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Talkin' Baseball: MP's Frank Clark Interview · NorthJerseySports.com

• 0:08
  We are talking basement part. Two, that is originally
• 0:12
  scheduled as a late interview at the tail end of the season
• 0:17
  finale of Talking Baseball here on North Jersey sports.com.
• 0:21
  We grabbed Frank Clark, whose team Midland Park will be
• 0:25
  playing in the Group One state final on Monday.
• 0:28
  And we were just going to leave it at the end.
• 0:30
  But as the interview went along, we realized that it was too good
• 0:35
  to keep for just the diehards who listened to all the way
• 0:39
  through the end of the podcast. So this is Part 2 of Talking
• 0:43
  Baseball Season 11 Episode 9. Frank Clark, a standalone
• 0:47
  interview with a fired up coach going to play in a state final
• 0:51
  on Monday. They enjoy.
• 0:52
  This. Call is now being recorded.
• 0:55
  And now it's being recorded. We got a show here, boys.
• 0:59
  He's so juiced. Frankie Clark, Frank Clark is so
• 1:02
  juiced up. It's great.
• 1:03
  You got to let it go. Corey, Corey in all honesty, in
• 1:07
  all honesty, Frank Clark is genuinely pumped to be on the
• 1:12
  show. Like that's a great.
• 1:14
  That's a great feeling. That's a great feeling.
• 1:17
  I. Love coming on the show, I love
• 1:18
  it. Like we're like, we're somebody.
• 1:21
  We're nothing. This is the greatest thing
• 1:26
  because, Frank, this is the first time we've ever done this
• 1:29
  right in the middle of the thing.
• 1:30
  We're like, you know what, we're going to pull them right in
• 1:32
  right now. We're going to call them.
• 1:33
  We're on the air, we're taping and everything else.
• 1:35
  So listen, Midland Park baseball, the last team standing
• 1:40
  in Bergen County. How about that?
• 1:43
  That's it. Well, that's definitely it must
• 1:45
  be in a movie script somewhere, I'll tell you that.
• 1:48
  But it's been great and the town has been I I can't I I can't
• 1:53
  really put it into words how the last two weeks have been like.
• 1:58
  I mean from yesterday there was a big send off leaving the
• 2:02
  school with music. Yeah, to play.
• 2:05
  Yeah, to play one goddamn in and then get back on the bus and go
• 2:07
  back. Thank you.
• 2:09
  I have. That was, that was a, that was
• 2:14
  an absolute mess. Absolute mess.
• 2:16
  Frank did you? Frank, you only played one
• 2:19
  correct yesterday. We.
• 2:20
  We played half the top of the first, That's all we played.
• 2:23
  Oh. So you were home or away?
• 2:26
  We were away. Oh good, so you still have your
• 2:29
  guy ready? Oh yeah.
• 2:31
  Not that it matters. Not that it matters NJSIAA,
• 2:35
  because you only played 1/2 an inning.
• 2:38
  Right. It's ridiculous.
• 2:41
  It was really crazy, you know, and one of the comforting things
• 2:46
  was, you know, Greg Butler's there, Butts is there and we're
• 2:49
  looking at each other and I just don't understand why the
• 2:54
  decision was made to start the game because they asked my
• 2:57
  opinion before and they asked the coach for Middlesex.
• 3:01
  They asked what we saw, said I said a game of this magnitude,
• 3:05
  you can't you can't start it in a driving, you know, in a
• 3:08
  rainstorm. You know, I said I don't and I
• 3:12
  said something. I gave the example.
• 3:13
  I said one of my first years coaching at Waldwick.
• 3:16
  We were very excited about being in the States.
• 3:18
  We're playing Pompton Lakes and Coach Tanis called me and said
• 3:21
  we're playing, we're good, feels great.
• 3:23
  We went to the game. The field was in really bad
• 3:26
  shape. It was pouring.
• 3:29
  We played the entire game. If you lose 5 knots and my
• 3:32
  pitcher pulls A groin sliding off the mound on a pitch, it was
• 3:36
  disgusting. And at the point I said at that
• 3:39
  moment I told my team I'll never do that again.
• 3:41
  To my team. I was so excited to play the
• 3:43
  stake game as a young coach. I said to him yesterday, there's
• 3:46
  no way. And the Middlesex guy came back
• 3:48
  with, you know, now whatever, a little tweaking of a line.
• 3:52
  We came here to play today and I said, well, we obviously came
• 3:56
  here to play today as well. But you know, it was just really
• 4:00
  unbelievable. We started the game.
• 4:01
  I can't believe it. So frankly, let me let me
• 4:03
  understand this. They came to you and they asked
• 4:07
  you for your input. And yeah, you, you, you
• 4:10
  basically said guys. I don't know if you.
• 4:14
  This is ideal, right? It's not ideal, right?
• 4:16
  So the Middlesex, the Middlesex guy, whoever that is, because
• 4:21
  you know, whatever we, he, he said he was kind of leaning
• 4:25
  towards we're playing. Yeah, we came to play.
