Baseball recruiting

[Nish67]

Some personal background first. I went to George Washington High School in northern Manhattan, Washington Heights to be exact. The community always had a large Spanish section. When I was there it was Puerto Rican, then later Cuban and for the past 20 years or so it's Dominican. I played baseball there a long time ago but didn't follow the team until I read an article about a 16 year old named Manny Ramirez. Since then I go to games every year, know the coaching staff really well and everntually became the only alum to donate money to the baseball program.

The goal of every player on the team is to play pro ball. I do mean "every" player. The coach, Steve Mandl, does a great job getting kids into college, either JC or Division level. They also get kids drafted almost every year. Last year two kids were committed to Virginia Tech but got drafted high enough that they couldn't turn down the bonus money. Washington Heights is a low to middle income community. A couple hundred thousand dollar bonus is like hitting the lottery and is a life changer for most. Some recent names from the community are the Pirates own Pedro Alvarez and Dellin Betances on the Yankees. Plus there are countless kids that are in the minors working their way up including GW's Mike Antonio, #1 draft pick of the KC Royals in 2010.

With all this contact, I always hoped that Pitt could get involved in recruiting these kids. Coach Mandl knew I went to Pitt but I'm fully aware of NCAA regs so I don't even wear Pitt stuff to games. Three years ago, we finally got a kid from the community, Elvin Soto, although he went to a private school, not GW, so there was no contact by our coaching staff with Coach Mandl. Those of you that follow Pitt baseball know that Elvin was our starting catcher for 2 years and then got drafted. Finally, last June I wrote a letter to Coach Jordano asking that they take the time to check out the current GW star, Wesley Rodriguez, a shortstop and closer with a 90 mph fastball. I've watched Wesley play since he was a freshman. He is the best hitter at GW since Manny Ramirez and that's saying a lot. He has played for Team USA since he was a sophomore. He could potentially be drafted in the top 5 rounds which is the one big risk. But, hey, if we are to raise the program to be competitive in the ACC, these are the kids we have to start getting.

So, two weeks ago I'm talking with Coach Mandl about the upcoming season and he matter-of-factly tells me that Wesley has signed with Pitt. I almost fell off my chair. He said all the big time schools were recruiting him but he really liked everything about Pitt. Our coaches can't talk about recruits so I don't know any of the specifics as to how they got him. I don't know if Elvin Soto had anything to do with this. I did suggest to the coaches to contact Elvin to find out what kind of person Wesley is. It'll be nice to hear the full story but the important fact is we got Wesley Rodriguez.. Now it's fingers crossed about the draft. Coach Mandl told me Wesley wants to go to college so there will be some drama on draft day.

Congrats to Coach Jordano and his staff.

 

[CaPAPITT76]

Sounds like a great get!!
HTP

 

[goalieman]

Thanks for the post Nish67 ......

I think this shows that Pitt being in the ACC and having good baseball facilities can recruit upper echelon kids to come here .... if we can do that, we can be at least competitive.

 

[CrazyPaco]

Nish,

Thanks for the report.

Thanks even more for taking the time and effort to write the letter.

And...wearing Pitt gear isn't a violation...thank goodness, or I'd be in major trouble everywhere I went.

 

[Nish67]

Guess I'm just being extra careful Paco. By the way, I added a note to you in a different thread that the proposed track facility won't have an outdoor track, just indoor.

 

[CrazyPaco]

Originally posted by Nish67:

By the way, I added a note to you in a different thread that the proposed track facility won't have an outdoor track, just indoor.

Well, that's is beyond disappointing.

That is clearly half-assing it.

Meanwhile, Syracuse....yes Syracuse...is ranked #3 and poised to be ranked #1 in men's soccer. Syracuse is doing laps around Pitt's athletic program.

Pitt's athletic department needs fresh leadership in the worst way.

BTW, across Centre Ave from the intramural fields behind Cost, there is an entire block of overgrown, abandoned land current held by the Urban Redevelopment Authority with a smattering of dilapidated buildings. Pitt should be all over that...if for not athletic facilities, 100 other uses.




This post was edited on 10/14 2:41 PM by CrazyPaco

 

[mike412]

Nish, probably either before you were born or perhaps when you were a very small child, I spent some time in Washington Heights. When I went to graduate school at Columbia, I had showed up without having a place to live. Since I had commuted to Pitt as an undergrad, I knew nothing about how to get a room in the dorm. So, the day I showed up on Morningside Heights, I asked for a dorm room. They looked at me like I was nuts and explained that all of the dorm rooms had been reserved months in advance.

