Yesterday at the Marriott Marquis in the heart of Times Square, Howard Megdal launched his run to become the General Manager of the NY Mets. Do not be fooled by the recent love letter written in the daily fish wraps, it’s time for old ideas and ways of doing business in Flushing to come to a halt and time for a young man with vision and vigor to take over the regins of the Mets baseball operation, as far as I’m concerned, Howard Megdal is the man to lead us to that goal.

Sure things are all sunshine and seashells but don’t fool yourself Mets fans, the Baltimore Orioles don’t come up on the Mets schedule again for a few years. But isn’t winning grand? Wouldn’t you like to have the feeling of being a Victor every year? Well, then there is only one man who can do that for this organization and that’s Howard Megdal.

Every story you read about Fernando Martinez focuses on his potential. Since he signed with the Mets at the age of 16, we heard about the great potential that this young man has. He has the potential to hit for power, run like the wind, hit for average, tons and tons of potential. Well you know what potential means? It means you haven’t done a damn thing yet. You could do some great things or you may be another in a long  line of Mets prospects on the junk heap.

Ina story on MLB.com, Jesse Sanchez talks to F-Mart about his play so far the winter, where he is currently playing for the Dominican Republic rep Escogido where after  a slow start, Martinez has played well.  I thought that this quote though was a little too cocky for a guy who still has a lot to prove:

“I know I’m a big league player, and I can perform at a high level,” Martinez said. “It’s in my hands, so I have to keep working hard and maybe earn a spot. Maybe I make it to the big leagues with the Mets or maybe another team, but I know I can do it. I just have to keep working and waiting for my opportunity.”

I want to like this kid and I would love to see him finally live up to the hype and come back to the Mets and make a big contribution to the team’s future. But the bottom line is, this season is make or break for him, a young man of 20 years old just cannot keep breaking down the way he does. At first I thought that he was so young and the strain on his body of playing professional baseball and the natural progression of his physical growth were colliding and causing his injuries but I am starting to think it may be more a lack of dedication to the craft that has caused him not to be a hard worker or take the time to train and be physically fit.

Martinez claims he is a big leaguer and he knows he needs to work hard to get back to major leagues but as we’ve seen with the four years he has been in the organization, talk is cheap.

 

The first thing I want to know about the child is was he overweight. I’m not picking on the kid if he was fat I’m asking because in 10 years of Little League coaching I’ve had 10,11 and 12 year olds that were so over weight we didn’t have baseball pants to fit them or shirts. I had a 12 year old who wore a 40 waist pants and XXL shirt (his parents thought it was so cute that Big Mike was playing ball even if he couldn’t run, catch or swing a bat without weezing) so maybe this young man was a bit to heavy and that led to his injury.

My next question would be is the child a special education student? Many parents never tell coaches that their child suffers from ADD or ADHD. I am not an educator or a psychiatrist so when I yell at a kid for not paying attention or not looking at me when I’m speaking, it’s because I think the kid is a goof off, if I know in advance that the kid has issues I’d approach him a different way but Little League is forbidden to ask if a child has behavioral problems. That is a huge issue. I’ve had many kids like that, in fact one kid was just a real nasty sort and one day at practice when he was tired of hearing me tell him to catch the ball with two hands he told me to go fuck myself. My son heard this and was ready to beat the kid to a pulp. Finally when the mother told me he didn’t take his “meds” that day I realized the kid was sick.

I volunteer for lot’s of things because I believe in giving back. No one grew up in a better environment than me and I tried to give that to my own kids. I always feel for children who come from homes where it’s not ideal and I’ve always felt that sports is a way of showing kids that teamwork and pulling for one and other is a life lesson and for the most part kids are great it’s the parents that suck.

One thing Little League needs to do is run coaching seminars in the winter to help ladies and gentlemen who would like to volunteer and either don’t know the rules or they are intimidated by other coaches. I’ve had teams where I needed two other people to help me and it was hard between the apathetic parents (the majority unfortunately ) and the ones who feel they are limited in what they know or can do about the sport. If the parents had some guidance the program works a lot smoothly.

I hope this woman will be happy with the money she gets (I know the ambulance chaser who took the case will put his take to good use <sarcastic>) and maybe her conscience won’t bother her when she passes the New Springville Little League field when it’s gates are locked and the grounds are full of weeds and the kids who’s could have made great friends and learned that there are people who not only are there to teach you to play baseball but to listen to your problems and try to help you are all gone but then again when you sue a local Little League you have no conscience.

I wanted to hurl when I read this. Although having served on jury duty on Staten Island I’m not surprised. To be quite honest, when I was on a panel for a civil case involved the MTA and a woman who fell on a bus the answers by the folks on the panel to the attorneys questions were embarrassing. Some woman claimed she couldn’t serve on the jury because she had to be home every day at 4PM to make dinner fro her husband. Another man said he lived in Totenville and coming downtown was a “pain in the ass” for him. So this moronic verdict is not shocking. 

A non-Mets but a baseball story here. I just read where a woman from Staten Island sued the New Springville Little League and Little League International because her son, aged 12 at the time torn up his knee sliding into second base. Her claim was the coaches were negligent in teaching her son how to slide properly.

