Lee Lowenfish

The winter in New York is taking on fearsome qualities with no end in sight. Ice on the ground may be here indefinitely, bringing back mercifully forgotten memories of my five winters in Madison, Wisconsin during my graduate school days in the 1960s.

Hot stove league baseball banquets thus provide great solace because I have long believed that winter with its saving grace of increasing daylight reinforces the love of baseball in us defiant addicted baseball nuts.

So here are some highlights of the 92th annual NYC Baseball Writers Association of America dinner and the 50th annual New York Pro Baseball Scouts Hot Stove League dinner that took place within six days of each other in the last week of January.

A highlight of the writers’ gathering was Dodgers southpaw Clayton Kershaw who flew in to New York from Texas where the day before his wife delivered their first child. The reigning NL MVP and Cy Young award winner gave homage to virtually all his teammates including ones traded this off-season. He also thanked the clubhouse personnel and trainers by name and ended with a tip of his cap to the St. Louis Cardinals “who taught me that I am not as good as I think I am.”

A lovely conclusion to the evening was the 50th anniversary celebration of Sandy Koufax’s last perfect game in which he bested the Cubs’ southpaw Bob Hendley 1-0. Kudos to the writers for inviting Hendley too - he allowed only one hit that night and on the dais he noted that a week later he beat Koufax in Chicago, 2-1, throwing a four-hitter to Koufax’ five-hitter. (In a fascinating side note, Hendley, who labored for non-contending teams, went 3-1 in matchups against Hall of Famer Koufax.)

For a man who doesn't like to speak in public, Sandy Koufax exudes charm and class on the podium. In introducing new father Kershaw, he announced the most important statistic: "Six pounds and ten ounces."

At the scouts dinner the following Friday at Leonard’s restaurant in Great Neck, Long Island. event organizer Cubs scout Billy Blitzer proudly listed 11 players from the NYC metropolitan area who made their MLB debut in 2014. They included:

**Joe Panik, a World Series hero for the Giants, signed by John DiCarlo (son of the late Joe DiCarlo who signed among others Al Leiter for the Yankees)
**George Springer, a coming star outfielder with the Astros signed by John Kosciak
**Eric Campbell, Mets’ utility player signed by Art Pontarelli, and
**Nick Greenwood, Cardinals’ LHP signed for the Padres by Jim Bretz

Blitzer also paid homage to Long Island’s Jeff Biggio who starred at Seton Hall and was just elected to the Hall of Fame in Cooperstown.

Pride in New York-area baseball has always been a theme at the Pro Scouts dinner.
For good reason. Tilden HS of Brooklyn grad Willie Randolph received a rousing ovation. Emcee Ed Randall voiced his disbelief that Randolph has not returned to the managerial ranks after leading the Mets to the brink of the playoffs in 2006 and 2007. (Of course Willie was also a key part of the 1976-78 Yankee pennant-winners and 2-time WS champs.)

Willie gave homage to scout Dutch Deutsch who signed him for the Pittsburgh Pirates.
(Before the 1976 season the Yankees made one of their best trades ever by obtaining Randolph - still a minor league second baseman - and pitchers Ken Brett and Dock Ellis
for pitcher George "Doc" Medich.)

Former Mets gm Omar Minaya, a product of Queens Newtown HS, thanked the late Ralph DiLullo for giving him the chance to play pro ball. Recently hired as a Latin American liaison for the MLB Players Association, Minaya implored scouts to always give an opportunity to players.

“I couldn’t hit and he couldn’t hit,” Minaya said pointing to Seattle Mariners scouting director Tom McNamara who was named scout of the year, “but we had a chance.”

Tom McNamara was born in the Bronx and a large contingent of his family came out to support their favorite son. In well-chosen remarks McNamara gave tribute to the late scout Bill Lajoie who advised him early on "to watch, listen, and learn."

While working for the Milwaukee Brewers, McNamara signed slugger Prince Fielder,
son of the late-blooming home run hitter Cecil Fielder. When McNamara told Cecil that he had played one year of pro ball, the elder Fielder replied, "At least you smelled the dirt."

As I listened to the heartfelt comments this evening that concluded with a final elegy to New York baseball by St. John's coach Ed Blankmeyer, I recalled the wisdom of one of the first scouts I got to know, the late Twins scout Herb Stein. “The moment you sign a letter he is automatically a better player because the monkey is off his back,” said the man who who inked Rod Carew, Frank Viola, and 1991 World Series-hero Columbia Gene Larkin.

