Latest / NorthJerseySports.com / Talkin' Baseball! PC's Lugones the guest; Eddie Murray the man

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Talkin' Baseball! PC's Lugones the guest; Eddie Murray the man · NorthJerseySports.com

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  We are Talking Baseball, North Jersey. sports.com's original
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  multimedia series talking all things baseball across North
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  Jersey. This is season 11 episode 6 The
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  Rain Continues edition. I am Corey Doviak being joined
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  by my illustrious panel of North Jersey baseball insiders.
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  That means the one and only Joey Rain day Sottero.
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  What's going on, Joe? Corey, it was a very, very long
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  day with phone calls and looking to get things, be proactive and
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  try to get ahead of this weather.
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  I mean, we are, we're praying that we can get these games, the
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  Wednesday games in tomorrow and, and Thursday, you know, and, and
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  Mike and I discussed along with the schools, you know, Northern
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  Highlands, Ramsey, Emerson, who else?
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  Well, Woodridge, where, where Mike is, we're discussing with
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  them the possibility of, of, you know, if we don't get these
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  games in and we have to push them, you know, what are we
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  going to do with, with start times and, and, and looking for
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  turf venues and things of that nature.
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  So it's, it's been, it's been crazy.
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  It was a long day today. A lot of emails, a lot of phone
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  calls, but we'll see. Because even if we get these
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  games in on, on Thursday, on Wednesday or Thursday, you know,
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  you're looking at rain, torrential rain, they're saying
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  on Friday. And you know, we're, we're
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  trying to give as many options as we can to the host schools,
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  give their, give their fields, you know, their guys, their
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  maintenance crews time to, to work on the fields and maybe
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  push the start times back to to 1:00 and 4:00.
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  But there's a lot of things that have to align for us to be able
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  to do that as well. So it's been a little bit crazy,
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  but you know, we're doing our best and and we're going to make
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  decisions for the the the best betterment of of all teams
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  involved in the tournament. So keep your fingers crossed.
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  Yeah, no kidding. It it has been crazy.
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  Let's just say this tonight the guest on the show is a interview
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  I taped yesterday when you were with the Seven Dwarfs.
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  I was working, so I got an interview with Paramus Catholic
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  head coach Mario Lugonis that will play in a little while.
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  So we'll get to that. Paramus Catholic had won, had
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  not won a Bergen County Tournament game since 2016, had
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  not been in the Bergen County tournament since 2017.
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  And then they held on for a crazy 76V over Ridgewood.
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  So that's a, that's a quality return to the tournament for
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  Paramus Catholic. So we'll get to that interview a
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  little bit later, but let's start with some other stuff
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  first. I mean, like you were saying,
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  contingency plans and everything else.
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  I mean, it, it could happen that we go back to maybe like a
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  Saturday, Sunday. Is that even?
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  I mean, the, the weather for Wednesday doesn't look horrible.
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  The issue is these fields, the non turf fields have taken on so
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  much rain over the past few days.
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  I mean, I don't know if they can be gotten ready in time to play
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  a 4:00 game on a Wednesday afternoon after this because
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  it's just been, it's been miserable.
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  It's almost. It's almost.
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  It's, it's, it's just awful. And, and it's, you know, it's
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  kind of, I know tomorrow there's a little bit of a bright spot,
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  but some people are saying Thursday was the pick of the
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  pick of the week. I just looked at Thursday and
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  I'm seeing the 85% chance of rain.
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  So you know, I, I, I don't know. But then, but then again, you
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  know, on Saturday, last Saturday, they said, you know,
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  95% chance of rain and it was a sun shower at seven, 7:00 at
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  night. So, you know, you, you never
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  know, you hope for the best. But yeah, we, we, you know, we
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  have some, some contingency plans in line.
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  We called some schools that have some turf, that have turf
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  fields. And, and if we need to make that
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  switch, we also have to consider schools that now may have to
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  travel and get buses. So we can't wait till, we can't
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  wait till Saturday morning to make that, that call.
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  So we may have to make that call Friday and push the start times
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  back. And then even with the start
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  times going back on Saturday, you know, are they going to be
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  able to get the fields ready anyway?
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  So there's just so much going on.
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  You know, we're doing our best. Everybody's been cooperative and
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  understanding of it. It's one of those things, you
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  know, just like the game of baseball, you control what you
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  can control. We, we, we can't control the
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  weather. So we we just have to go out
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  there and, and constantly communicate, stay on top of
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  things, you know, as we have and and hope for the best.
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  Yeah, and for? All those, I mean, not that
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  there is anybody doing it right now, but you know, it's like,
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  oh, why didn't they just play Saturday?
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  Why did they wait so long? Why did they do this?
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  You know what I mean? Like Oh yeah, people don't take
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  into account the buses, the umpires, the reschedule the but.
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  Not on the, you know, these, these people like, you know, for
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  example, take Northern Highlands, Ramsey, Emerson, you
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  know, these schools that are hosting, they also had to get
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  people to work the games. And people originally agreed to
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  work the game if it was at 11, but now if we move it to 1, you
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  know, maybe they can't get those game workers.
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  And, you know, we're, we're going to try to put somebody
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  from the county, you know, at, at each field or as many as we
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  can to try and to try and help out.
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  So it's, it's not, it's, it's not easy.
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  It's the last thing. And, and then you got to worry
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  and, and hope that, you know, we don't want to start and stop a
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  game like we, we got to hope that the weather is good on
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  Saturday. You know, right now it looks
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  like it's going like it's going to be but, but who knows?
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  You know, I remember, but it was two years ago getting phone
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  calls that you know, are, are we playing this game or are we not
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  playing a game? It was like it was May, I think
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  it was May 27th and it was, it was about 40°.
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  It was cold rain, sometimes sleet and snow.
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  Remember, and you don't want to, you know, you don't want to put
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  kids, you, you want to play in an ideal, in an ideal setting.
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  And, and with, you know, that's not possible all the time.
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  But if, if I mean as a tournament director, I mean, if,
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  if they're saying 70% chance and, and, and it looks like we
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  may have to stop. So like I, I, I'd rather error
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  on the side of caution and say, you know what, we're not going
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  to go today because the last thing I want to do is say go and
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  then some team starts their guy and now loses their guy and they
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  have to come back and play the next day.
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  So, and, and the other thing is we're trying to, to avoid
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  playing, you know, on Mother's Day for, for a lot of, a lot of
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  reasons. So yeah, you know, so it's, it's
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  just, it's chaos right now, but we'll, we'll, we'll reel it in
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  and, and get a handle on it. And again, the athletic
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  directors at, at Mike Colt and, and Gus at Emerson and Andy
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  Harry, you know, all, all guys, Mark Sinclair down at Woodridge
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  helping us out. It's, it's all, we can't do it
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  without those guys and without the whole site.
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  So we we appreciate that very much.
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  How about I saw that Woodridge is even going to go back in time
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  and break out the old high school turf field for a BIT.
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  Game that's like that field has become like remember the vet in
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  Philly like that that's what that's on the field yeah yeah
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  that's that's crazy over there so we we just you know we're
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  we're doing we're doing the best we can to to get these games
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  played and get everything get everything going so.
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  All right, so let's, well, before we get to Mario, because
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  he is a first round winner, I want to talk about the first
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  round which went down this past weekend.