• 4:29
  We didn't come here not to play. Oh, because you got right
• 4:32
  exactly so Midland Park. So he implied that one of the
• 4:36
  two. Teams.
• 4:38
  Right, one of the two teams came to play for a state title.
• 4:41
  Only one OK, but one of them had common sense and and he was
• 4:47
  basically just like, let, let, let's go.
• 4:49
  So again, they they here, here's my here's the thing about the
• 4:54
  NGSIA. They sit there and they say the
• 4:58
  game goes and once the game. Starts.
• 5:00
  It's in the umpire. 'S hands right, but they they
• 5:02
  ask you guys at that time, what do you think?
• 5:07
  So now you have one coach that's not really up to playing that
• 5:11
  game for obvious reasons and you have another coach that's
• 5:14
  basically, you know, he's basically like, well, we came
• 5:17
  here to play OK coach, thank you very much.
• 5:20
  They start the game, you play it half an inning, you get back on
• 5:23
  the bus and you leave. So again, embarrassing,
• 5:27
  embarrassing. It's embarrassing, Frank.
• 5:30
  It's embarrassing. Joe don't do that to him.
• 5:33
  He's got to play the game tomorrow.
• 5:35
  The NJSA, they're going to. They're with their wristbands
• 5:37
  and, you know, the hat. The NJS, Yeah.
• 5:40
  Oh, oh, oh. Oh, Oh yeah.
• 5:41
  Yeah, get it up. It's unbelievable.
• 5:42
  It's unbelievable. But Frank, you know Frank, back
• 5:46
  to your team. Wait, wait.
• 5:48
  Joe. Joe Hold.
• 5:48
  On Hold on, Joe. Yeah.
• 5:50
  So Midland. Park the.
• 5:52
  Greatest season in the history of Midland Park High School
• 5:54
  baseball. It is.
• 5:57
  Great, had a had an official send off with music and
• 6:01
  everything else. Drove 2 hours down there but
• 6:03
  somehow was accused of not being not wanting.
• 6:06
  Not wanting to play? Yeah, yeah.
• 6:09
  Well, coach, Coach. You know what, Coach?
• 6:11
  You know what, Coach, Coach. Not for nothing.
• 6:13
  We we we came to play. Oh, no, Coach.
• 6:16
  Really. Yeah, you did.
• 6:19
  An hour. Into the show.
• 6:20
  Now we're editing. Now we got Frank Clark.
• 6:23
  Now we're editing. No, I'm there because that's
• 6:25
  that's, that's like, that's like that's bull.
• 6:27
  That's that's like, oh, oh, we came to play.
• 6:30
  Oh, really? Because the kids and the fans
• 6:33
  from Midland Park didn't come to play.
• 6:36
  You know what, guys? Frank, I swear to God, Frank,
• 6:39
  you got to go and just 10 run then and when you're done and
• 6:42
  you take hands, you got to go. Coach Guess.
• 6:45
  What we came to play. I had the dream scenarios in my
• 6:49
  head of what I would say, yeah, I really did.
• 6:52
  And the other worst part was walking to our bus.
• 6:54
  We got an earful from some of the Middlesex fans.
• 6:57
  So they guess the message that I said, you know, we shouldn't
• 6:59
  play in the rain. They were.
• 7:01
  They let us have, oh, you didn't cut, you didn't want to play
• 7:03
  today, You didn't want to play who, who, who, you didn't want
• 7:05
  to play. They're yelling at us.
• 7:07
  And I was. Going, Oh my God, that's just,
• 7:09
  that's unbelievable. That's how it let you happen.
• 7:11
  Go ahead, go. Ahead, Frank.
• 7:14
  Your guys, Frank, Frank, your guys, and I don't mean this.
• 7:18
  I said this before we got you on, OK, I, I don't mean this and
• 7:21
  I think you'll understand how I mean this.
• 7:25
  But when you guys take the field, when you guys take the
• 7:27
  field minimum park baseball, you take the field as a bunch of
• 7:32
  high school baseball players and you really don't have that one
• 7:36
  kid that that like when he steps in the box or is that on the
• 7:41
  that, that that kind of just like stands out.
• 7:43
  And I think to me, that's an absolute.
• 7:47
  That's a baseball, that's a team, that's a you don't have
• 7:51
  that one guy that you lean on. You kind of, I know you got the
• 7:55
  Dietrich kid, you have the Korea kid who is your number one and
• 7:59
  he got injured unfortunately. But you just have a bunch.
• 8:02
  You just have a bunch of kids that that step on the field and
• 8:06
  play the game. There's not there's not one kid
• 8:10
  that really just stands out in terms of talent OR you know,
• 8:15
  like it's it. Can you elaborate a little bit
• 8:17
  on on the type of team that you have?
• 8:20
  Yeah, well, I mean, we we have a bunch of gamers to be honest
• 8:24
  with you and you make a great point.
• 8:26
  We don't have that one stand out guy.