 

 

I wanted to hurl when I read this. Although having served on jury duty on Staten Island I’m not surprised. To be quite honest, when I was on a panel for a civil case involved the MTA and a woman who fell on a bus the answers by the folks on the panel to the attorneys questions were embarrassing. Some woman claimed she couldn’t serve on the jury because she had to be home every day at 4PM to make dinner fro her husband. Another man said he lived in Totenville and coming downtown was a “pain in the ass” for him. So this moronic verdict is not shocking.

The first thing I want to know about the child is was he overweight. I’m not picking on the kid if he was fat I’m asking because in 10 years of Little League coaching I’ve had 10,11 and 12 year olds that were so over weight we didn’t have baseball pants to fit them or shirts. I had a 12 year old who wore a 40 waist pants and XXL shirt (his parents thought it was so cute that Big Mike was playing ball even if he couldn’t run, catch or swing a bat without weezing) so maybe this young man was a bit to heavy and that led to his injury.

My next question would be is the child a special education student? Many parents never tell coaches that their child suffers from ADD or ADHD. I am not an educator or a psychiatrist so when I yell at a kid for not paying attention or not looking at me when I’m speaking, it’s because I think the kid is a goof off, if I know in advance that the kid has issues I’d approach him a different way but Little League is forbidden to ask if a child has behavioral problems. That is a huge issue. I’ve had many kids like that, in fact one kid was just a real nasty sort and one day at practice when he was tired of hearing me tell him to catch the ball with two hands he told me to go fuck myself. My son heard this and was ready to beat the kid to a pulp. Finally when the mother told me he didn’t take his “meds” that day I realized the kid was sick.

I volunteer for lot’s of things because I believe in giving back. No one grew up in a better environment than me and I tried to give that to my own kids. I always feel for children who come from homes where it’s not ideal and I’ve always felt that sports is a way of showing kids that teamwork and pulling for one and other is a life lesson and for the most part kids are great it’s the parents that suck.

One thing Little League needs to do is run coaching seminars in the winter to help ladies and gentlemen who would like to volunteer and either don’t know the rules or they are intimidated by other coaches. I’ve had teams where I needed two other people to help me and it was hard between the apathetic parents (the majority unfortunately ) and the ones who feel they are limited in what they know or can do about the sport. If the parents had some guidance the program works a lot smoothly.

I hope this woman will be happy with the money she gets (I know the ambulance chaser who took the case will put his take to good use <sarcastic>) and maybe her conscience won’t bother her when she passes the New Springville Little League field when it’s gates are locked and the grounds are full of weeds and the kids who’s could have made great friends and learned that there are people who not only are there to teach you to play baseball but to listen to your problems and try to help you are all gone but then again when you sue a local Little League you have no conscience.

 

Friday nights at camp has always been about celebrating the accomplishments of the boys and the camaraderie of the troop and the Leaders. The Scout Leaders chip in and buy pizza and soda for the scouts and we also buy for the staff who helps us make our week run smooth.

So myself and leader went and got 14 pizza’s and a couple of cases of soda. After filling our bellies, my son and I take a walk up to the medic to get the dressing on his injured finger changed. As we come out of the medic office we see two of our leaders running up with one of our Scouts holding a blood soaked hand. The young man sliced his finger sawing wood for the evening camp fire and had to go to the hospital to get 6 stitches. As they leave, the rest of the troop and four other leaders are headed to the field for the closing ceremonies so my son and I join in.

As we join the formation the site commissioner grabs my arm and tells me that a bear has just gone through our site. It seems the remaining troop did not police the area before leaving and a full pepperoni pizza was left on a table.

When one of the site guides was walking through the back of our site, he spotted the bear. From his account, the bear walked past the site and suddenly stopped and lifted up his head, pointing his snout toward the sky and it seems the scent of the pizza appealed to him. The bear hopped up on the table and grabbed the box and proceeded to enjoy a slice (no word on if he used proper Brooklyn pizza etiquette by folding the slice in half) While this went on, the site guide radioed the Park Ranger who was tracking the bear and alerted him to the bear’s whereabouts. The Ranger has a gun with rubber bullets and he then shot the bear in the ass causing the bear to yelp and run off toward the lake.

So for the rest of the evening we kept the camp well lit and cleaned the camp like it was a hospital emergency room. But I didn’t go to sleep until about 3AM when my relief took so I could get 3 hours sleep until it was time to get up and break camp.

As great as it is to have a bear story it’s even better that I packed and extra pair of underwear. They came in handy.

Oh yeah about the deal, The whole “Francoeur is a great defensive player” and now the spin from Flushing is we are going to turn this team into a pitching and defense first kind of squad to fit $iti Field is admirable but the fact is this was a deal for two guys neither team wanted around anymore. But I’m fine with Frenchy even though is numbers have decreased each season since his rookie year and he is a very good right fielder with a plus arm. Church never “wowed” me but he was done in by bad medical advice and a manager who had not faith in him so I wish him luck and good health in Atlanta. Another plus for Francoeur is his nickname “Frenchy”