Vinny Messana (VM): First, looking at your stats is your batting average in 2005-06, led the county. .550 in ’05 and .552 the next year. What do you remember about that?
Anthony Anzalone (AA): It was all about the process. I remember a few years back [head coach Andrew Aschettino] brought me up as a freshman. I remember playing Kings Park and remember rolling everything over. If I’m going to be a good player , I’m going to need to hit the ball all over the field so I worked on my craft. I just simplified things and was a foot-down guy. Ashe, gave me the nickname ‘Slappy’ over it.
VM: Would you say you developed more power as you got older?
AA: I was a left-center guy. I wasn’t much of a pull guy until my college years where I let loose a little bit and didn’t worry about getting a hit and trying to get in the lineup. I wasn’t afraid to open up a little bit more but I was a middle-field guy for most of my career.
VM: Who were the powerhouses in the league during those years?
AA: Eastport South Manner was stacked in my senior year. They had Greg Smith, knocked us out– ironically went to York the next year after winning states. Jimmy Meehan and Evan Vonatski were my roommates so they got to wear the state championship. I remember it was great baseball back then. Kings Park had Bobby Haney got drafted a few times out of college and high school. We battled some great teams.
VM: How did you end up at York?
AA: I was fortunate. My dad was a teacher and they are very realistic about what I was going to play and I bought into that as well. I went to all the showcases and realized I wanted to go some place I wanted to play. York sparked an interest in me and he, at the time, was the coach and brought me for a visit and I fell in love with the place. I don’t know if you have been up there but it is literally the nicest, most natural field ever. It was a D-I facility for D-III. We were two games away from the D-II World Series.
VM: You transferred to Adelphi [then playing in the ECC] and won it in 2009?
AA: We won the ECC and ended up going to regionals and ended up, ironically, losing to Dowling. Dan Pembroke hit the game winning sac-fly so we still hear about that one today.
VM: Looking at he stats you had a huge jump between junior and senior year. What was the biggest difference for you?
AA: When I transferred, they had a senior first baseman so I knew I wasn’t going to play a lot and was a role guy. Our DH became academically ineligible and didn’t realize so I got called to be in the ECC and play there. So, it was all about the at-bats I really didn’t get a lot of time because of that. Then I started in my senior year.
VM: Did you have any pregame routines?
AA: I was a ‘5-Hour Energy’ guy [chuckles]. That and the trainer needed to do all the stretching to me.
VM: You have been at Rocky Point since 2012. You won the championship in ’18, did you know that was the ceiling of the team?
AA: Yeah, I knew those guys from JV and we had a good record the year before an even better record the next year and lost last year. Within those two years, the coaches and I knew we had something special in that group of kids.
VM: You always speak highly of ‘Ash’ What specifically was the difference with him that allows him to maximize his ability to coach?
AA: Just the attention to detail. The heart– there is never a second you are with him where he doesn’t care. He puts his heart and soul into it. It’s something I have tried to adopt over the years as a coach.
VM: You had a pretty young group, how rare was that?
AA: Last year we had our nine seniors but this year we were going to be pretty young. We had an 18-0 JV season as coach and the next year I was up on Varsity and the next year as head coach. I was with that group every season for 3 years. I knew that would be a very special group. It was a cohesive group on and off the field.
VM: There was a deep family connection, didn’t you have three sets of brothers on the team?
AA: Yeah, we had the Hamilton, Millers and [Maier] brothers and only had 13 guys with two freshman call ups.
VM: Can you speak to the overall depth of Class A since you have been there?
AA: Yeah man, you are just going to get hard-nose baseball. You might not get the depth of arms on every team but they are so well coached over the last year and even at the JV level. More people are doing off-season stuff now more than ever. It makes better baseball on the Island.
VM: Between the Lines Baseball– What is your goal with that?
AA: That is something that I started. I’ve always given lessons and things like that so I am always giving lessons whether it is strength and conditioning. It’s my baby and it is always cool to do something like that.
VM: Did you pick up any skills with all of this down time?
AA: I feel like ‘Masterchef’ because all I have been watching is ‘Guy’s Grill Games, Triple D and House Projects.’
VM: Last question is a hypothetical – would you rather only having warm beverages or forced to wear wet socks for the rest of your life?
AA: Warm drinks