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  And first of all, it's been, I've covered games at Northern
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  Highlands in the past. It's been a while, it's been a
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  couple of years. I forgot how nice that place is.
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  Yeah, it's really nice. Like we, we tried to change it
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  up this year and, and, you know, get a different look.
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  You know, we had it from Don Bosco and, and we told, you
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  know, Mike Rooney that we, you know, we were thinking about,
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  you know, moving it to a different, to a different venue
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  and, and he said, you know, whatever is best for the
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  tournament, whatever we feel is best.
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  And when Mike and I were kicking around schools, Northern
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  Highlands came up and you know, they got a beautiful facility.
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  They, they just built another field down below the turf, turf
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  baseball field they have now. So, you know, again, and that's
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  another option for us, if, if their dirt field can't be, the
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  grass field can't be ready, you know, we could, we could move
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  and and play down down below. So.
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  Yeah. I mean, and, and even if if
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  there is a an issue and you had to wait out a rain delay, they
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  got that field there, I mean. It's.
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  It's bigger than my house and beautiful.
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  It's right, Right. It's a it's, I mean, there's
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  water features on campus. It's really crazy, but I, I, I
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  watched, you know, here's the thing.
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  I, I, I covered Woodridge at Northern Highlands on Saturday
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  in the first round. And, you know, I love those
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  games. I mean, I cover a lot of
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  Woodridge first round games because I love the approach that
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  Mike Carsich takes into the county tournament.
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  You know, some NJIC schools or small schools are happy to get
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  in and maybe they're not going to, you know, throw their one
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  or, you know, use all their bullets or keep an eye on maybe,
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  you know, self preservation a little bit.
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  I love the way Mike just says I'm going to throw what I, you
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  know, the best I got and I'm going to be aggressive and I'm
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  going to try to win a ball game. I mean, he's won games in the
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  Bergen County tournament before and first couple of innings, it
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  was fun. I don't know if you know the kid
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  from your days in Woodridge, but Woodridge is lead off hitter.
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  Lucas Mendoza is like one of the nicest kids you're going to
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  meet. I mean, he's always smiling.
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  He's very positive with his teammates.
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  He's conversational with weird reporters who were standing in
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  his dugout. So, you know, good kid, he
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  double s first pitch of the game, got the third base and
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  then try to score on a wild pitch.
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  He got tagged out. But it just signaled Woodridge's
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  intent to be aggressive and try to win the game.
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  But Northern Highlands, you know, Northern Highlands have
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  come in Joe on a having lost six of seven.
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  Granted, they play in that league where you got Ramapo,
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  Ridgewood, Hackensack. You know, you, you could look at
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  teams record and say, oh, they're not that good.
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  But part of the problem is they're playing in that league
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  where every game is a dogfight. And so, you know, Highlands came
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  in having lost six of seven and they came out on the long side
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  of a 13th to win. And the two takeaways that I
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  took out of there, 1 is Northern Highlands Stadium is right now
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  my favorite place to watch a game in North Jersey.
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  And two, the lead off hitter for Northern Highlands shortstop
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  Jake Wagner, who's already committed to Old Dominion
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  Division One baseball, is the best public school baseball
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  player or right there with the top that I've seen so far this
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  year. I mean, the kid just looks the
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  part. Obviously, he's a shortstop, so
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  he throws right, but he bats left the bats at the top of the
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  order. And, you know, just set the tone
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  and was a heck of a nice kid after the game too.
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  So Highlands has an 18 seed. You know your Beskek Valley,
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  obviously you're confident. Obviously you went to a state
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  final last year, you won a section, you have a history in
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  the Bergen County Tournament. But Northern Highlands not an
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  easy draw in the round of 16. No, Northern Highlands isn't an
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  easy draw. And, and honestly, the, the one
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  of the more intriguing matchups that I think we're going to see
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  is Bergen Catholic Pascal kills the six versus the 11:00.
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  So I think you you have a very good Bergen Catholic team and
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  you have a a Pascal kills team that has, you know, two kids on
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  the mound and, and Linkous and and Blackford that, you know,
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  can go out there and beat anybody and, and they're
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  starting to play, you know, they're best baseball now, like
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  they're starting to heat up a little bit.
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  So that that's another that's an intriguing man.
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  I mean they all are, you know, I mean, if you, you look at, you
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  know, Westwood, Paramus, Catholic, Old Japan and Saint
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  Mary's, you know, the all, all games that, you know, that
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  really kind of piqued your interest.
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  It's, it's a great tournament and, and you know, hopefully
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  they, they all play out. They're they're good, close
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  competitive games. It's the best round of 16 in any
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  of the tournaments in any of the sports that I can, certainly
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  this year, but in a long time, because you look at the 710
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  game, it's Glen Rock, Saint Joe's, the six.
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  You know, you mentioned the 611, which is Pascal kills Burton
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  Catholic. Saint Mary's Japan is the 512.
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  I mean, normally in a tournament you're like the 512.
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  Oh, that's Saint Mary is a live underdog coming into old Japan,
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  you know, whenever the game gets played and you know, like I I
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  mentioned northern Highlands and the only one what you know,
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  Paramus Catholic is a 22 seed, but I think they beat Westwood
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  earlier this year if I'm not mistaken.
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  I could be wrong, but I think they have a win.
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  I should check that. Hold that thought and I'm going
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  to. Yeah, that's on you.
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  That's on. You.
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  I'm going to Fact Check myself, but I will move ahead In the
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  meantime while my page is loading here just to give Fort
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  Lee some kudos. Fort Lee first ever Bergen
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  County tournament win snuck by Bergenfield in the opening
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  round. I mean, they're the gift for a
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  historic victory for the Bridgeman is a shot at top
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  seeded Don Bosco. You know, obviously anything can
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  happen, but great story. And they got their W and you
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  know, they, they run into an issue too where, you know, I, I
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  don't know, we, we talked about league, league championships and
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  things of that nature. I mean, right now there's a log
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  jam in, in our league. And if Fort Lee sweeps, if I
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  mean, Cliffside Park needs to sweep Fort Lee for there to be a
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  tie. Otherwise, if Fort Lee, all they
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  need to do is split with Cliffside and they win the
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  league outright. So if they sweep, if they sweep
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  Cliffside Park, hold on one second, would you please?
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  Because someone's screaming. They have 100.
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  You're 100 screams. I'm on the phone, what do you
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  need? I will in a minute.
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  Do they realize you're the Bergen County Tournament
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  director talking baseball in North Jersey?
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  I don't know. I was asked to get the Taco
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  stuff that that was yesterday. Isn't there an on?
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  Isn't there an on air sign like? In the above my bedroom door.
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  Like get the hell away from me. But what?
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  What? Where were we before?
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  I don't remember. Taco Taco food I don't.
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  Know I went back the oven. I went back and found Paramus
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  Catholic does have a victory over West of the season, the 7th
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  floor victory. All right, well, that makes
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  things a little interesting. But, you know, I think, oh, we,
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  we were talking about Fort Lee in the league and, you know,
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  they, they, you know, what do they, what do they do in the, in
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  the, in the county tournament? I mean, you know, you just go
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  play with how it's money and you, you kind of play loose.
