Prep squad

High school athletes evoke true essence of sports

MONTCLAIR, N.J. -- On Saturday night, about 9 o’clock, Montclair High School softball historian/superfan Jim Zarrilli asked me: "Well, Pete, you've been to a lot of sporting events in your life. Does this one rank in the top five?"

"Jim," I said, "this might be in the top one."

Oh no. He's doing it again. He's writing about his daughter's softball team! At the top of the column! Why is he putting us through this again? He just can't help himself when it comes to writing about this personal stuff, can he?

No. He can't.

I wrote about softball at the top of the MMQB column a year ago. Yes, there are a few other things to talk about, such as draft leftovers, and Mike Price and Larry Eustachy, which you can do by scrolling down a bit. But this is my week to chronicle a compelling event in a lot of lives, the big Essex County Softball Tournament quarterfinal match between third-seeded Montclair (12-4), with your favorite southpaw, junior pitcher Mary Beth King, and sixth-seeded Cedar Grove (13-4). This is a rematch of the game I wrote about last year in the aforementioned column, when Mary Beth and her good friend and longtime offseason-pitching-lesson partner Kaitlyn Sweeney of Cedar Grove dueled and Montclair came out with a 2-0 win. Kaitlyn's a great kid. I coached her on a summer team when she was in seventh grade, and our families are friends. I was proud to write her a letter of college recommendation, and she'll be going to Penn State in the fall.

Now for the rematch. I will understand if you scroll down, by the way. But if you stay, I hope at the end of this yarn you can say, "That was worth three minutes of my time."

County tournaments in New Jersey are special, and the one in our county, a few miles west of the Meadowlands, seems particularly intense. Many of the girls grow up playing softball against the same towns in travel leagues and higher-profile summer ball. Last Monday, for instance, Montclair beat Belleville 2-1, and Mary Beth pitched. She's been playing against Belleville since fifth grade and pitching against Belleville since sixth grade, and she'd never been on a winning side against any of the Belleville teams. This wasn't a county tournament game, but after years of playing the same kids, all these games against local foes become a big deal.

Anyway, these games draw 200 or 300 people minimum, and my guess is that Saturday afternoon's contest at Montclair's field drew about 400. These county neighbors are two excruciatingly evenly matched teams. Both play low-scoring games, boast good infield defense and try to make their limited hits count. I was expecting a 2-1 game, or even 1-0. On the mound for Cedar Grove was its all-time winningest pitcher, Sweeney, who is tall and angular, technically perfect and first-team all-county. It also had the returning all-state shortstop, Holly Calcagno, who is the best hitter Mary Beth has ever faced. Calcagno is headed to UConn on athletic scholarship. We have the all-county catcher, Jess Sarfati, who’s headed to play at Bates, and a Jeteresque shortstop, Kaitlin Giannetti, who is headed to play soccer at Johns Hopkins. And Mary Beth, who entered the game 6-2 with a 0.79 ERA. She's a gritty kid. The rest of the team plays pretty sound behind her and she doesn't let the dam burst.

Cedar Grove in black and gold, on the first-base bench behind the clamshell backstop. Montclair in white tops and blue shorts. The noise started from both benches at 4 p.m., and I don't remember it stopping until it was near sundown.

Calcagno led off, and Mary Beth went fastball-change to start her 0-2. But on a 2-2 pitch, Calcagno hit a bomb 15 feet over our left-fielder's head. Julie Vreeland went back and almost got it, but it ticked off her webbing. Triple. "I threw a riser that just didn't rise," Mary Beth reported later. Calcagno hopped on the third-base bag four times, clapping her hands hard. Our infield played in to cut the run off (one run is everything in this game), and their second hitter blooped a humpback infield pop that landed almost on second base. Euphoria for the Panthers. The game was three minutes old and they had the golden run. Mary Beth finished the inning strikeout-strikeout-popout, but after a half-inning, Mary Beth thought, "We might be in trouble." Giannetti took care of that. Leading off the Montclair first, she lined a screamer up the left-center-field gap. It got by their left fielder, and she sprinted around the bases. Homer. Wow. Two leadoff batters. Two runs.

Amazing how symmetrical this game became. No runner reached third over the next five innings. Sweeney has an outside sinker that baffles righty hitters, including Mary Beth, who entered the game 18-for-39 at the plate but went strikeout-single-strikeout in her first three times up. "Kaitlyn is incredible," Mary Beth said at dinner that night. "She's the best pitcher I face."

In the seventh, doom for the home team. With one out, a Cedar Grove batter reached on an infield miscue. The Panthers followed with a cue shot over the second baseman's head and an infield single. Cedar Grove, 2-1. Fifteen kids on their sideline broke the high-jump record when the go-ahead run crossed home plate. Now, with two out and a runner on second, Calcagno came up. Walk her, I'm thinking. WALK HER! Our coach, Tricia Palmieri, has instilled something in our kids about the other team never, ever, ever being better. "I don't care who it is," she said later. "We're going right after her." Calcagno was triple-popout-single to that point. Mary Beth had her 2-2. PING! Sharp one-hopper to Giannetti, throw to first, inning over.

Bottom of the seventh. Game and county pride on the line. Walk, sacrifice. One out. Margot Vreeland, our senior right fielder and resident pepperpot, then lined a sinking shot to center. Their centerfielder went for the shoestring catch (our runner was holding), and the ball managed to get past her. Euphoriaville!