• 8:28
  I can't sit here and tell you that like, you know, like if you
• 8:31
  looked at who the main guy was, you know, it would be our our
• 8:36
  pitching right? It would be Connor Dietrich,
• 8:38
  it'll be Braden Russell, it'll be Anthony Correa over the
• 8:41
  season, Ryan Natoli, who came in as a number three guy and did an
• 8:46
  unbelievable job first. But like, you know, since we
• 8:49
  played Joe when we met DuMont in the BIP, we had a real nice
• 8:54
  lefty hitter, Ralph Caprio, who was leading us in RBI, who then
• 8:58
  unfortunately broke his ankle and tore his ligaments in the
• 9:01
  Ridgewood the championship game. So he he's like our four hitter
• 9:04
  leading the team at RBI. He's now gone.
• 9:07
  So we went to the state tournament, like, you know, days
• 9:09
  before the state tournament, losing him.
• 9:12
  So I have a guy that had zero career starts playing right
• 9:15
  field, a freshman at third base. And when Russell pitches,
• 9:19
  Dietrich had to work at playing first base.
• 9:21
  So it's unbelievable the amount of puzzle pieces that had to
• 9:24
  move. But the team fought in for
• 9:27
  playing a lot of small ball. And I don't even mean with
• 9:30
  bunting. I'm talking about like case in
• 9:33
  point, the walk Hill Valley game.
• 9:35
  We said pitching and defense will get this sectional final
• 9:38
  done. We have to do it right.
• 9:40
  So both of those we nailed the thing we did wonderfully.
• 9:43
  Infield singles, stolen base, ground ball to the right side,
• 9:47
  infield back, situational hitting, ground ball is short,
• 9:49
  we win the game. One nothing for playing small
• 9:52
  ball that way like the old statement with Cardinals.
• 9:54
  I'm dating myself Whitey Herzog. You know, I mean like playing
• 9:57
  with the a lot of stack flies, a lot of, you know, infield
• 10:00
  background balls, little things like that, so.
• 10:03
  Hidden behind runners. Yes, Ken Oberkfell, you know,
• 10:07
  all these guys, you know. Yeah.
• 10:09
  So it's been really, really it's been exciting.
• 10:13
  Guys are starting to get it. And I think the key with Ralph
• 10:18
  went out, we have to do something with the lineup to
• 10:20
  lengthen it a little bit. So we move the catcher short
• 10:24
  way, Chase short way to sophomore in from the 6th or 7th
• 10:28
  spot up to the 2 hole because he's not, he's very he handles
• 10:33
  the bat very well and he hit behind a runner.
• 10:36
  He's very good with it. So basically we had a practice
• 10:39
  of all hitting behind the runner and it basically if you won the
• 10:41
  sweepstakes, that's who I was going to move.
• 10:43
  And he did a great job with it. Like he did a great job with it.
• 10:46
  So we moved them up and moved Korea down to the five hole to
• 10:50
  lengthen our RBI possibility. And then to tip your hat, the
• 10:54
  6789 guys have been grinding it back.
• 10:59
  I mean, it's unbelievable. They've been getting our walks,
• 11:02
  We've been getting a bunch of them have been getting hits in
• 11:05
  the games, putting the ball in play.
• 11:07
  When we face the kid Buddhist the other day from, you know,
• 11:11
  really he's I mean, he was stolen as hard as I've seen a
• 11:14
  kid throw and we and we put the bat on the ball.
• 11:18
  These guys were they weren't afraid.
• 11:19
  So the confidence level for some of these guys is.
• 11:23
  Through the roof. And you could see the demeanor
• 11:26
  of them. And when people came to me
• 11:27
  yesterday, like how the hell pissed off for you?
• 11:29
  You must be so pissed off for you.
• 11:31
  Drove 2 hours in traffic to get down there.
• 11:34
  Played at half an inning and I took it this way.
• 11:37
  Last half full. I look at it as and I told them
• 11:40
  to practice this morning. We had practice this morning
• 11:42
  inside the gym and I told them we are now not going down for
• 11:47
  the first time. We've already experienced all
• 11:49
  the hoop lobs getting a name call.
• 11:51
  Everything we got, we got a we got a bat.
• 11:53
  So we we put the bat on the ball.
• 11:55
  All four kits that batted hit the ball hard.
• 11:57
  We got one hit. We had almost had a home run
• 11:59
  from the kids. Shortly he got caught at the
• 12:01
  fence. The I I said to the guys, we are
• 12:05
  not now we know who we saw them, we saw their pitching, we saw
• 12:08
  their deep, we saw how they look.
• 12:10
  We got the atmosphere. It's all done now.
• 12:12
  We go down there. I said, we're almost like we're
• 12:14
  the home team, even though we're not the home team because we're
• 12:16
  going to pitch first tomorrow and we're going to have six at
• 12:19
  bath like we're home. So I said, play it like we're
• 12:21
  home. Connor's on the mound.
• 12:23
  It's the formula we've used the entire state playoffs and and,
• 12:26
  and now the hoopla is getting out.
• 12:27
  And it was, I mean, there were a lot of tears in our eyes.