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  And, you know, every year around this time, Corey, we talk about
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  Richfield Park, Saint Joe's. But you know, I, I, you know,
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  Fort Lee has a decision to make too, because they have their
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  county game Saturday. They have Cliffside Park twice
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  next week. And, you know, they need to
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  split and, and they have a decision to make.
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  But yeah, it's, it's, it's, it's good.
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  It's good to see them in there. And, you know, we'll see what
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  they can do against yes all. The all the pressure is off.
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  I mean, you talk about house money, they're playing with it
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  because they got into the tournament for the second time,
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  only the second time in school history and they got in as the
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  number 16 seed. So it's not like they were a
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  product of the expanded field, no.
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  And for the first time. They were worthy of the top of a
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  top 16. They they definitely and.
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  Now And, and they got, they got to go for the league title.
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  They got to go for the league title.
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  Yeah, it's got to be. Yeah, but you, you never know,
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  you know, you don't know what people are are or what coaches
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  are thinking. But you know, but I mean, you
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  know, there, there were when they, when they were discussed
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  in the room, they, their, their body of work over the last
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  couple years earned them, you know, a, a home game in, in the
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  county tournament and you know, they, they earned it.
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  And now you know, they can still see what they can go do on on
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  Saturday, but. Keep it account for Bergenfield
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  too, getting in and, you know, giving them a run in the opening
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  round and you know, I know been in the weeds for a little bit
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  and yeah coming on, you know, coming on.
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  I I love it. I I love the the different
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  stories of the county tournament, which is great and
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  which is why the Bergen County Jamboree drives me crazy because
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  it's the same story over and over and over.
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  Yeah, yeah. That's why this tournament is is
• 17:27
  a lot of. Fun yeah there there's there's
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  good there's there's this is a good I think it was a the field,
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  you know I I think both sides of the bracket.
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  If you look at them and you look at the the body of work and
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  who's played who and who hasn't played who, I think I think the
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  committee got it right with with with everything that they did in
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  terms of seating. So yeah, we'll see.
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  We'll see what happens. Course it's going to be.
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  It's going to be an interesting next couple of days.
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  All right, so we're going to get, we have some things we got
• 17:55
  to take care of. We got to do.
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  I hope you have a position picked out for today's we're
• 18:00
  going to. Do that now.
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  We're going to do it at the close.
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  We'll do it at the close. So we're going to get to that in
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  a little bit. And then I want, if you choose
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  to, you know, I know you're the big hoity toity muckity muck
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  there of the Bergen County Tournament.
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  So maybe you can't, but I would like to know your opinion, maybe
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  just as a local high school baseball fan and as a former
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  head coach in Bergen County, of the team that you think is most
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  likely to pull an upset. Or better yet, you don't even
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  have to talk about pulling an upset.
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  I'm going to give you time to think about it.
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  If you didn't have your credentials with you, what game
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  would you lay the 5 bucks and go watch in the round of 16 in the
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  Bergen County Tournament? So make notes.
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  What game I would go watch? Yeah, but we're going to do that
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  after. I just want to set the agenda
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  for what's coming next. So after we do this interview
• 18:49
  with coach Mario Lagonis, we'll get back to all that stuff.
• 18:53
  But let's switch gears now and welcoming a guest who in his
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  first appearance ever on Talking Baseball.
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  Here we welcome him to head coach of the fight in Paladins
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  of Paramus Catholic. As mentioned, he is Mario
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  Lagonis. Coach, Thanks for joining us
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  here on Talking BASEBALL. Thanks for having me, Corey.
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  That's really crazy. I'll, I'll just break it down a
• 19:14
  little bit how I came to have have you on the show here.
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  I covered Northern Highlands against Woodridge in the first
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  round of the county tournament and I was in the dugout with a
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  man that's very near and dear to the Paramus Catholic heart.
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  And there was some excitement in the dugout when the score came
• 19:32
  in and, you know, we got the news that Paramus Catholic was a
• 19:37
  Bergen County Tournament winning team for the first time in
• 19:40
  almost a decade. So let's start there.
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  Just let's let's start with Saturday.
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  And we're going to work backwards and talk about some of
• 19:47
  the history too. But perimeter powerhouse and
• 19:51
  Ridgewood team that won the Bergen County Tournament a
• 19:53
  couple years ago, I understand it was a wild ending to somebody
• 19:57
  running down the ball in the gap.
• 19:58
  So like, why don't you just take us through the last couple of
• 20:00
  innings of trying to hang on to win that one?
• 20:02
  Yeah, I mean, our guy Petros Ragiras, you know, I, I believe
• 20:09
  the, the big play he made was in the 6th inning, whereas probably
• 20:14
  one of the craziest catches I've ever been a part of.
• 20:17
  There was no outs. And he, you know, went into the
• 20:21
  gap and there was a, there was a guy on two guys on and he just
• 20:27
  made a full extension layout in the gap and he had a good read
• 20:32
  on the ball. And it was just honestly one of
• 20:34
  the best catches I've ever seen. I was kicking myself because the
• 20:37
  game, the game changer, didn't capture it, but you know, but it
• 20:42
  was probably one of the best catches I've seen since I've
• 20:45
  been coaching. Crazy.
• 20:48
  And that's, you know, that's the kind of thing.
• 20:50
  Yep, sorry. Oh, sorry about that.
• 20:53
  That kind of propelled us and just kind of sealed the deal
• 20:56
  because, you know, and, and his overall game was just
• 21:01
  incredible. I mean, the guy had three hits,
• 21:03
  three stolen bases and played a heck of a defense out there.
• 21:10
  Here's the stupid question tonight.
• 21:12
  How big a win is that for Paramus Catholic?
• 21:16
  Well, for PCI mean, I believe we we've came a long way and you
• 21:22
  know, this is my second year, so I'm really only here a year and
• 21:25
  a half. And you know, we got a lot of
• 21:27
  new faces, you know, mixing in with a lot of the core that was
• 21:31
  here and we're really just starting to gel.
• 21:34
  And in terms of big, I mean, you know, before I got the job the
• 21:38
  year prior, they had won seven games in total.
• 21:42
  And we're all the way down to no JV, no varsity competing in the
• 21:48
  toughest division in, in the state, I believe.
• 21:53
  So, you know, just to, to beat A-Team like Ridgewood, which
• 21:57
  had, you know, a couple great pitchers and, you know, an
• 22:02
  excellent catcher as well, you know, and even the first baseman
• 22:06
  played well over there. You know, they had a good, they
• 22:08
  got a good group over there, played a played a good game.
• 22:12
  You know, it was a battle. It was probably one of the
• 22:15
  longest games too. You know, our games are
• 22:16
  typically pretty quick and that one was just back and forth.
• 22:20
  It was really exciting. Crazy first county tournament
• 22:23
  went to since 2016, First time the premise Catholic has been in
• 22:27
  the county tournament since 2017.
• 22:30
  And now on to the you know, really, what is the proper
• 22:34
  Bergen County tournament? The 16 team Sprint to the finish
• 22:38
  now, you know, back in the day, back when you were a player at
• 22:41
  Paramus Catholic, it was an invite to 16 teams and that's
• 22:44
  what was the Bergen County Tournament.
• 22:46
  I mean, it's changed a lot since then.