I ended up subletting an apartment in the South Bronx -- on Andrews Avenue and 179th Street. $75 a month for a 2-bedroom apartment It was a fifth floor walk-up and the widow who lived there had broken her hip, obviously couldn't navigate the stairs, and had gone to live with her daughter in Florida while she recuperated. Although there still were seniors there who were Irish, Jewish and Italian, I was the only white person under 65 in the neighborhood. But, I had been in Vietnam, so I had no fear of the neighborhood. It was right after the movie "Serpico" starring Al Pacino as an undercover New York cop who lived in a similar neighborhood, had been released, and the teens in the neighborhood nicknamed me Serpico because they all assumed I was an undercover cop too. I did nothing to dissuade that belief

Anyway, after a month of spending hours on the subway getting to and from Columbia -- the Jerome Avenue line to 149th Street in the Bronx, then the D train to 14th Street in Manhattan, and then the Broadway local to Columbia, 102 blocks to the north, I went back to Pittsburgh and brought my car up to the Bronx. It only took 15 to 20 minutes to drive to Columbia: the Little Washington Crossing Bridge from the Bronx to Washington Heights, then Riverside Drive through Harlem to Columbia.

I got somewhat intrigued by Upper Manhattan as a result, and started spending time in both Washington Heights and Inwood. There could not have been two more disparate neighborhoods at that time. Washington Heights was predominantly Puerto Rican but still had a sizable Jewish community back then. Inwood was Irish and German to the core. I much preferred the restaurants and people in Washington Heights, so I ended up spending many evenings and weekends there.

I remember at that time it was the one neighborhood in New York where more kids were playing baseball than basketball, and apparently that has paid off for some. I am glad that Pitt has made some inroads at GW.

By the way, you can wear Pitt gear when you go to watch the games, but you can't talk to any of the players unless you have a preexisting relationship with them. I live now in Santa Monica, CA, and lived here when Pitt signed a BB player from the local Catholic school, who started alongside Sean Miller, Charles Smith and Jerome Lane for four years at Pitt. Even though he already had signed a LOI, it would have been an NCAA violation for me to have talked to him when I went to his games, but I did wear Pitt gear and he always smiled when he saw me there. It never hurts to have potential recruits see the Pitt logo and colors.

 

[Nish67]

Mike, I graduated from GW in 1963. Went to school with the likes of Rod Carew and Little Anthony and the Imperials. I lived on Audubon Avenue and 187th street. GW was a 5 block walk. I actually got accepted at Columbia undergrad but turned it down to go to Pitt sight unseen. Don't ask! Fact is though, I'm really glad I did. My best friend went to Columbia and basically never spoke to me again because in his eyes I wasn't good enough anymore. I know, with friends like that ...

The kids on the baseball team all know me because, as I said above, I've been going to games for about 25 years now and am the only alum that donates money to the baseball team. If the coach has me sit on the bench during games, all conversations are about baseball. I mostly hang with the coaches but I do get high fives/fist bumps when a kid gets a big hit. That's why I never wear Pitt stuff. I don't want any conversation going there. Since Wesley has signed his LOI, I know that I can't say anything to him especially. I hope I get to see him play at Pitt, the draft notwithstanding. I also hope he's the first (second, Elvin Soto was the first) of many to come from Washington Heights.

 

[mike412]

Nish, you actually are a year older than me. I probably saw you in my travels in Washington Heights. On Friday nights, I almost always went down to lower Manhattan with classmates: dinner in Little Italy, usually at Il Puglia; walks through Chinatown; then the Bowery to the West Village for desert and occasionally folk music at clubs. There was this guy with a really weird voice named Bob Dylan who played at the Bitter End and other clubs. Then back to Little Italy for cannolis and to pick up my car. But Saturdays and Sundays were mainly Washington Heights by myself. No names of restaurants that I can remember but I really liked it. Back then, a very common NYC mix of Latins and Jews. Rod Carew, of course, was both. He converted to Judaism after his marriage. Obviously, some great baseball talent has come out of GW, and let's hope Pitt gets a lot of it.

The weekends I didn't spend there, I usually was in Brooklyn. A good friend lived in Midwood and he used to call me when there was going to be a big sorority party at Queens College. We also used to drive occasionally to a restaurant on Sheepshead Bay which was so big that the waiters wore roller skates.

I had very little money back then, but I had a partial scholarship and with $75 month in rent, I did have enough to have a great time there. It was the best year of my life in the 20th Century. It has been surpassed in this Century though.