In the wee hours of Saturday morning, righthander Chien-Ming Wang tossed six shutout innings to lead Chinese Taipei to a 4-1 victory over Australia. The 2013 World Baseball Classic is officially underway. As the tournament kicks off, the sentiment from most fans I run into is that they view the WBC as a “big pain in the ass”. Some fans resent the fact that their team’s top...
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By Mike Stainkamp LI natives stay loyal to roots preparing for Spring Training Baseball players have always been considered the “Boys of Summer.” But what happens when the final out of the World Series is recorded and the offseason begins? For two Mets prospects and Long Island natives, Camden Maron and Steven Matz, the offseason means coming back to Long Island and making the most out of their...
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About a week ago, I posted an opinion piece about having hope in the spring. Why? Because there is no reason to be negative and already count your team out just days before or after pitchers and catchers report. I got a lot of feedback on the post — both good and bad. As I sit here on Feb. 16 to write a follow-up post, I watch college basketball with my New York Mets hat on with the door wide...
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In Part One of my story, we left off with a discouraged Collin McHugh coming off a mediocre junior year at Berry College in Georgia. McHugh found himself at home watching the 2008 MLB Draft, more out of habit than because of any expectation that he would be selected. But then the phone rang… It was the New York Mets. By Elliot Chester McHugh was floored. Beasley had known it was coming....
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By Elliot Chester I. Collin McHugh’s third pitch as a major league baseball player was not a bad one, a four-seam 91-mile-per-hour fastball that tailed away from Charlie Blackmon, a slap-hitting nobody who had just two hits all season entering the late August game. But Blackmon, recently installed as the Colorado Rockies’ starting right fielder due to a rash of injuries, stayed with the pitch...
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