• 22:48
  You got 40 teams and now comprising two different
• 22:51
  brackets over two different tournaments.
• 22:54
  But you know, to be this deep now, you know, when you're in
• 22:57
  the round of 16, it used to be the first round.
• 22:59
  Now you're pretty deep in the Bergen County tournament.
• 23:01
  Next up is Westwood, a team that went to the county final and
• 23:05
  really almost won a county championship last year with more
• 23:09
  than a few good players back from that team.
• 23:11
  So, you know, just talk about this challenge that lies in
• 23:13
  front of you here. Yeah, I mean, you know, I've
• 23:17
  known Nick for a long time. He's a great coach.
• 23:21
  You know, they, that team's always coached very well.
• 23:24
  We played them earlier in the year.
• 23:25
  We had a good game against them. We actually beat them 8 to 4.
• 23:29
  But I know they're probably going to use one of their top,
• 23:33
  top guns coming up on Wednesday. And we're still trying to figure
• 23:37
  out the time going back and forth with Nick.
• 23:39
  We're trying to see if we can get a night game over at
• 23:41
  Westwood. But with the weather this week
• 23:45
  forecast, we kind of can't hammer it down yet.
• 23:47
  But I'm excited, you know? Yeah, yeah, it should be.
• 23:52
  It should be a wild one over there.
• 23:54
  Yeah. All right, so let's go backwards
• 23:56
  a little bit now. I mean, you like to take over
• 23:58
  these programs that are in tough situations.
• 24:01
  Like you said, he had 13 kids, no freshman team, no, no JV team
• 24:06
  when you started at Paramus Catholic and before that you
• 24:10
  were at Dwight Morrow High School in Englewood.
• 24:13
  Now my wife, a long time teacher in Englewood, I know all too
• 24:17
  well with the baseball program over the last 30 years and
• 24:21
  really couple of bright spots are the years you were in
• 24:24
  charge. So you know, just just give us a
• 24:26
  little sense. We were kidding a little bit
• 24:28
  before we came on the air about how a couple years ago when you
• 24:31
  were at Englewood and won a league championship, I think, Is
• 24:34
  that correct? Yeah, we we shared a Co champ
• 24:38
  with DuMont, with Jay Kenisi and he's also a PC alumni.
• 24:44
  So it's kind of kind of funny to have run into him there.
• 24:47
  And he was great coach and all the time he was there and he's
• 24:50
  just winning league title after league title after league title.
• 24:53
  And you know, Englewood hadn't, I think the number was 56.
• 24:57
  They hadn't qualified for the county tournament and also 55
• 25:02
  years since they had won a league championship.
• 25:04
  So the wait was 55 years, you know.
• 25:09
  And it was it was pretty nice to give the boys that, you know,
• 25:12
  and you know, the program was in disarray before I got it.
• 25:15
  They had won five, five wins in the combined five seasons before
• 25:19
  I took over. And 2018, we were able to kind
• 25:22
  of hang the bang banner up and angle it again and it was a
• 25:25
  great with a great group of kids.
• 25:28
  Yeah, so that obviously gave you some, you know, perspective and
• 25:32
  experience coming into this job, but it doesn't make it any
• 25:35
  easier. So what's the secret?
• 25:37
  Like, what did you do at Englewood that carried over?
• 25:39
  Because, you know, those numbers are fascinating.
• 25:42
  It's the same kind of thing with Fort Lee that's going on now.
• 25:44
  I mean, they haven't won a league championship since the
• 25:48
  50s either. They're on the verge.
• 25:50
  I think they need one more win to do it.
• 25:52
  They just won a game in the county tournament for the first
• 25:54
  time ever. Last year, they qualified for
• 25:56
  the county tournament for the first time ever.
• 25:59
  This year, they win a game in the county tournament for the
• 26:01
  first time ever. So there are some, you know,
• 26:03
  barren high school programs. So what is the key?
• 26:08
  Maybe you don't want to even say it on the air here to give you
• 26:10
  secrets, but, you know, to build up Englewood because, you know,
• 26:15
  just looking at results this year, it's kind of gone back in
• 26:17
  the other direction. And now you come over to PC and
• 26:21
  it's no coincidence that at your alma mater now, so you're
• 26:25
  building them back up again, play against the toughest
• 26:28
  competition in the state of New Jersey.
• 26:30
  Yeah, well. I've done a couple.
• 26:32
  Simple things, just keeping the boys together.
• 26:34
  I, I make a summer program where the kids could play during the
• 26:38
  week. You know, all these kids now
• 26:40
  are, are playing in these high level club teams, which are
• 26:44
  great. But you know, I try to do
• 26:46
  something local where they could kind of come back and just play
• 26:48
  together with their buddies. And, you know, they've been
• 26:51
  receptive to that. You know, so the summertime has
• 26:54
  been important for us. Offseason, we do a lot of stuff
• 26:58
  with TNT and other PC alumni, Mike Nunziata and the kids are
• 27:04
  just all year. We're lifting weights, we're
• 27:06
  doing speed and agility stuff, you know, and as well, PC has
• 27:10
  great facilities, so that's something that I'm not really
• 27:13
  used to. We got a beautiful field right
• 27:16
  there. Yeah, so I got.
• 27:18
  An angle fit, Yes, it looks like, well, not that I left.
• 27:21
  It so it's a brand new turf field in town so.
• 27:24
  Oh, is that right? Yeah, yeah, yeah.
• 27:27
  But you know, at PC, you know, we have this beautiful field
• 27:29
  right behind, right behind our school.
• 27:33
  We also in the in the winter time, they have a bubble on the
• 27:36
  tennis courts that has a batting cage.
• 27:38
  So kids go in there all year, they're just getting swings and,
• 27:42
  you know, working out. We have great weight room and
• 27:45
  TNT comes right on campus and make sure we do our speed and
• 27:48
  agility and our, and our weightlifting as a team.
• 27:52
  So, you know, I, I spend a lot of time with the boys, you know,
• 27:57
  I, I try to make my way to school, even though I don't work
• 27:59
  at the school. I try to make, I try to be there
• 28:01
  at least two or three days out of the weekend and make sure
• 28:04
  they see me around, you know, and I think it's, you know, you
• 28:09
  know, it's, it's a lot of new faces.
• 28:11
  But really the core is what kind of driven the the recent
• 28:14
  success, you know, the guys that have been here prior to me and
• 28:18
  they kind of stuck it out with me, you know, and we're still
• 28:21
  kind of gelling together. But you know, the mix of, you
• 28:24
  know, the kids that were here, the new, the new faces that came
• 28:28
  in and as well as the, you know, the young freshman as well.
• 28:31
  So, you know, it's exciting. I think the kids are really
• 28:34
  excited. You know, we've had a lot of
• 28:35
  close games within our division that kind of didn't lose our
• 28:40
  way. But you know, this, finally
• 28:43
  things went our way against Ridgewood.
• 28:45
  You know, the boys made me look smart, you know, But it's all,
• 28:49
  it's all that, man. It's all, it's all the work they
• 28:51
  put in. Things kind of came together
• 28:53
  against that Ridgewood team and you know it, You know, thank
• 28:56
  God. And we're really excited about
• 28:58
  playing Westwood on Wednesday. Yeah, and.
