The Man Behind “The Mace”: Christopher Shawn Mason’s Journey from the Mound to the Market

Christopher Shawn Mason, the “Mace” is a very successful sales manager for Fortiline Water Works in Tampa, Florida. He has been in this industry for almost 40 years. Little did I know that Mr. Mason was an outstanding baseball player with a magnificent arm and that baseball has pretty much run through his veins all of his life.

Due to circumstances in his life, he chose a career with a prominent nationwide plumbing company over baseball, which ended his dreams of becoming a professional player for a MLB team. The dream might have ended there, but his determination and passion to succeed in life and to continue loving baseball.

Shawn’s love for baseball started in Cincinnati back in 1969 at the age of three. He was just playing catch with a neighbor, when the father of his friends approaches his mom and tell her: “he’s got a good arm”.

“We moved from Cincinnati to Florida, to my grandfather’s house in Brooksville”, he recalled. It was the house of Mr. James Atkins, a cold miner from west Virginia, who bought his grandson his first pitchback.

“It was the first pitchback with the little square, to through for strikes”, he explained. “He could squat all day, because he was a cold miner. He will smoke his cigarette and tell me: ‘for everyone you through to that square, I am going to give you a penny’. I used to stand on the backyard and make dollars”.

As he grew up, so did his baseball affair. He attended Lakeland High School, playing for the Dreadnaughts, and became a starter pitcher for their baseball team.

“I actually was starter at my freshman year” he recounts. “I was one of the few that ever made it, as starter, on my freshman year”, he added.

A PITCHER’S ARM

From very early on his baseball affair, Shawn knew that his biggest baseball skill was pitching. He had a cannon for an arm and people noticed early on.

“When we moved from Brooksville to Lakeland, we rented, while our house was being built” Shawm remember. “My friend across the street was my age. We will go to his backyard and play catch. His dad was a little league coach. He asked me: ‘son did you play little league?’ and I said no, I just moved here. And he said: we got to get you on my team”.

Following that interaction, he went on to start practicing with the Whataburger Little League team in Lakeland. “I went out to play shortstop, and after coach Bill saw me throwing from shortstop to first base, he asked me: ‘have you ever pitched?’, I said not, this is the first time I have ever played. So, he puts me on the mount and from that point on, at seven-year-old, I started pitching”.

Having shown immediately to his minor league coach his promising arm, his dream of being a professional baseball player continue to grow. “I went from the smallest league, the Minor to the Major” he told me, with as much candor as when he was ten. “The coaches came down when I was in Major League, when I was ten years old and taught me how to throw and overhand curveball and the slider”.

Shawn recounts that in 1972 his team went 20-0 and won the Florida’s championship. “That year we won the state championship and then played in the Dixi Youth Little League’s World’s Series in Louisiana”. 

BASEBALL DREAM COMING TO AN END

His baseball dream took him to Campbell University, in Buies Creek, North Carolina, where he played division one baseball for two years. He sat out for one year and then to try out for the University of West Florida, in Pensacola from which he received a full ride scholarship, playing for the Argonauts.

“I pitched against pretty good teams there. I had a scout from the San Francisco Giants who came down to watch me a couple of time” he recalls. “I was the only married guy on that team. I was talking with the scout, my daughter was born on my senior year, and my wife sent my resume to Ferguson Enterprises. Right before our regional play off, I flew off to Virginia to interview with Ferguson on Friday”.

He returned to baseball practice that Monday afternoon and later that day he has received a letter from Ferguson offering a job in their water works division in two weeks. He consulted with his coach and remembered a wife family member that spent five years in the MLB minors and never made it to the major and then he didn’t know what he was going to do for a living.

“So, I said, you know, I feel the responsibility, I have a kid now, I think I going to take the job” he confessed. Putting an end to his big-league dreams, while putting the pieces in place for a wonderful family and a very successful career.

I asked him if he has any regret on that decision to which he responded: “This month, I will be 36 years in the business on what I am doing. I have only worked for four different companies in that span. Financially and for job security and for my family I made the best decision”.  

THE BEST OF BOTH WORLDS

Now Shawn continues to succeed in his professional career that has brough him financial stability. But, true to his “baseball my blood” character, the Mace have continued to enjoy playing the sport of his dream. He has played in multiple baseball and softball leagues, including the prestigious Stan Musial league. 

So, the loves continues and the dream lives on: “I just drove my pitchback to my grandson, who has a very good arm…so he can continue to practice” say Shawn of his ten years old, Karsyn Mason. Of whom he said that if he ends up making it to the Major would it be his wildest dream come through.

Now, almost forty years after putting an end to his Major League dreams and after so many professional, family and personal successes, the baseball flame still linger within “the Mace”, now in the persona of his beloved grandkid.

We will sheer for him and his eternal dream!