• 12:29
  It was bad when we left yesterday with all the people
• 12:32
  outside. And now tomorrow I'm here.
• 12:34
  I just got a phone call right before you guys called that the,
• 12:37
  the grammar school and the high school, they're going to do a
• 12:40
  clap off for the kids leaving tomorrow morning and we're
• 12:43
  leaving at 9:45 in the morning and, and it's going to be, it's
• 12:48
  going to be bring chill. It should because it means so
• 12:51
  much to the town. You know, it really does.
• 12:54
  It should, it should mean a lot and, and congratulations to your
• 12:57
  administration for letting that all happen.
• 12:59
  Like, you know, I, I know you got a, you got a sports guy.
• 13:03
  You got a sports guy as your principal over there in, in, in
• 13:06
  Capitol Island, like he's, he's guy's aces.
• 13:09
  Like he's going to support doesn't matter what the sport
• 13:12
  is. He he's going to support it.
• 13:13
  And, and good for your district to do the clap out and good, you
• 13:17
  know, because your younger grades, your middle school, your
• 13:20
  elementary school, it's all about, you know, look at our
• 13:24
  baseball team, little, little old Midland Park, right.
• 13:26
  What do? What do you have graduating 111
• 13:28
  kids from the senior class? Now if, if I told you, if I told
• 13:32
  you the number, Are you ready? Are you ready?
• 13:34
  You want to hit drum roll on this?
• 13:35
  You have. 94. 4848, come on. Come on, come on, A. 100 and
• 13:42
  there's 162 kids in the school, 168.
• 13:47
  That's crazy. That's crazy.
• 13:49
  I mean, this is Hickory we're talking about.
• 13:51
  I mean Jimmy. Chitwood No, I I said to the
• 13:53
  kids yesterday. Said who?
• 13:54
  I want to know who? Who's going to be Jimmy Chitwood
• 13:56
  in the game today? And they all look like I was
• 13:58
  nothing. You got to watch who was.
• 13:59
  Just they don't know. They don't know Frank.
• 14:00
  They don't know. And we have a lot of ollies on
• 14:04
  the team too. We have a lot of ollies, you
• 14:05
  know, so I'm. Sure, you got a few ollies here,
• 14:07
  Yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah,
• 14:09
  yeah. Great.
• 14:09
  But. I was gonna that was that leads
• 14:11
  me right into my next question. You answered a lot of it.
• 14:13
  But what does this mean to the town?
• 14:14
  I mean you know Midland Park obviously in Walton is down.
• 14:19
  They Co-op in football. Yeah.
• 14:23
  Basketball's had a couple of good, you know, seasons and.
• 14:26
  But this has to. Be really revitalizing to the
• 14:29
  community and this is you know if anybody who's ever listened
• 14:32
  to North Jersey sports.com multimedia presentations knows
• 14:35
  that I am all about public school sports and what it can do
• 14:39
  to bring it. Together.
• 14:40
  Small school. What?
• 14:41
  Small school? Public school, yeah.
• 14:43
  But all. All.
• 14:44
  Yeah. But.
• 14:44
  All, all of it. I mean, you know, I don't want
• 14:46
  to take away from from Ridgewood or, you know, when Ridgewood's
• 14:49
  run, they're entitled to it too, you know?
• 14:52
  But what does this mean to the town of the Park?
• 14:57
  Forget the athletic department of Middle Park.
• 15:00
  Yeah. What does it mean in the shadow
• 15:01
  of Ramapo High School? Yeah, between Wood and Ramapo.
• 15:06
  Talk about it. Well, you know what the one
• 15:09
  thing that's that's that's come out is, is the amount of of
• 15:12
  Little Leaguers and the, you know, the nine you travel the 10
• 15:16
  you travel the 11 you. The Cooperstown team is.
• 15:19
  Yeah, they've been at all the games.
• 15:21
  They were all there yesterday at the game.
• 15:25
  Kids like this is how wild this is.
• 15:27
  And I heard this and this choked me up a little bit.
• 15:29
  There were kids waiting for us to leave yesterday in the
• 15:32
  pouring rain to take a picture with the kids.
• 15:36
  Like there were 9 year old kids saying, Oh my God, that's
• 15:40
  Anthony Correa. Can I take a picture with them?
• 15:43
  Like, it was unbelievable. Like, I can't tell you what,
• 15:49
  what, what it felt like. It was unbelievable.
• 15:52
  It it really was. And I'm thinking of trying to
• 15:54
  get all the good karma going, but it was great.
• 15:56
  Yankee game today. Michael Kay talking about
• 15:59
  Midland Park. Johnny Van der Meer anniversary
• 16:03
  of the second no hitter was today.
• 16:06
  Yeah. So we realized all pumped up,
• 16:09
  you know, everyone's all fine. And we and and and and and none
• 16:12
  of you. Johnny van der Meer was they?
• 16:16
  If you look up Johnny van der Meer, right, because that's the
• 16:19
  record that'll never be broken. There's no one that's ever going
• 16:22
  to throw 3 consecutive no hitters.
