PETERBOROUGH — When Larry Bishop decided to step down as president of the Crotched Mountain Baseball League 24 years ago, he handed Wayne Thomas the league checkbook, a list of names he needed to contact and said, “good luck.”

Thomas’ only son, Nick, was playing baseball at that level at the time, so he gladly took the reins.

Over the past 24 years, youth baseball in the Monadnock region has changed on many fronts and seen its ups and downs, but Thomas has been the one constant.

“Somebody needed to do it,” Thomas said. “Nobody walked up to me and said, ‘I want to take over baseball.’ ”

His son has long stopped playing the game and now lives in Massachusetts with his wife, but Thomas enjoyed the job so much, he had no reason to step away.

While his wife of 43 years, Maureen, was suffering from Lou Gehrig’s Disease, Thomas, who retired from his job at UPS in 2003 to care for her, had some help with the league, but it also gave him an escape.

“I think it helped,” he said. “I needed things to keep me going. You need to keep your mind active.”

And now, it is time for someone else to take over the ConVal Cal Ripken league that spans the nine towns that make up the school district. Thomas plans on making a presentation at the Aug. 1 meeting regarding his replacement, with Aug. 30 as his last day on the job.

“Will I miss it?,” he said. “Of course I’ll miss it. It’s like driving a truck. I did that for 38 years.”

Thomas will oversee the rest of the summer, but at the end of August, the mainstay will essentially be doing the same thing that Bishop did.

Even though Thomas is calling it a career as league president, which included stints as the head of Peterborough teams and at one time a coach, he is not going away. He said he will stick around to answer any questions in the future, but noted that it just felt like it was the right time for a change.

At times during Thomas’ tenure, the league went through some tough transitions. Early on, Thomas had to work his magic to keep some of the teams involved with the league because Peterborough was winning too much in the eyes of some in the other eight towns.

“It got to a point where I had to go out and cojole and promise and bring the nine towns back together,” said Thomas. “Things got kind of rocky for a while.”

There have been instances when individual programs have struggled to field teams and were in danger of dropping out completely, but that is not the case now.

Thomas feels he is leaving the Cal Ripken league in good standing and it is really the only way he could walk away. Thomas raves about the people now involved in the league, and they are why he is comfortable with his decision.

“I think we’re in a better place,” said Thomas.

But he reiterated that he would be around to offer advice. Just because he is stepping down, it doesn’t mean he will be unavailable.

Having been in charge for 24 years, Thomas has seen his fair share of players come through the ranks.

And now he is seeing quite a few of them come back to coach their own children, which brings a smile to Thomas’ face.

“It’s gratifying to see those kids come back,” Thomas said. “This is like the third generation starting to play.”

While it may seem that after 24 years, Thomas should be able to run the league with his eyes closed, that is far from the case.

There are new tournaments every summer. The process of league playoffs, all-star teams, which include districts, states and if teams are good enough, regionals, is a complicated one.

“It is a sizeable chunk of time that you take out over the course of the year,” he said.

The league meets once a month, regardless of whether it is baseball season, and there is quite a bit of time spent doing things in between those meetings.

Thomas said he will continue to go to games in the years to come. He loves the game. He must in order to have been a volunteer league president for more than two decades.

And when it is all over next month, Thomas may take a few road trips with the camper he bought shortly after the Ice Storm of 2008, but his volunteering is far from over.

He is the commander of the Cheney-Armstrong Legion Post 5 in Peterborough and most of his free time will be spent in that endeavor.

“I’m transferring my energies from baseball into the Legion,” he said.

Of course, he will miss be head of the league.

Thomas loves youth baseball, but it is just the right time to step away.

“You have to love it.”