same as Avery Point: $32,000. I would have gone if I wasn’t married. Nancy didn’t want to get away from her family. Now she can’t wait to get away from her family.”

(Joking, Nancy. Joking).

“I was Andy Baylock’s graduate assistant at UConn when (former Avery Point coach) George Greer left for Davidson. I thought for sure I’d be gone in four or five years. But I felt a connection to Avery Point. More than a job to me in many respects. (Former UConn athletic director) Lew Perkins told me to get the hell out of here. He said, ‘What’s wrong with you?’ I didn’t take his advice. I’ve got to tell you, I don’t regret it.”

Who knows how many lives he’s changed?

Fitch coach Jeff Joyce: “Imagine the sales pitch to a recruit: I have no scholarships. No budget. Bad weather. Mandatory study halls. No dorms, so you’ll have to rent for seven months.

“And yet you read the Avery Point baseball program and look at the hundreds who have played at the next level. Add up the scholarship money his players have accumulated. Look at the tax returns for his players who have gone to the majors. Why come to Avery Point? It’s simple: Roger Bidwell.”

Former assistant coach Bob Demars: “I remember one year we had a pitcher who thought he was slick and could paint Roger into a corner and get away with ignoring one of the few rules we had. Rog had a no facial hair policy. It was the last game of the season, the kid was scheduled to pitch and hadn't shaved in over a week. He figured it was the last game, we were short on pitchers and Rog would look the other way and not say anything.

“The kids were buzzing and wondering how Roger would handle it. The kid was sitting in the dugout waiting for the game ball to start warming up. So, Roger comes in the dugout and everyone is watching, he goes to the equipment bag and all the kids are trying to figure out what he is up to. He goes to the pitcher with a Bic razor.

“Roger says, ‘If you want to pitch today, you need to shave.’ The kid says, ‘How?’ Roger replies, ‘see that bubbler over there? Use that to wet your face and shave or we can start someone else. If you want to play at Avery Point while I am coach, you will live by my rules just like everyone else does.’ That’s one of the ways the program took off.”

How fortunate, indeed, we are that Roger Bidwell stayed. Coach, comedian, mentor.

And all ours.

This is the opinion of Day sports columnist Mike DiMauro.

Twitter: @BCgenius