That's all this time from my YIBF (Yours In Baseball Forever) journal. With spring training only a couple of weeks away, Always remember: Take it easy but take it!
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Earlier this month I attended the 42nd annual BeTheBest baseball clinic in the Philadelphia suburb of Cherry Hill NJ. We live in an age when mountains of space are wasted on ranking teams' off-seasons before spring training camps have even opened.
I suggest finding out more about teaching the fundamentals of our beautiful game is a better use of time. So here are some of the highlights of an intense informative two-day gathering that warmed the heart and mind during a particularly frigid early January cold snap.

“We don’t go on because we’re ready,” Mississippi State coach John Cohen quoted Lorne Michaels longtime producer of NBC’s “Saturday Night Live”. “We go on because it is 11:30.” Moral of story – you are never really ready but the show must go on and you should improvise if necessary.

Cohen suggested creating DVDs as a teaching device for coaches. It forces you to understand the process, he said. Some of his DVDs are hilarious. Bunting is made fun when you try it lying down, behind the back, or with a paddle having only a quarter-inch surface available to use.

It was fascinating to watch Cohen and assistant coach Nick Mingiori lead sessions in a batting cage with two high school seniors from Manasquan NJ, the Jersey shore town of coach Jack Hawkins who founded and has nurtured the BeTheBest clinic.

In one of his sessions Pat McMahon, formerly Mississippi State pitching coach now working as an international scout with the Yankees, stressed the importance of the 1-1 pitch in any at-bat. “Challenge time, boys!” is what he calls it.

McMahon was one of several clinicians who instructed on the importance of catching, receiving the ball not retrieving it. He warned, “The best way to screw up a pitching staff is a bad catcher.”

Grand Canyon University coach Andy Stankiewicz stressed the importance of positive thinking in nurturing players: “Think well of yourself as a player.”
He cited the Reverse ABCs: “Conceive It, Believe It, Achieve It.”
(In his four years on the job Stankiewicz has overseen the rise of Grand Canyon, a private Christian university in Phoenix, from a Division II to a competitive Division I program.
Incidentally Dan Majerle, the former Phoenix Sun star, is now the Grand Canyon basketball coach.)

Ron Polk, a 1965 graduate of Grand Canyon who is now a volunteer coach at the UAB (University of Alabama-Birmingham), embellished the point about positive reinforcement with a story from his early days as third base coach for the University of Arizona’s grizzled longtime coach Frank Sancet.

In one game against arch-rival Arizona State, inexperienced Polk twice sent runners home only to see each thrown out easily by center fielder Reggie Jackson. Expecting to be chewed out after the inning, Sancet told him quietly: “That Jackson has quite an arm doesn’t he?” Moral of story – Don’t embarrass anyone publicly. There is plenty of time afterward to discuss mistakes privately.

The final-day speaker at the clinic was Pat Murphy, the San Diego Padres Triple-A manager who built a Notre Dame program from scratch and took Arizona State teams to the College World Series. One of Murphy’s themes was “team offense,” creating runs as individuals in a team setting.

“I am a member of this team and I will not detach myself from it” was a litany that Murphy delivered more than once. When a batter makes an out, Murphy has required that he return to the dugout by way of the on-deck circle so he can make eye contact with his teammate. As if to say, “I didn’t get the pitcher this time, but you will.”

When players are in slumps, Murphy doesn't want them to mope or whine about their fate.
"Go sweep out the dugout - that's how you get better," he tells them.

McMahon praised a “woodpecker mentality” as essential for success. He cited two great examples of such grinders among his former college players: Craig Counsell, his first scholarship athlete at Notre Dame who went on to score the winning run in the 1997 Florida Marlins World Series victory over the Cleveland Indians, and his Arizona State Sun Devil Dustin Pedroia who has become a Boston Red Sox mainstay and league MVP.

Murphy concluded with more inspirational thoughts: “Young players cannot conceive how good they are.” And the job of coaches is to be like anonymous offensive linemen in football – “helping players become their best selves.”

As you can see, there was plenty of nourishing food for thought on a very cold January weekend. More reports next time on the big late January dinners in NYC of the Baseball Writers Association and the 50th annual New York Pro Scouts Hot Stove League.

Until then, Always remember: Take it easy but take it!
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