• 29:01
  You know. 53 kids in the program now, I mean, a lot of new faces
• 29:06
  and what kind of support and and you know, the answer's got to be
• 29:10
  a lot because you know, it's going in the right direction
• 29:12
  here. But I'm just looking at the
• 29:14
  standings in your league. And I look at a team like
• 29:16
  DePaul, which is now the number one seed in the Passaic County
• 29:18
  tournament. They're going toe to toe with
• 29:20
  all the big boys, you know, and they had to kind of get dragged
• 29:25
  kicking and screaming into the, you know, big boy mindset of,
• 29:29
  you know, being well, when the league switched, you know, they
• 29:32
  used to be a member of the NHC Skyline Division and now they're
• 29:35
  in the big boy division and Paramus Catholic.
• 29:38
  You know, football, obviously with the great history and even
• 29:41
  recent history, which is bro Peppers and all that stuff, but
• 29:44
  baseball's been kind of, you know, wandering in the desert a
• 29:47
  little bit. And what kind of support are you
• 29:50
  getting? Obviously you said the
• 29:51
  facilities are great, but you know, if it's, if you, if you're
• 29:54
  carrying that many kids on the bus every day, you have to be
• 29:57
  getting some kind of support from the administration.
• 30:00
  Yeah, I mean, I started with simple stuff, you know, I asked
• 30:04
  for new uniforms. School gave me new uniforms.
• 30:06
  I asked for a spring training trip.
• 30:09
  The school was completely behind me on that.
• 30:11
  I've taken all the levels, not just varsity.
• 30:13
  So I took varsity, JB and freshman and just these are
• 30:17
  simple things that I, I did over in Englewood that I've got over
• 30:20
  to, to PC and, you know, the kids have been buying in, you
• 30:24
  know, and you know, PC for me has always been a very easy sale
• 30:29
  because I went there. You know, I care for the place
• 30:32
  and you know, it's, it's exciting when you could tell a
• 30:36
  kid, hey, we're going to play Bosco, we're going to play
• 30:38
  Bergen, we're going to play Joe's, we're going to play
• 30:40
  DePaul. We're going to play some of
• 30:41
  these top schools in the whole state.
• 30:43
  You know, you want to play against the best.
• 30:45
  You know, this is a great place to be at, you know, on premise,
• 30:49
  easy to get to, great facilities, you know, Coed,
• 30:54
  which usually helps the discussion with 14 year old, 15
• 30:57
  year old kids. But you know, it's you know,
• 31:02
  kids want want to compete, want to be able to play against the
• 31:05
  best. So you know, PC offers that,
• 31:07
  which is great. Yeah, no doubt about it.
• 31:09
  You want to talk about some of the kids who helped change
• 31:12
  things around this year? I mean, you mentioned one.
• 31:15
  How about some other guys? Yeah, another big part of our
• 31:19
  team has been Anthony De Leon. He's a catcher.
• 31:22
  He actually transferred in. He's being homeschooled.
• 31:27
  But I mean, he's kind of, last year I lost 2 seniors to two
• 31:33
  catchers to graduation and Anthony kind of transferred in
• 31:38
  and he's really, you know, been a leader on this team.
• 31:42
  You know, Anthony and, and and Petros have been two guys that
• 31:47
  we could really count on, you know, on the field.
• 31:51
  But you know, honestly, the older guys that have been here,
• 31:56
  you know, Jason Hernandez, who else we got, Josiah Rodriguez
• 32:03
  had a huge home run. He's a senior third baseman, had
• 32:06
  a huge home run on, I think it was in the second inning in the
• 32:10
  Richland game. You know, Jason Hernandez is
• 32:14
  pitched excellent. We also had a transfer come in
• 32:16
  from Saint Mary's. Joey Sevasta pitched great in
• 32:20
  that game. Justin Diaz, Gio Latino came in,
• 32:26
  who's a junior first baseman. We've been using him a lot, the
• 32:30
  H and as well. He had a two RBI single, you
• 32:35
  know, the 3rd I believe. And you know, he's been here
• 32:39
  last year. He's really getting really
• 32:42
  contributing a lot with the bat, you know, and you know, a bunch
• 32:46
  of faces, Acevedo right now, Medrano, they've all kind of
• 32:51
  chipped in and and did their part.
• 32:55
  You know, it's it's it's really been that win was like a total
• 32:58
  team effort. It felt really good.
• 33:00
  You know, everybody kind of played a part.
• 33:03
  Is this your first time being a head coach at a parochial?
• 33:08
  Yes, I actually coached here at PCI, think it was back in O six
• 33:15
  or something like that. O 5 to like O to like 2010.
• 33:21
  I think I coached here. I actually took the freshman
• 33:24
  team to the county championship I think in 2008.
• 33:29
  Crazy. And then I yeah.
• 33:31
  Well, I, I, I asked because I, I asked because it's obviously
• 33:36
  different than it is in Englewood where, you know,
• 33:38
  that's a single town sending school district and it's
• 33:43
  different now than it was when you in your first go round at PC
• 33:48
  just because the rules have loosened up a little bit.
• 33:50
  Like you're allowed to want free transfer.
• 33:53
  You can go talk to the 8th graders.
• 33:56
  And it's just what you said about Anthony De Leon as a
• 33:58
  homeschooler who came in, you know, just the way education has
• 34:02
  changed over the last decade so much.
• 34:04
  I mean, you know, maybe talk about that aspect from an
• 34:08
  athletic standpoint, you know, just your opinions on it or not,
• 34:13
  but maybe talking specifically. But as you know, a local, how
• 34:18
  about this as a local high school head coach, just talk
• 34:20
  about the way the the landscape of high school baseball has
• 34:22
  changed in the last decade. Yeah, I mean, the free transfer
• 34:27
  I think has changed a lot because we've had a a ton of
• 34:30
  transfers. And you know, honestly, I think
• 34:32
  it's it's just the kids going around telling them that they
• 34:35
  they're having a good experience over at PC.
• 34:38
  They all play together in these tournaments and perfect Game and
• 34:42
  PBR and they're running around the state.
• 34:45
  They're running down to Florida, they're running down to Georgia
• 34:47
  and they're playing all all the kids from different high schools
• 34:50
  are playing and they're just saying, hey, you know, I'm
• 34:52
  having a good time at PC. And I think the words getting
• 34:54
  out and, you know, it's, you know, there's kids coming.
• 34:58
  You know, the kid who closed that game actually just
• 35:00
  transferred him from Bosto. Super talented kid.
• 35:04
  His name is Grayson Aberduzzi. And he's got he's, you know,
• 35:10
  we're trying. We're changing him from a
• 35:12
  catcher to a pitcher and on. Yeah.
• 35:15
  And on Wednesday, we had him up to 89 mph and he's trying to
• 35:20
  throw some stripes. So he's been pretty effective.
• 35:23
  But yeah, I mean, he wasn't even in the school about three months
• 35:26
  ago. And, you know, he came in, he
• 35:31
  came in in the winter and we had him on the JV team to start this
• 35:35
  year. And, you know, I gave him, I
• 35:37
  think this was his third appearance on varsity and he
• 35:41
  kind of figured it out, you know, and it was a huge, huge
• 35:45
  save for him and and the team. So, you know, there's, you know,
• 35:50
  I think that people when they, you know, start looking around
• 35:54
  schools and stuff like that, you know, I think PCs back on the
• 35:57
  map in terms of baseball and just like really seeing, you
• 36:01
  know, what's offered, you know, what the school has to offer
• 36:05
  academically as well as athletically.
