MASSAPEQUA HAS DONE IT! They are the back-to-back-to-back Nassau County Class AA Champs!!!
FINAL: Massapequa 8 Port Washington 6 pic.twitter.com/vCR8ZkeiCe
— Axcess Baseball LI (@axcessbaseball) June 1, 2019
How unique is 2021?
Massapequa – the three-time reigning Long Island Champs open up their season tomorrow against Port Washington and they don’t even have their final cuts made. That’s right, the team coached by one of the greatest coaches in Long Island history will take the field on Tuesday but won’t have their final roster until Thursday. And it’s totally plausible.
Championships are the norm at Massapequa. They captured the previous three Class AA Long Island Championships before the shutdown in 2020 and Coach Tom Sheedy said 2020 was the best team of the bunch. More on that later. They also won FOUR consecutive Long Island Championships from 2006-2009. This year alone, the football team captured the Nassau County title on Saturday and the soccer and volleyball teams also won their respective titles. So when you are a student-athlete in any sport, chances are you’ve won a title. The issue with the condensed season in 2021 is that it has prevented Sheedy from having his full team together. He stated that 17 of his players either play football or volleyball – including his ace – so it is certainly a year unlike any other.
Sheedy stated that he will enter Opening Day with 17 players on his roster and there’s another 20 players still on the bubble. They are one of the few schools that still have a massive turnout for their tryouts, so they require several days to form a team and they simply haven’t had enough time. They will have 7 seniors in the lineup and 2 sophomore.
But let’s backtrack a bit and unravel the statement in the second paragraph.
Entering 2020, Sheedy had an incredibly talented group.
“I’ve never had three players like that 1-2-3 in my order – three players all going to MAJOR Division-I schools. They had the potential – and that’s a big word – but the potential to be the greatest team we’ve ever had here. 2006 was the best team – and that’s not just because we went undefeated but we had Prokopowicz, Scudero and Bartlett and they won a slew of games the previous year. We lost 2-1 twice to East Meadow and if we won we have Proko going in the championship and we would’ve won. He was the best pitcher we had and we only needed to throw him 8 innings that year so I wouldn’t have to keep him out of the lineup. We missed the game-tying tie by a matter of inches – if it’s fair we probably win that game.”
As you can see from the quote, Sheedy has had a ton of success in his program and he also has an insane memory. To remember minute details from 16 years ago, is rather remarkable – especially having won several more titles since then.
“Early on in the pandemic I went out in my garage to smoke a cigar and I called Brad Lyons (one of his former players) and we spoke for 3 and a half hours on the phone it was probably 3 am when we hung up and we were talking about every game, every detail, we remember everything. I was a catcher, so I remember everything. You have to it’s the nature of the job, so now as a coach I remember every play and every count,” he added.
With that being the case, it’s no surprise he recalled every detail of the final out in the famous 2019 Long Island Championship against Connetquot. The Chiefs trailed 5-0 early on but chipped away and ultimately took the lead on a solo shot in the 6th by Nick Schwartz. In the 7th, Connetquot had the bases loaded and the count was 3-2. The batter sliced one down the right field line and the play was made to secure the final out and the title. The fans in the stands all thought it might drop – but how about Sheedy in the dugout?
“For a split second I thought it might drop but DeSousa is fabulous in right field. He was throwing up the No. 1 finger before he even caught the ball – I mean you have to have tremendous moxie to do that!” he said.
With the victory, they captured yet another LIC and moved onto the New York State tournament but they had their season ended in the semifinals.
Much of the core of that team is gone – including the four Division-I players.
Entering tomorrow’s Opening Day, Sheedy noted that he doesn’t know if the team is ready. He stated that in a normal year they play 15-20 scrimmages including split squads during the week. They also usually go to Florida for a week and play double headers every day. All told, that would give their starters 50 at bats before Opening Day. That was simply not the case this year, although they were able to play a 13-inning scrimmage against MacArthur yesterday. They only got all their players back this week which doesn’t give them enough time to make cuts let alone prepare for the season the way they normally would.
“Base running is something you can’t just talk to the kids about,” he said. “They need to go out and do it and get reps, reps, reps. Whenever we are teaching, I say one thing and start to think about 5 other things I need to mention. All these athletes usually play their fall sports then use the winter to prepare for baseball, they just haven’t done that,” he added.
For that reason, they will go in the opener with their starter on a 50-pitch limit.
“I told the guys, we are going to be the Tampa Bay Rays – if [Liam] Carroll can give us three innings tomorrow, that’s fine,” he added. Carroll is their ace and he is committed to New Haven. Sheedy stated that he would’ve won plenty of games last year and been in consideration for All-Long Island. “He’s our ace and we are leaning on him a lot,” he said. He added that he’s a big-time volleyball player and has been competing in that the past two months so hasn’t been built up. They will look for him and the rest of the pitchers to gradually build and they “we are hoping to go full bore by May 31 – that’s when we want to be ready. So we have 3 or 4 weeks to get ready. We’ll use this as Spring Training, hopefully we can win some games so we qualify for the playoffs,” he said.
I have a feeling they don’t need to worry about missing out on the playoffs. After all, they famously started under .500 in 2018 and ran the table from early May on and won the NYS Title.
Aside from Carroll, they only have a few players with varsity experience – like most other teams.
Their biggest bat is catcher Bobby Stang. He is a power-hitting catcher with a rocket behind the dish. Sheedy said he’s about 6’4 220 lbs and routinely throws sub 2.0 pop times to second “and they are right on line” in regards to the throws. He will be batting cleanup for the Chiefs. This will be his last season with the program as he will be transferring to a prep school next year. Should they need to give him any off-days, they have a freshman catcher behind him.
Sheedy mentioned LF Danny Sohn as a player they are counting on. He will hit in the middle of the order and play left field. His brother, Tyler, was a big part of the team in 2019. Sheedy played college ball at Brockport with his father, Bob, and he said he is a similar player – he stated that Danny smacks the ball. He can also pitch but they are trying to hold off in order to keep his bat in the lineup and his glove in the outfield.
Their shortstop and 3-hitter is Connor Kelly. He went 8-for-20 with 3 doubles on varsity as a sophomore. Sheedy expressed his frustration that colleges aren’t giving him a shot. He noted that he’s a 90-student, and a 6’2 190 lb shortstop with pop – “who wouldn’t want that?” he said, adding that he’s better than some of his other shortstops that have gone on to play at the collegiate level.
Their DH will likely be sophomore Frank Kelly – the younger brother of Wade Kelly. We featured him as part of the ‘Up Next’ series back in 2019. Kelly is a premium athlete that can really swing the bat and should be a contributor for the next three seasons.
Sheedy said they will hit, the question is how they pitch. That will work itself out over the next several weeks, but there always seems to be someone that emerges from the Massapequa roster – it’s just a matter of whom?
The last topic that we discussed was his own career. Sheedy has been the head coach since 2003, but coached football since 1995 and coached Kellenberg before that. He is at the top of the mountain when it comes to winning.
“Everyone asks me – when are you going to retire? I’ll tell you what – this is what I’ve always wanted to do – I love every day of it, I’m passionate about it and the kids keep me young. My own son said, ‘dad you’re looking five years older’, and I told him, ‘that’s because there was no baseball – there’s no doubt about it” he added.
They will open up tomorrow against Port Washington. Don’t expect them to overreact one way or the other based on the results – as Sheedy made it clear they are using the early part of the season to find the right mix.
After all, this is a program that is the three-time reigning champs and enters this unprecedented season with the same expectations as always – championship or bust.
