The last few months are always the busiest for me as I'm on the field, for what seems like 10 hours a day. One of my favorite projects is the work I do with the Chicago White Sox ACE program, which is our inner city baseball project. Ran by Nathan Durst and Dan Puente, the ACE program started as an idea by Nathan, our national crosschecker, and a written proposal to the White Sox front office from myself. The Double Duty Classic celebrates past Negro League all star games that use to be held at Comiskey Park. Through White Sox scouts accross the country, we bring in some of the best minority talent to compete against our Chicago ACE program at US Cellular Field. I coached in this year's game for the third consecutive year and ran the on field workout prior to the game for college and pro scouts. This year's talent was the best we've had in the three years. Alex Santana (Miami, FL), Kris Goodman (Minnesota) and Lance Jeffries (St. Louis) were some of this year's outstanding talent from out of the region. Chicago's Quintin Richardson was named MVP of the game. Richardson, who is uncommitted, is one of the best secrets out there for the 2011 class.
It was a treat for me to coach along side Rafeal Santana. Rafeal is the head of the Chicago White Sox Dominican Academy and was a star shortstop for the New York Mets in the 1980's. That was a time where I followed baseball the closest and Rafeal was considered a premier shortstop, along with Ozzie Smith at that time and won a world championship with the New York Mets in 1986. Being a shortstop myself, I had some great conversation about Rafi's career and enjoyed his stories from my favorite baseball era.
I have never been prouder of being part of the White Sox organization than I was after this event. Watch the 3 minute piece below from MLB.COM and you will see how special this event is for all those involved.
http://mlb.mlb.com/video/play.jsp?content_id=9908691
Recently, I spent a week at the USA Baseball Complex in Cary, NC for the Breakthrough Series, put on by the MLB Scouting Bureau and USA Baseball. In this event, the top minority players in the country take part in a week of instruction and competition in front of scouts. It is one of my favorite events to work. The White Sox took a team made up of all stars from our Double Duty Classic. Coaching with Dan Puente, White Sox scouts Clay Overcash and Kenny Fullman, we had a great time coaching the kids. The last day of the event we changed venues to the Durham Bulls AAA park to play the finals. After winning the championship last year, we were 2-1 this year and took second place. Ty Washington (Texas) and Dustin Houle (Vancouver, Canada) starred for our team. Look for them as big time players on the MLB scale in the future. To note, this was by far the most fun I have ever had working with a staff. Clay, Dan and Kenny were great assistants for me, both in baseball knowledge and comic relief. Below is a link to USA Baseball's recap of Day 1 of the event where we had a big come from behind victory led by Ty Washington.
http://mlb.mlb.com/video/play.jsp?topic_id=9612588
No comments:
Post a Comment