• 36:08
  And you know, I, for me, it's, it's an easy sale.
• 36:11
  You know, PC sets me up. I'm usually at all the open
• 36:15
  houses. I get to meet all the 8th
• 36:16
  graders that want to come in, you know, they, they meet me.
• 36:23
  I also offer a prospect team if kids want to come in, which I
• 36:27
  run with 8th graders now, you know, so the kids can kind of
• 36:31
  meet each other and start hanging out, you know, and they
• 36:34
  can still stay on their club team, you know, and it's kind of
• 36:38
  worked out, you know, But you know, it's definitely changed a
• 36:41
  lot, you know, from even in the last five years, like these
• 36:47
  kids, there's a lot of transferring going on.
• 36:49
  It's kind of becoming like college, you know.
• 36:52
  But I hope I don't have this much of A influx next year
• 36:56
  because it's just, you know, I'm, I'm pretty happy with the
• 36:59
  number we got and I'm happy with the incoming class that we have
• 37:02
  coming in and I'm happy with the team we got.
• 37:06
  You know, and and you came in the same year as Tim Thomas,
• 37:09
  which is cool too, because he's got, you know, he's got a little
• 37:13
  bit of St. cred and he's, you know, maybe the greatest high
• 37:16
  school basketball player ever in North Jersey, you know, And so
• 37:21
  obviously things are on the up and up for PC.
• 37:23
  It it looks like after, you know, you look back at the
• 37:27
  history of it, PCs one of the most, you know, maybe the
• 37:30
  original successful parochial or non public as they call
• 37:33
  nowadays. And seems like, you know, the
• 37:35
  better days are ahead, The football programs getting built
• 37:38
  back up. You know, it had that run under
• 37:41
  Partridge and then it seems to be going back in the right
• 37:43
  direction. And how about that?
• 37:44
  Just the energy in the building and in the athletic department.
• 37:48
  Yeah, I mean, look, we have a I'm going to.
• 37:50
  He's probably going to get mad that I call him an old primer,
• 37:53
  but Jimmy Avatabli has been there forever.
• 37:56
  He's like you can you got my permission to call him an old,
• 38:01
  no doubt about it. But he's great.
• 38:04
  And I think the balance between him and Jimmy Cavallo, you know,
• 38:09
  who doesn't know high school sports better than Jimmy Cavallo
• 38:12
  in this area, You know, and, and just the new coaches that have
• 38:16
  been coming in, you know, Ken Thomas, Greg Russo, who was who
• 38:20
  was the offensive coordinator when Jibril Preppers was at PC
• 38:24
  and they won those state championships that were pretty
• 38:27
  fun to be around. You know, even as alumni, I was
• 38:30
  just in the stands and all those games.
• 38:31
  And when football's rolled in at PC, it's it's a very, very
• 38:36
  special place. And you know, Greg is the right
• 38:39
  guy for the job. He's also alumni just like me.
• 38:41
  He graduated a year ahead of me and, you know, so we know each
• 38:46
  other and we're kind of on a mission just to kind of put PC
• 38:48
  on the back map and, you know, really put things in the right
• 38:52
  direction. And I do believe football is
• 38:53
  coming back. I mean, he's had a couple of
• 38:55
  really good classes. He's a year ahead of me in, in
• 38:58
  the transition And, and, you know, I, I, you know, I, the
• 39:04
  work that they put in is, is awesome, you know, and you know,
• 39:08
  I, I really believe that in terms of wins and losses, it's
• 39:11
  going to turn around, you know, you know, and they've made some
• 39:14
  noise already, but I think they're going to, you know,
• 39:17
  start making a lot of noise very soon.
• 39:19
  And the same thing with basketball.
• 39:20
  I mean, since your first year was tough and he had a good year
• 39:24
  this year and you know, I can't imagine it go go backwards at
• 39:27
  any point for either of those guys.
• 39:30
  Well, I am not betting against the Paramus Catholic baseball
• 39:33
  program, a man who can turn around Dwight Morrow baseball.
• 39:37
  This is this is nothing. This is a mere bag of sales.
• 39:40
  That you came. From Mario Lagonis.
• 39:44
  Sorry it took us so long to get you on the show.
• 39:46
  I wish I would have caught up with you while you were at
• 39:49
  Dwight Morrow, because we could have publicized that a little
• 39:52
  bit more instead of doing it here a few years later.
• 39:53
  But that being said, congratulations on that
• 39:58
  accomplishment a few years ago and congratulations on the huge
• 40:01
  win in the Bergen County Tournament this year and best of
• 40:04
  luck going forward. I appreciate it, Corey.
• 40:06
  Thank you all. Right.
• 40:07
  Great stuff there with Mario Lagonis.
• 40:09
  And then I taped that, Joe, as I mentioned, I taped that last
• 40:12
  night being Monday night. You weren't able to join us
• 40:15
  here. And it was funny.
• 40:16
  After the conversation, I texted him and I, I just explained, you
• 40:20
  know, when, when the show will be up and blah, blah, blah.
• 40:22
  And he said, oh, I forgot to mention my coaches.
• 40:25
  I wish I would have mentioned my coaches.
• 40:26
  So I said, I'll handle that. Send me the list, and we'll
• 40:29
  treat it like the guy who wins the Academy Award and then
• 40:32
  forgets to thank his wife, You know, so accepting.
• 40:37
  Congratulations for the great season so far at Paramus
• 40:40
  Catholic. The coaches, Mario Lagonis would
• 40:43
  like you to know that he could not have achieved this level of
• 40:46
  success without your support and passion for the Paladins.
• 40:49
  You know who you are, but we'll name you.
• 40:51
  You are Arthur, Clyde and Steepy, Dylan Edelstein, Peter
• 40:56
  Rocher, Louis Cologne and on the JV level, Junior Lewis, Justin
• 41:02
  Calindris and then down below with the freshman Ricky Brito
• 41:07
  and Andy Cologne. We wish you all the best of luck
• 41:11
  and continued success in the black and gold for the rest of
• 41:14
  the season. All right, Joe, let's play.
• 41:17
  What do you got for me? All right, Cora, we're going to
• 41:21
  go. First baseman.
• 41:24
  You're starting A-Team. You got to build around your
• 41:27
  first baseman. Who were you taking?
• 41:30
  Oh my God, I have mine. Would you like to go first?
• 41:34
  Well, I kind of hedged it a little bit.
• 41:38
  I mean, defensively, I don't think there's a better first
• 41:41
  baseman than Keith Hernandez was, right?
• 41:45
  But I think if I had to go first base, I'd have to go with Eddie
• 41:50
  Murray. Oh, switch hitting Eddie Murray,
• 41:56
  yes, that's a hard one to argue with that.
• 41:58
  That did not pop into my head when you mentioned that
• 42:01
  originally. I mean things.
• 42:03
  The ones that immediately came to mind were like Steve Balboni.
• 42:08
  What that? Was a joke, Joe.
• 42:13
  He played. Steve Balboni played right
• 42:15
  field. Come on, even I know better than
• 42:17
  that. Yeah, first base.
