Baseball is in the air

[MuckerFish]

I was at gm 7 of the '86 WS. Fantastic experience. Mets vs. Sox. I was at home getting ready to watch the game on TV, when I get a call from my Dad. He was a NYC cop at the time and ended up getting pulled to work the game, along with half the force. He calls up about an hour before the game, tells me to get a buddy and get down to the stadium. I hop on the 7 train and I'm at Shea a few min later. As me and my friend are heading off the subway platform, we get grabbed from the sides. It's my dad and his partner. We get cuffed, brought into the stadium, he takes us to the additional press boxes set up in the bleachers, uncuffs us and says 'stay right here' kind of crap. Dissappears for the game and me and my friend catch game 7 in the Good Morning America pressbox. Amazing experience! Next day we both miss school. The day after that I catch a beat down by my HS principal who caught my heart warming rendition of "New York New York" from the seventh inning stretch of the game on GMA.

Fast forward some 20 years, Game 1 of the subway series. I call my dad up and say "get down to the stadium". I managed to pick up a pair of tics to the game the day of. Unfortunately he cant make it and I catch the game with a friend. Great game, but it still kills me I couldn't pay the old man back for what was the best baseball experience of my life.

[TonyDanza]

Extended spring training is the bottom of the barrel for anyone in the affiliated minor leagues. You still get to play some games, but unless you are really young, latin, or rehabbing, you better start looking around for a job. You get paid peanuts and are treated like you're 12 (probably because most of the guys act like they're 12). The workouts are annoying, but I'd go there tomorrow if someone called me up today.

[cobrakai111]

Danza awesome stories, would you ever play for another country if offered? What do you do to get your baseball fix if you aren't playing for a team?

[MicroBob]

Tony - even though I was a radio guy and not a player I mostly feel the same way.

My advantage over you players is that there really isn't a time-line where it would be impossible for me to go back.

I'm 36 now and entertain dreams of making enough off poker to be fairly comfortable and then heading out to Great Falls or Yakima or somewhere for a short-season gig and not care about getting paid only $1k/mth or something ridiculous.


If you are really interested in continuing to play you should really consider the independent leagues.
No, it's not the same as affiliated-ball.
But it can still be similarly fun in many ways.

Frontier League in your area plays in some decent ballparks (as well as some crappy ones).
FL might have age restrictions though.

I would also recommend the Northern League but the quality of player is better in that league and I'm guessing that somebody who's been out fo the game for awhile would likely not have a chance.

Just something to think about anyway.

[TonyDanza]

[ QUOTE ]
Danza awesome stories, would you ever play for another country if offered? What do you do to get your baseball fix if you aren't playing for a team?

[/ QUOTE ]

I would consider playing for another country. I just turned 30 and my arm is not in good shape. The last time I pitched was almost 1.5 years ago. I had excrutiating shoulder pain. An MRI revealed that I had a partial tear in my rotator cuff. I used to play in leagues around Chicago until last year. I really want to get my arm back in shape without having surgery and at least play on some level. At a minimum I am looking forward to getting back into coaching. I was the pitching coach at a small division II school in North Carolina before I gave it all up to become a lawyer. Now, I am in my first year as an associate and hoping I will be able to find time this summer to at least coach. Whenever this time of year comes around I wish I was still playing. So, to answer your question, right now I'm not doing anything to get my fix. I hope to start coaching again and at least playing on some level.

[TonyDanza]

MB-
I'm pretty familiar with both the Frontier League and the Northern League. If it was 5 years ago, I would definitely do this. I probably should have done it when I was released by the Cubs, but I chose to go into coaching instead.

Who did you used to broadcast for and in what years? If you said so above, I apologize for asking you to repeat it. FWIW, I was in the New York-Penn League in 1998, FSL and MWL in 1999 and Northwest League in late 2000.

[cobrakai111]

Can we blame Dusty Baker for your arm troubles??

[MicroBob]

Intern with Madison of Midwest League in 92
Erie and Johnstown in the Frontier League in 94-95
St. Lucie Mets in 96.
Vero Beach Dodgers from 97-01.
Elmira, NY of Can-Am League in 02.

Decent chance I remember your name from 99 but I'm old and my memory isn't what it used to be.

That 99 season was a very forgetable one for the VBDogers if I'm getting it right.
Alvaro Espinoza was our manager and absolutely nobody liked him.
We were terrible and lost a ton of games.

Damian Rolls at 3B and Bubba Crosby in the OF were a couple of our better players.
Scott Proctor might have been on that team too.

I seem to recall a 21-4 loss at Daytona in April in which we made 6 errors but I'm not positive that was 1999.

[TonyDanza]

[ QUOTE ]
Can we blame Dusty Baker for your arm troubles??

[/ QUOTE ]

Unfortunately, no. I pitched in Vegas 2 years ago in a 28 and over tournament after no throwing for 6 months. The only reason I didn't do any off-season work was I was added to the roster at the last minute. It was 100% my fault, but at least I got a free trip to Vegas and that was right when I was getting excited for poker.

[JojoDiego]

[ QUOTE ]
In the major-leagues, I was at a Reds/Mets game in 1986 that was a classic. there was a bench-clearing brawl in the 10th inning after the Mets had already used all their bench for pinch-hitters in a 9th inning comeback. After all the ejections the Mets were really short-handed.

So the Mets put P Roger McDowell in the outfield and had Jesse Orosco pitch (and Gary Carter at 3b).
Then a couple innings later McDowell and Orosco switched positions.
Then a couple innings after that they switched back. At one point they moved Orosco from RF over to LF because a pull-hitter was up (who still hit at Orosco who looked REALLY uncomfortable but somehow actually made the catch). Then they moved him back to RF a batter later.

I kept score at all games I attended. Naturally my scoresheet was a total disaster on that one.

[/ QUOTE ]

Microbob, was this game in Cincy? I saw a similar Reds-Mets game at Riverfront in '86. The Red's Dave Parker dropped an easy game-ending fly in the 9th, I think. In extra innings, a young Eric Davis stole second, and then maybe third? Player-manager Pete Rose put himself in to pinch hit at one point and singled, which was one of his last hits. And during the big brawl, my favorite player, pitcher Mario Soto, got ejected, and he wasn't even playing that night. He was known for his big fastball (he touched 100 a couple times) and hot temper. He charged in from the bench.

It was quite a show for a Montana kid visiting his grandparents.