• 16:24
  It's. Complete games anymore?
• 16:28
  But correct exactly. It's just not happening, right?
• 16:30
  That's that's the record that'll never be broken.
• 16:32
  But when you look up Johnny van der Meer, it says he was born
• 16:36
  and raised in Prospect Park. I know, it's crazy, right?
• 16:40
  It's not. Yeah, he was dead and wasn't
• 16:44
  wasn't he born in Am I wrong? Was because.
• 16:48
  Born in Midlands Park and moved in his in his late.
• 16:52
  OK, OK. Yeah, so you see, like it's a
• 16:55
  Little League field. It has.
• 16:56
  They have a mural of him now painting on the Little League
• 16:59
  field on the wall. Pretty.
• 17:00
  Soon they're going to have a mural of of Frank Clark.
• 17:02
  They're going to. They're going to call what a
• 17:04
  good looking, what a good looking.
• 17:05
  Face. Oh, you like that?
• 17:07
  Yeah. What the fuck?
• 17:11
  What the fuck? It's going to be quite far field
• 17:14
  all right. So let's talk about this now.
• 17:16
  You're going to get back on the bus.
• 17:17
  Hopefully, hopefully the sun will shine tomorrow.
• 17:19
  You're going to get back on the bus, you know.
• 17:21
  Just talk. What what, what are the keys to
• 17:23
  the game here against Middlesex? I mean, I, I think what the
• 17:25
  point you made and it's great. The nerves should be out of the
• 17:28
  system. You know what it's going to look
• 17:29
  like you've taken this trip, you know, all all that stuff.
• 17:32
  So let's talk about the baseball part of it.
• 17:35
  What do you got to do to come out of here with the greatest
• 17:39
  season in the history? I was telling Joe before he came
• 17:41
  on, this already is the greatest season that a modern day Group 1
• 17:46
  baseball team can have. Because you won a league title,
• 17:49
  you made the Bergen County tournament, you dropped into the
• 17:51
  BIT, you made it to the final, you lost to a Group 4, you won a
• 17:55
  sectional title, you won a state semi final, and now you're going
• 17:59
  down to be the last Bergen County team playing in the 2025
• 18:04
  baseball season. So no matter what happens,
• 18:06
  whatever the outcome is, this is cemented in five years.
• 18:10
  If there is a Midland Park High School Athletics Hall of Fame,
• 18:13
  you will all reconvene with your suits on and you will talk about
• 18:16
  the good old days. But what do we got to do to put
• 18:20
  the cherry on top of this season on the field tomorrow against
• 18:23
  that hated Middlesex team with their stupid fans?
• 18:28
  Well, and they're coach and they're coach.
• 18:32
  Yeah, well #1 as the kids know, we have to play it.
• 18:36
  And I'm not trying to be. We've got to play a clean game.
• 18:39
  We, we, we have to play a, you know, error free game.
• 18:43
  We have to pitch it the way we have.
• 18:45
  We feel good about that because we've got our two best guys,
• 18:48
  both with 110 ready to go. You know, they could both go.
• 18:53
  So that's a big thing. And, and we have to we have to
• 18:56
  make Middlesex make plays and we did a nice job with that in the
• 19:02
  top of the first yesterday. And tip your hat.
• 19:04
  They made a great catch in right field and the guy scooped out a
• 19:07
  tough throw at first base with two outs.
• 19:12
  I will tell you this, if we put the bat on the ball and we
• 19:16
  continue to situ situationally hit well, we'll be in good
• 19:20
  shape. If we've had games here.
• 19:22
  And I'll be honest with you, where we, we left what we, we do
• 19:25
  well. And one of them was the wall
• 19:29
  book game at home earlier in the year.
• 19:30
  The kid Ferrara was doing a great game and we were just over
• 19:33
  and he was, we were feeding right into him.
• 19:35
  He, we were over swimming, over swinging, over swinging, over
• 19:39
  swinging and ended up striking out 15 guys.
• 19:42
  It was tough. It was tough and, and, and, and,
• 19:46
  and after that game we said no, so no, can we try it?
• 19:49
  And we had a great team meeting after that one because we said,
• 19:52
  can we try it our way now and not the way you guys think it
• 19:57
  should go. And they were like, yeah, you
• 20:00
  know what I mean? And the kids are great.
• 20:01
  They're all. Coachable.
• 20:03
  So like they've made an improvement.
• 20:04
  I've watched guys that were swinging from their heels
• 20:07
  earlier in the year and then now they're up there. 2 strikes you
• 20:13
  have, you have guys with two strikes getting up there, you
• 20:19
  know, having a, having a different, having a different
• 20:22
  approach and things of that nature.
• 20:25
  And it's just unbelievable. And you see it.
• 20:27
  You just see the difference in their body language and how
• 20:29
  they're attacking their fats. They're choking up, they're
• 20:33
  looking to put a ball in play, they're cutting down on
• 20:34
  strikeouts and they're doing a great job.
• 20:37
  How many? Yeah, you got a, you got a good
• 20:39
  group. How many players do?