• 42:20
  I mean, as a Mets fan, my usual keep Hernandez all time favorite
• 42:25
  of mine. But I agree with you.
• 42:26
  You know, he was a good hitter. I think he he finished his
• 42:29
  career as like a 298 hitter and that was because he went and
• 42:32
  played like an extra year or two at in Cleveland with a bad back
• 42:36
  and he hit like, you know, 2O2 for one or two of those seasons.
• 42:39
  And it brought him all the 300. All the MLB teams were throwing
• 42:42
  their JV pitchers at Cleveland that year.
• 42:44
  So he jacked his average up a little bit.
• 42:46
  No, they brought it down. He couldn't even hit the JV
• 42:49
  pitcher. He was he was hurting.
• 42:50
  So Can you imagine how miserable that was?
• 42:53
  He had just, you know, he, he's like a World Series hero with
• 42:56
  the New York Mets. Never bought a drink in New York
• 42:59
  after 1986. Then his back starts to hurt and
• 43:03
  he moves on to Cleveland. What was April like in the
• 43:06
  mistake by the lake in Cleveland?
• 43:08
  I mean, it had to be the most miserable time speaking for
• 43:12
  Keith Hernandez here. He has, you know, and I can't
• 43:18
  say Pat Tabler, who's my favorite Cleveland Indians first
• 43:20
  baseman, although on his 1987 baseball card, it did say Mr.
• 43:24
  Clutch because he was one of the greatest hitters in baseball
• 43:28
  history with the bases loaded. But.
• 43:30
  Still, that title now belongs to Jaylen Brunson of the New York
• 43:34
  Knicks. Hard to argue that as well, and
• 43:37
  I'm vamping a little bit here to see if I can come up with
• 43:40
  anybody. I mean, I would go back to like
• 43:41
  stand the man mutual. But like we said, we didn't see
• 43:44
  him play. That's not our error.
• 43:47
  No, I mean you got like I think. Automatically.
• 43:50
  But he didn't, you know, durability and longevity was an
• 43:54
  issue for him. But you also have like a guy
• 43:58
  that I mean, you don't really think Jeff Bagwell was was I
• 44:04
  mean, he's you know, from from the Astros.
• 44:07
  I mean, he, he had, he had a, a, an outstanding career Hall of.
• 44:12
  Famer Nor Norwalk CT's own Jeff Bagwell.
• 44:17
  That's what. He was good, but I would take
• 44:18
  Eddie Murray over. Jeff Bagwell.
• 44:20
  Andy Davely, How about this one? With Joey, Bob, what go ahead
• 44:25
  well with. Steroids.
• 44:26
  Mark Mcwater. Do you have to say with
• 44:29
  steroids, why can't you just say Mark McGuire?
• 44:32
  Well, because he blew up to the size of a Michelin man and was
• 44:37
  hitting balls out of Busch Stadium into the Mississippi
• 44:42
  River. Saint Louis.
• 44:44
  After he also and again, we're naming guys that are really more
• 44:49
  like our lifetime, like you know, you don't you know, you
• 44:52
  can't forget what's his name from Cincinnati?
• 44:56
  He he didn't pull a ball. He there's a story like he went
• 45:00
  like a season and 1/2 for almost 2 years without pulling a ball
• 45:05
  foul into the into the it's. Like a crazy.
• 45:08
  Stat Joey Votto, Todd Hilton. But I I got to go.
• 45:12
  I got to go in our lifetime with with Eddie Murray.
• 45:16
  Yeah, I, I, I'm, I'm stumped and I hate to agree with you.
• 45:19
  I want to come up with my own, but if I did.
• 45:22
  Steve Balboni. Steve Balboni.
• 45:24
  All right, I'll go with Steve Balboni.
• 45:26
  Yeah, that's that's did Dan Pasco play first base ultra pan?
• 45:33
  Ultra Pan Patterson, William Patterson graduate.
• 45:35
  Is that right? Did he go to Ultra Patterson?
• 45:38
  Yes, he did. All right, so the consensus says
• 45:41
  it's Eddie Murray last week who played it best.
• 45:45
  Eddie Murray, first baseman. We got a good team going here.
• 45:49
  Yeah, but we got to move, We got to move.
• 45:51
  We got to move Griffey on the right field.
• 45:53
  Now we'll. Get to that.
• 45:56
  All right, so now here's my question to you.
• 45:58
  If you had to lay down the 5 bucks that gets you into the
• 46:01
  round of 16 for the Bergen County Baseball Tournament,
• 46:04
  which of the eight games scheduled for sometime this week
• 46:08
  would you choose? Pascack kills Bergen Catholic.
• 46:14
  For just a pitching matchup. I, I just think you have a team
• 46:23
  that started out a little bit slow and I think there was a lot
• 46:27
  of talk like, you know, and again, it's the game, it's the
• 46:31
  game of baseball, right? So you look at Pascack Hills,
• 46:34
  you look at their, their talent, you know, you look at what they
• 46:38
  have on the mound and you know, they're, they start out, I think
• 46:41
  they were four and four and they were hovering around 500.
• 46:43
  And now I think coming into the appointment when they were
• 46:46
  seated, they were nine and seven.
• 46:48
  But you know, again, you look at the, the body of work field that
• 46:53
  they've played and the arms they have.
• 46:55
  And I, I mean, does anybody want to face Pascal kills round one?
• 46:59
  And on the flip side, you know, Pascal kills the same.
• 47:03
  What? Dude, we got Bergen in the first
• 47:05
  round because, you know, I mean, those are, those are two teams
• 47:08
  where if you're, if you're a Bergen Catholic, you, you know,
• 47:11
  not that you, if any team should fear anybody else, but you know,
• 47:16
  that's, that's a draw. Like that's, that's a, that's a
• 47:19
  tough draw for both teams. And I think they're, they're
• 47:23
  Bergen Capitals playing very good baseball right now.
• 47:25
  I mean, they, they, they haven't played Saint Joe's yet, but
• 47:29
  they, they, they swept the pall. You know who's a who's a very
• 47:33
  good baseball team? Number one seed in the Passaic.
• 47:36
  With number one seed in the Passaic and you know, they're,
• 47:38
  they're one of the top teams in the state and, and you know,
• 47:42
  Burton Catholic went out there and beat them twice.
• 47:46
  And Pascack Hills is, is playing better baseball now.
• 47:49
  They're getting hot at the right time and, and they have two arms
• 47:54
  that can that can beat anybody. So I think I, I, that would be
• 47:57
  my game definitely. You know what, I, I, I, I, I
• 48:01
  agree with you. I where, where does Berger play?
• 48:04
  That and Lindhurst still. Is that their most?
• 48:09
  I think they play at Breslin, yeah.
• 48:10
  Breslin Yeah, I mean, that eliminates that.
• 48:13
  See, I take other things into account besides just which game,
• 48:18
  you know, like, do I want to drive to Lyndhurst?
• 48:20
  Yeah, I'd love to see that game if it was played, you know, in
• 48:23
  my. Yeah.
• 48:26
  Travel time you got and I'm looking at Old Japan, Saint
• 48:29
  Mary's, Saint Mary coming in here.
