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Things I Miss About the Baseball Season

It’s only been less than a month but somehow it feels much longer given how the carpet was ripped from beneath.

With the weather warming up, it’s offering glimpses of what we are accustomed to recognize as ‘baseball season’. Honestly, the weather in 2020 was just about perfect. We haven’t been hit with any snowstorms and the temperatures have rarely been below 40 degrees since February 1. We’ve been hit pretty hard with bad spring weather every year since 2013 – and we can always count on one significant downfall of snow.

In any event, I’m still missing my usual routine during the baseball season. Since the inception of Axcess Baseball, and Baseball on the Island before that, I’ve been used to heading out to a college game at 3 pm in March and high school game for 4 pm in April and May.

Here’s some things I’m looking forward to returning…

11. The drive to the game –

It is kind of nice to not spend hours on the road but I did appreciate putting on a podcast like Pardon My Take and letting that fill the time on the road. I got pretty good at knowing where every Starbucks and Dunkin Donuts is so I can pick up a double espresso. The traffic on the way back from Nassau games isn’t fun, but at least I knew everyone else was dealing with the same and I could put on a baseball game on the radio. Also it was relieving knowing the ride to games would never feature traffic.

10. Stopping at the Roosevelt Field Mall –

Here’s one thing I took for granted. I loved stopping at the mall on the way to Adelphi or Hofstra or Molloy games and getting some Melt Shop or pizza. It was the perfect thing to kill an hour if I was running ahead of schedule. And it was just muscle memory to walk past every place in the food court and try the free samples.

9. Shoreham-Wading River power arms –

It’s become a tradition for a pitcher on Shoreham-Wading River to generate headlines and buzz by dominating Suffolk Class A. It’s a story as old as time. This year I was really looking forward to seeing what Aidan Crowley could do for an encore and what Cullen Santamaria and the rest of their staff could do.

8. Scouts Behind the Plate

Every year there’s a few pitchers that separate from the pack and become must-see TV. In 2017 it was Ben Brown and Brian Morrell, in 2018 it was John Rooney and Franklin Parra and last year it was Logan Koester and Joey Savino. Within the scouting circles, you would always find yourself standing with the same people because they have to see the best players, too. You develop a friendship with everyone, because even if you are not working for the same team you are in it together and I’m never going to act like my job is more important than theirs. Once the weather warms up, you usually see the regional supervisors and scouting directors which means the draft is quickly approaching and that there’s a player that’s for real.

7. Sunny Days at Ward Melville

This could be at any field, but dating back to 2015 it seemed every game I covered at Ward Melville was at least 70 degrees and sunny. At their field, I always have to get there early to beat the crowd since you can’t sit behind home plate like all the other fields. Basically, I just miss once the weather flips to being comfortably warm instead of 40 and windy.

6. No-hitters –

This one is completely random, but I have attended my share of no-hitters especially in 2017 for some reason when there was one every week. It doesn’t hurt that these tend to go crazy on social media. The Brock Murtha no-hitter in the Long Island Championship was an extreme case because it sent them to Binghamton and the dogpile on the mound was legendary. But even the regular season no-hitters are a big deal.

5. Walk-offs –

You’d think this would be random but in the nature of high school baseball, it’s pretty common considering the games are 7 innings and we are covering games that are the best match ups of the days. There’s nothing like the thrill of anticipating one and getting it on video from the pitch to the celebration. We’ve gotten some good ones over the past few years – none better than the walk-off shot at Ducks Stadium by Brad Malm.

4. Playoff Clinching Wins

For the perennial playoff teams, this is nothing special but I love when a team breaks a long postseason drought and we are there to capture the moment. I immediately think of Newfield in 2018, when they had broken a 12 year drought and you get that raw emotion from the players that were apart of it. Last year, we were at Pat-Med and covered their postseason clinching victory. While they are no strange to postseasons, it was a 9-inning, 1-0 walk-off win so it was pretty special and had a ton of emotion.

3. Postgame Interviews

This is always fun. The idea of a postgame interview is not groundbreaking but I love what we’ve done with the Instagram/Twitter postgame interviews. That immediacy gives our audience what they crave and it allows the players to feel that glimpse of being the hero. It’s something that is essential to Axcess Baseball. During my career, I was only interviewed once or twice postgame and it was from a district paper so I imagine when a video gets 5,000+ views that kids are feeling pretty excited that next day in school.

2. Skyline Conference Championship

I like to think this is my specialty. Having played in the Skyline Conference, I know how intense that weekend is and since I’ve started covering it in 2015, each year has featured the same intensity. My favorite year was 2018 because I was at every game and the championship was an 11-inning thriller – albeit in a steady rainfall. Last year was an exciting championship game too, and it was beautiful out. Dating back to 2014, I have nailed every preseason pick.

2014 – Farmingdale State

2015 – Old Westbury

2016 – St. Joseph’s

2017 – Maritime

2018 – St. Joseph’s

2019 – Farmingdale

  1. May

That playoff atmosphere hits a little different. May is a wild time. It begins with the Skyline Conference championship in the first weekend. The second weekend is the ECC & NE-10 Championship. The next day is the start of the high school playoffs. The next weekend is the Division-II & III Regional, the Region XV Regional and the start of the NSCHSAA Playoff. That entire week is also high school playoffs. Memorial Day Weekend is the Division-I Conference Championships and the Division-II and III World Series along with the county championships for high school. Aside from the occasional rain out, it’s an all-out emotional rollercoaster.

 

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Vinny is the President of Axcess Baseball. He is a 2013 graduate of Adelphi University and he is currently the Long Island area scout for the San Diego Padres

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