• 20:41
  How many players on the 2025 Midland Park Panther baseball
• 20:46
  team will play college baseball? Well, we have Anthony Cray is
• 20:54
  going to Saint Thomas Aquinas, but he's great.
• 20:57
  We'll see how that goes for him this year with his his injury.
• 20:59
  We'll see how it plays out. And you have Connor short way,
• 21:03
  second base going Division 3 bounce Saint Mary's and those
• 21:08
  little two guys are going to yeah.
• 21:10
  So that's that's what we have going right now and I love.
• 21:12
  It Nah just and my point is not my point is the positive like
• 21:17
  this yeah, This is why I had This is why all of us have made
• 21:21
  high school sports our life work, our life's work because of
• 21:24
  the positive impact that it has it.
• 21:26
  It can have on. Kids your these kids will never
• 21:29
  forget it. And even if those two guys go
• 21:31
  out to have great college careers, they will never be
• 21:36
  another confluence of events that leads to this.
• 21:40
  One doesn't run like. This man, that's why I love.
• 21:42
  I love. You know.
• 21:44
  It's funny, Corey. Corey, you asked that.
• 21:47
  Question, right? You, you, you asked that
• 21:49
  question about how many kids from this team are going on to
• 21:54
  play college baseball. And, and one of the things that
• 21:57
  I always talk to when I talk to my own boys about it is that,
• 22:01
  you know, in 2004 and 2005, when we had, we had our run with the
• 22:06
  Milford and, you know, we did our thing.
• 22:08
  We won our, the state title. We had one kid, one kid in two
• 22:14
  years go to a Division Three school at the time, which was
• 22:18
  NJIT to play college baseball. But to this day, to this day,
• 22:25
  those kids, they're not kids anymore.
• 22:28
  They're freaking 3536 years old. They they still, they still go
• 22:34
  to that, that time in their life as the greatest time.
• 22:40
  And when we talk about like we sit here and we talk about, you
• 22:43
  know, wins and losses and what do you have to do to win the
• 22:46
  game and, you know, what do you think?
• 22:48
  And this and that it it, Frank. It doesn't matter whether you
• 22:51
  guys win or lose tomorrow, like obviously.
• 22:55
  But in the grand scheme. Yeah, yeah.
• 22:57
  And the grand scheme of things to those kids, it does.
• 23:00
  But if they, regardless of the outcome, these kids are going to
• 23:04
  talk about this run for, for the rest of their lives.
• 23:08
  And when you, when you really sit down and talk about what
• 23:11
  high school sports means and, and, and what do we do to these
• 23:15
  kids? And what does this mean?
• 23:17
  Why are sports important to kids?
• 23:19
  What you're doing with these guys right now and what these
• 23:22
  kids are doing, It's this is what it's all about.
• 23:25
  This is what it's all about the, the, the, the, the kid Natoli,
• 23:29
  who you know, I know he's your right fielder and then he comes,
• 23:33
  you need him on the mound in a big spot.
• 23:35
  It's all about the. Man up and now he plays center
• 23:38
  field. It's just, it's unbelievable
• 23:41
  amazing. It's, it's right.
• 23:43
  It's amazing. Frank, how many guys are on your
• 23:46
  bench? How many?
• 23:47
  How many got like how many? Kids.
• 23:48
  Yeah, we got On Your bench 5. We have 15.
• 23:51
  We have 15. We have 15 kids total in the
• 23:54
  program right now, healthy, ready to go.
• 23:58
  Oh my God, I love it. I love it, I love it.
• 24:00
  It is the. Great.
• 24:00
  And and there's no freshman or JV.
• 24:03
  That's amazing. You're not pulling up guys after
• 24:06
  their season ended. I'm I'm sorry I lost you on that
• 24:10
  one. There was a connection.
• 24:11
  No, I said you're not, you're not pulling up guys.
• 24:13
  I I said you're not pulling up guys from the fresh owner JV
• 24:16
  level after their season ended. Like, hey, let me grab six or
• 24:19
  seven of these guys. No, no, no, we did not have that
• 24:23
  opportunity. We did not have that opportunity
• 24:26
  all. Right.
• 24:28
  Wow, it's one of the greatest. It's one of the greatest stories
• 24:30
  in. It's a great, it's a great,
• 24:33
  great, great story, a great story.
• 24:35
  For the game. But Frank, anything else?
• 24:38
  Did we miss anything? Do you want to shout out anybody
• 24:42
  the the floor is yours? Listen, I'm gonna just really do
• 24:46
  this quickly. And and so you have I just want
• 24:50
  to give a little real quick. I'll be fast.
• 24:52
  I want to do a little. Bit on a couple of.
• 24:54
  Kids stay short. Way behind the plate.
• 24:57
  Is the sophomore doing a hell of a job?
• 24:59
  Yeah. I mean, unbelievable.
• 25:00
  Anchoring our staff, doing a great job is the backstop for
• 25:03
  us. Greater Russell.
• 25:05
  You know, you can't say enough about the kids stepping in and
• 25:07
  taking Korea's spot on the mountain playing.