• 48:31
  You know what an interesting aspect now with all this weather
• 48:34
  delay is that everybody's rested.
• 48:36
  I mean, other than guys who threw, you know, probably
• 48:38
  nobody's thrown since Saturday. How many games have been played?
• 48:41
  Well, I, I don't, I don't know, I mean, I mean, curf teams, I
• 48:43
  mean, you know, curf teams played today, you know, but
• 48:48
  it's, you know, it's going to be it, it's just, you know, the,
• 48:52
  the other thing we want to avoid.
• 48:54
  But you know, Mike and I talked about this and, and, and The
• 48:57
  thing is like, we want, like you've got to play the thing
• 49:01
  that's going to happen. And my biggest fear and, and,
• 49:03
  you know, and I'm completely transparent and, and I, I put it
• 49:08
  out there like I don't hide anything.
• 49:10
  My biggest thing is you get and, you know, you get somebody that
• 49:16
  plays on Wednesday and somebody else doesn't play on Wednesday,
• 49:19
  They hold back and play Thursday.
• 49:21
  And then you get all the back in sports about they could have
• 49:24
  played. They didn't do this, they didn't
• 49:26
  do that. They saved an arm.
• 49:27
  They did this, they got an extra day's rest.
• 49:29
  And it's just just become, you know, fear of people
• 49:33
  manipulating the schedule. But for the most part, you know,
• 49:37
  we have Bergen County baseball, the guys that are in it every
• 49:42
  year, the coaches, you know, they, they uphold the integrity
• 49:45
  of it. And we just want to go out there
• 49:48
  and play. If you can play, play.
• 49:50
  You know, when, when, when I was coaching, if you if you told me,
• 49:54
  Corey, you know, you're supposed to play here, but our field's
• 49:58
  not ready. Let's play the game.
• 50:00
  Two teams on the same field will play at your place.
• 50:04
  You I'll be the home team at your at your field.
• 50:06
  You know, so we really, we really our biggest push and, and
• 50:09
  what we communicated to coaches and athletic directors is
• 50:13
  everything in your power to get the games played.
• 50:16
  You know, hopefully tomorrow, but worst case scenario
• 50:20
  Thursday. All right, well, I'm going to
• 50:23
  have to pick one of those games because I'll be covering
• 50:25
  something and I'm looking forward to it and then.
• 50:27
  We'll roll on the. Weekend.
• 50:29
  You could always come and cover the DuMont Bergenfield BIP game.
• 50:32
  Do you want? Well, let's talk about all
• 50:34
  right, so I was going to say, did we miss anything that what
• 50:37
  else should we mop up here on the show?
• 50:38
  But I mean, maybe we should have talked about it at the
• 50:41
  beginning, the BIP. Is.
• 50:43
  So much more importance now with the drop downs and the all
• 50:48
  kidding aside, I don't want to. I don't want to break chops
• 50:50
  because there's a separation between the top and the bottom,
• 50:54
  but the bottom, I don't even want to see the bottom.
• 50:57
  Let's say the middle where the BIT is, it's there's parity.
• 51:00
  I mean, here's the thing. If you played the BIT, you you
• 51:03
  put the bracket together and you played it three times, you'd
• 51:06
  have three different winners. It's not like there's a team
• 51:07
  that's going to run away from it and like.
• 51:10
  Now that you know, now that Ridgewood, Ridgewood dropped
• 51:13
  down into it, they're, they're going to be right, you know?
• 51:15
  Yeah. But they played Demarest in the
• 51:16
  first round. Demarest is representative side,
• 51:20
  you know. Yeah, no, I'm not, I'm not
• 51:22
  saying, but but that's, you know, that's a formidable
• 51:24
  opponent. Like last year, you know, Burton
• 51:26
  Catholic was in it last year. It's like, you know, but you,
• 51:29
  you, Corey, honestly everybody, everybody could say what they
• 51:34
  want about it. I, I, I honestly was against it.
• 51:41
  I was against this 40 team thing.
• 51:43
  And, but it's, it's a nice, it's a nice tournament and, and
• 51:48
  there's a lot of, there's a lot of parity in it.
• 51:51
  And, and I think, you know, it, it has its place.
• 51:54
  I, I, I really do. And you know, we'll, we'll see.
• 51:59
  It's, it's a good tournament. Things are, the feedback has
• 52:02
  been great. So, you know, we'll see how it
• 52:05
  goes this year and we'll get everybody's feedback moving
• 52:09
  forward. And again, it wasn't it, it
• 52:13
  wasn't like we didn't use criteria in, in in seeding the
• 52:18
  BIT, you know, we, we held you, the games played.
• 52:21
  And so we, we held you to strength the schedule.
• 52:24
  And it, it wasn't just like just throw anybody anywhere.
• 52:28
  We, we, we took the time to see them and as as much time as we
• 52:33
  did with the Bergen County Tournament.
• 52:35
  You know, it was. It was.
• 52:38
  Give us give us a first hand to count.
• 52:41
  I mean your sons play for DuMont.
• 52:43
  You're the athletic director at DuMont.
• 52:44
  I'm assuming you're at the DuMont Richfield slash Palisades
• 52:51
  for game. The how do you fit that on the
• 52:53
  front of a jersey? But how is that game, you know,
• 52:57
  what was the atmosphere? Did it feel different than a
• 52:59
  regular season game? You know, because it's one of
• 53:02
  those crazy, wacky matchups that you don't.
• 53:04
  It was. Yeah, it was, you know, it was,
• 53:06
  it was good because it was two teams that don't normally play,
• 53:10
  you know, so there wasn't really like it.
• 53:12
  It wasn't like it was speaking from the DuMont perspective.
• 53:15
  It, it wasn't like a DuMont Ridgefield Park game, you know,
• 53:19
  where where both sides are amped up because, you know, you have
• 53:22
  that rivalry. But I mean, I could speak for
• 53:28
  there was a little bit extra there because you know, you want
• 53:31
  to you want to win, you want to you want to move on and and
• 53:34
  dance. You know, there the the the
• 53:37
  crowd was good from both well represented from both Ridgefield
• 53:41
  and and DuMont. But you know, it was it had a
• 53:45
  little bit more feel to it. Yes, I think the match up, given
• 53:50
  the fact that I don't know the last time DuMont and Richfield
• 53:52
  played each other, if they ever had.
• 53:54
  And, and you know, it was a little bit subdued in terms of
• 53:59
  the energy from from both sides, But you know, both coaches, you
• 54:04
  know, had their teams ready and, and it the game meant a little
• 54:07
  bit more and, and I think as you advance, it's it's going to, you
• 54:11
  know, it's going to mean a little more and more each game
• 54:14
  each round. So we'll see.
• 54:18
  It's so far it's been a positive and you know, we'll, we'll,
• 54:22
  we'll examine it at the at the end of the year.
• 54:24
  Yeah, now very good. All right, anything else before
• 54:28
  we embark on this weather journey that is the 2025 Bergen
• 54:33
  County Baseball Tournament? No core, we're good.
• 54:36
  We're just keep your fingers crossed to this weather and,
• 54:38
  and, you know, wishing all the teams all well, you know,
• 54:43
  everybody stay healthy and looking forward to a good a good
• 54:48
  tournament. See you next week talking
• 54:50
  baseball. Follow the leader.