• 25:10
  Unbelievable. First base with all the kids,
• 25:14
  Frank, is that the is that the big kid that you brought in to
• 25:17
  relieve against DuMont? That at the end, yeah.
• 25:20
  At the end, yeah. He had he had sleeve.
• 25:23
  He had the sleeve pulled over his shoulder.
• 25:26
  Yeah, yeah, he got. And he's playing with a torn
• 25:28
  labrum on his opposite shoulder, of course.
• 25:31
  Let me tell you. Something he's a gamer.
• 25:33
  That that kid, he's wearing a harness during the game.
• 25:38
  He's a of course he's out of his mind.
• 25:42
  That kid is out of his mind. He he came in.
• 25:45
  And throws A2 hit shut out against Breeland, Yeah.
• 25:49
  He comes in right, of course. Listen to the story, Corey,
• 25:53
  listen to the story. He comes in like Frank.
• 25:56
  Frank brings him in in in relief, right?
• 25:59
  He brings him in. I think it was the 6th maybe
• 26:03
  against us in in the semi final game and the kid takes the mound
• 26:08
  and he takes his sleeve like now, now he's a left-handed
• 26:11
  pitcher. So he takes his right sleeve and
• 26:14
  he rolls it all the way over his shoulder.
• 26:17
  So you see his shoulder and his bicep, right.
• 26:21
  So I'm up in the press box with, with with carpets and I'm like,
• 26:26
  look at this guy. Look, what's this guy right?
• 26:30
  And he's just pumping. He's just pumping cheese.
• 26:32
  Like he's just throwing, throwing, throwing.
• 26:36
  So my son James is like on deck. There's two outs and he goes,
• 26:41
  Dad, I'm like looking down at him.
• 26:44
  And. He points at me and he points at
• 26:47
  his. Sleeve and he.
• 26:48
  Rolls it up and he shakes his head so he goes he's something
• 26:55
  because dad, this kid is absolutely crazy.
• 26:57
  I'm like, yeah, he is, but he just.
• 27:00
  But you know the point being is like you guys needed like we we
• 27:04
  had a little bit of something going there because the kid you
• 27:07
  had in there started to kind of get a little bit erratic.
• 27:11
  You know, you made the change, you know, and, and this kid
• 27:15
  comes in and you know, he, he hit a couple kids, he walked a
• 27:19
  couple, but. You.
• 27:20
  Could, but you could squeeze. He he wasn't he wasn't letting
• 27:25
  that game slip away from you guys like it was.
• 27:29
  And and I think that's a testament to to your season and
• 27:33
  what you guys are all about. It's like, you know, we talked
• 27:35
  about that to next man up the next man up and he he wasn't
• 27:38
  very sharp. He wasn't sharp, but the kid
• 27:41
  found a way to get it done. And I hope, I really hope you
• 27:45
  guys find a way to get it done against Middlesex and, and bring
• 27:48
  home. A title I I hate Middlesex.
• 27:51
  Go ahead. Frank, come on.
• 27:52
  Why? Why?
• 27:53
  What do you even know about Middlesex?
• 27:54
  What? I don't know.
• 27:55
  I don't know where it is, but I know that they were.
• 27:57
  I don't like what their coaches I don't.
• 27:59
  Like they were matching my band, Frank Clark.
• 28:01
  That's why I don't like and their fans and their fans.
• 28:05
  You know what? I'm a.
• 28:06
  Nice guy. He's he seems like a real nice
• 28:09
  guy and he, he's, you know, real nice guy.
• 28:10
  But he, I'll tell you the one thing is, you know, if there was
• 28:14
  insinuation there that we, you know, that we weren't ready to,
• 28:16
  we weren't there to. Play right, OK, Yeah, OK.
• 28:20
  Yeah, Joe, That's why I hate him.
• 28:22
  Yeah, he was. Passive aggressive oh, there we
• 28:27
  go there we go there we. Go and you know what we're
• 28:30
  we're, you know, I'm believing that anyway, but I was going to
• 28:32
  say if some reason Midland Park, who doesn't win the game, I
• 28:36
  would go back and delete that, but I'm going to delete.
• 28:39
  That no, don't delete it, Frank. Continue, Frank.
• 28:41
  Go ahead. You got more kids.
• 28:43
  You want to talk? About no, no, no.
• 28:44
  So I just be saying it. And then you have the senior
• 28:47
  Connor Short way second, playing great, doing a great job at
• 28:49
  second base. Hits clean up for Ryan Fleming's
• 28:52
  our table. Center is shortstop,
• 28:54
  Unbelievable player, 35 or 36 hits on the season, unbelievable
• 28:58
  as a leadoff hitter. Now we have a new third baseman
• 29:00
  who's been playing as the freshman kid Jane O'Shea, who's
• 29:03
  injured as well. Can't swim, but he can play the
• 29:06
  field. So he's up there.
• 29:08
  He he got hurt as he's a currency running runner for us
• 29:13
  and and hyperextended his left shoulder, his glove, his glove
• 29:16
  arm and he so it was bad and he's fought back through and he
• 29:21
  plays great job, does great job at third base.
• 29:24
  And then our outfield is a totally different outfield from
• 29:26
  when the season started. So we have Natholian center now
• 29:30
  we have a sophomore Kunel and left and the right fielder is
• 29:33
  now Jason Vivino, a junior who had zero career starts before
• 29:39
  the state playoff game against Butler in the first round.
• 29:43
  And the kid is the kid has had at least three or four hits in
• 29:48
  the in the States. He has grinded out from the
• 29:51
  fast. He made an incredible catch in
• 29:54
  the wall Kill Valley game on the run and then doubled the runner
• 29:57
  off second with a great throw because the kid redded the ball
• 30:01
  down. He made the catch, came up
• 30:03
  firing and doubled the kid off second base.
• 30:05
  It was unbelievable. So he's been great.
• 30:07
  So, you know, we have a lot of guys that are contributing and
• 30:12
  you know, every one of them brings something to the game.
• 30:15
  So it's been, it's been a tremendous run and we look to
• 30:17
  cap it off the right way tomorrow.
• 30:19
  And that's why you are where you are.
• 30:21
  That's why you are where you are.
• 30:22
  What time, Frank? What time is your game?
• 30:24
  Tomorrow we're at 1:00. Tomorrow, 1:00. 1:00 Joe, you
• 30:31
  got any sick days left? I, you know, I, I was.
• 30:35
  I'm, I'm just a little bit concerned about the weather and
• 30:38
  you know, you have a 10 do do. The Frank do they have?
• 30:41
  A 10:00 game before. You or no?
• 30:43
  No they don't. We're the 1st.
• 30:44
  Game tomorrow. Great.
• 30:47
  So wait a second, do. They have a curfew in case.
• 30:51
  Yeah, Is it? Is there a time, is there a time
• 30:54
  limit on your game? Like 2 hours and 30 minutes.
• 30:57
  No, no, no, no, no, no. No.
• 30:59
  All right. I'm good.
• 31:00
  Like 3 games schedule. No, Frank, Frank, Frank, you
• 31:04
  know, you're a little bit different than I am.
• 31:06
  And you know, you, you kind of, you know, you, you, you don't
• 31:10
  really ruffle any feathers or, or say anything.
• 31:12
  But I just, I just, I just hope that it's, you know, you get to
• 31:16
  play the game to this conclusion.
• 31:18
  And I'm a little bit confused because Saturday they had a
• 31:21
  10A1A4 and A7 and now you're the first game tomorrow at 1:00.
• 31:26
  So what happened to the 10:00 game?
• 31:28
  What happened to the 10:00 game on Saturday?
• 31:32
  Tennessee game on Saturday, Cherokee beat Westfield 60.
• 31:36
  That's. Right.
• 31:37
  That's right. Cherokee won.
• 31:38
  That's right. OK.
• 31:40
  Yeah. But the wild thing about this
• 31:42
  is, and this was brought up to me yesterday, so they schedule
• 31:46
  1/4 and seven. If you remember the Bosco game,
• 31:49
  the lights are going to go off at a certain time and they're
• 31:51
  not going to be able to turn them back on.
• 31:52
  So what if the games all ran long and the 7:00 game gets
• 31:55
  stuck with that again? You know, so.
• 31:57
  That's not a crazy thing. I hope it.
• 31:59
  Happens. I hope it happens.
• 32:00
  The NJSA deserves nothing. But they deserve it.
• 32:03
  They deserve it. I'm just glad.
• 32:05
  I'm just glad you're playing at 1.
• 32:07
  And you know what, If your game goes 14 innings, you'll finish
• 32:11
  it, it'll come out, you'll be done and let the rest of them
• 32:14
  deal with it the way they have to do to deal with it.
• 32:16
  But you know what, good for you, good for your program.
• 32:20
  You know, good for Midland Park. You know, it's just, it's just a
• 32:25
  good. It's a great for good for high
• 32:27
  school sports. Good, good.
• 32:28
  Go win a championship, not only not only for Midland Park, win a
• 32:32
  championship for Bergen County tomorrow.
• 32:34
  Good luck to to to you and and to your kids and, and what a
• 32:39
  wonderful one run it's been for you guys.
• 32:42
  Yeah. Thank you, guys.
• 32:43
  And then that's the plan. That's the plan.
• 32:45
  I really do thank you for having me on.
• 32:46
  I love being on. And we're looking to bring home
• 32:50
  the title of Burton County tomorrow for everybody.
• 32:53
  Frank. Clark, Midland Park High School
• 32:55
  head coach, baseball. Go get it done, pal.
• 32:58
  And thanks for jumping on here and we're rooting for you.
• 33:00
  We really are. I really appreciate.
• 33:03
  I know you guys generally genuinely are.
• 33:05
  So I I really, really, really appreciate that and you guys are
• 33:08
  wonderful. You mean a lot to me.
• 33:09
  Thank you. Follow the leader.