Softball's a seven-inning game, so now it's extra innings. In this sport, it's not unusual for pitchers to throw into extra innings. And in this game, no reliever ever warmed up. I don't buy the claim that kids can throw unlimited innings, and neither does Mary Beth's orthopedist, who has treated her for a broken pitching elbow and rotator cuff tendinitis. But neither coach thought of removing these girls, and I think they would have had black eyes if they tried.

Scoreless eighth. In the ninth, Mary Beth got into the jam of all jams. She hit a batter ("No I didn't; it hit her bat," she said later, but the ump's vote was the only one that counted), and then walked her first batter of the game. Then, a perfectly placed bunt. Bases loaded, no outs. Tension on the Mounties’ side. Glee on Cedar Grove's, whose players could smell their biggest win of the year. Next batter: Pitcher's best friend, a little pop to the first baseman. Next batter: Hard ground ball eight feet to first baseman Jess Giammella's right. She dove, speared the ball and, from her knees, sidearmed a throw home, where Sarfati waited with her right foot on the plate for the force. The ball was low and way outside. Sarf stretched, and stretched, and here came the go-ahead run, and Sarf scooped a one-hopper out of the dirt, almost doing a balance-beam split with two fibers of her right cleat touching the black of home plate. Time stopped. The ump went around to the side, stared at the foot, looked for the ball … AND RUNG HER UP! "OUTTTTTTT!"

You think it's over? It ain't over. Now for Calcagno. No place to put her. Strike, outside corner. Ball, high. "Every pitch I throw now is a screwball," said Mary Beth, who just wants every ball to tail away from our county's Dot Richardson. Next pitch: PING! Another hard grounder to short. Giannetti guns her down at first. We're out of it. Massive hugs on the Montclair side. The Cedar Grove coach, Rob Stern, looks up at the sky as if to ask, "Hey God, you couldn't just give me one hit from the best hitter in New Jersey? C'mon!"

Sweeney was rolling. She had a 1-2-3 ninth. Mary Beth and Kaitlyn posted 1-2-3 10ths, and Mary Beth had officially pitched longer than in any other game in her life. In the 11th, Cedar Grove had a runner on second with one out, and our frosh second-baseman, Courtney Taylor, grabbed a looper at the second-base bag and touched second for the double play. We went to the 12th. Uh oh. Cedar Grove, with one out, picked up an infield single, followed by its second walk of the game, and a bunt single. Jammed again. No mas! No mas! We can't take it anymore. Mary Beth had their third hitter 1-2. Sarf set up outside. Mary Beth painted the black. Called strike three. Next kid: Jammed inside on the first pitch. Pop to left.

I mean, does Mary Beth have nine lives or what?

We got 'em 1-2-3 again in the 12th. Thirteen innings now. Thirteen. That's two games. Mary Beth was at 166 pitches. Lucky for her it was a three-batter inning.

Bottom 13. One out. Mary Beth (1-5, 2 Ks to this point) up. Sweeney was on fire. She'd retired 14 in a row with that nasty outside sinker.

"There was no way I could go out there and pitch any more," Mary Beth said later. "My arm was dead."

"Really?" I asked. "Would you have gone out again?"

"Of course," she said. "What choice did I have?"

So she started thinking about her at-bat. "Every time up, I'd taken the first strike," she said. "Kaitlyn's smart. She must have caught on, because every first or second pitch was a perfect strike, the kind of strike where you're watching the game and you say: 'I can't believe she didn't swing at that pitch!' So I figured, I'm swinging at the first pitch, wherever it is."

It was right over the heart of the plate.

PING!

Up the right-center-field gap, splitting the outfielders. Mary Beth steamed into third. Standup triple.

Well, the bleachers shook and our bench exploded. Mary Beth just stood on third. A little pumped, but basically just catching her breath. I have often wondered this about her: Where does the cool come from? The reserve? Wherever it comes from, I'd like to patent it.

Now Meg Mylan, our third baseman and third hitter, stood in. Infield in. Kaitlyn threw, and Meg popped one just beyond the baseline between second and first. Their fielders sprinted for it. It kerplunked into the clay. Mary Beth steamed home.

Ballgame. Montclair, 3-2.

Two Cedar Grove gloves slammed to the ground. The Montclair side sounded like a jet engine. Mary Beth made a beeline for Meg and leaped into her arms. "YOU THE MAN!" she yelled. Then the Montclair team caught up to the two heroines and pummeled them.

Two teams. Two pitchers. Three hours. Four hundred hoarse voices. One incredible bang-bang force out at home.

One hundred batters. Dead even after 98. The 99th got a pitch six inches more to her liking than before. Six inches. The 100th locates a blooper perfectly. And that is how drama unfolds.

There is nothing like high school sports. Anywhere. Boys, girls, it doesn't matter. They play with the same ferocity. The joy for the winners is the same. The tears for the losers are as wet. You can't simulate these experiences as kids get ready to go out into the world. You think Kaitlyn Sweeney's going to be afraid the night before a big final at Penn State next year? She'll laugh at being afraid. She'll prepare the same way she prepared to be a great pitcher, and she'll win the test.

Fifteen minutes after the game, Mary Beth was pulling off her cleats. A Bazooka comic fell out of her shoe. "Here, coach," she said, handing Palmieri the comic. Seems that before the game, the coach had opened a piece of gum, liked what the fortune said, and told Mary Beth to hang onto it. After the game, Palmieri was hanging onto the comic, her souvenir for the day. In exchange, she handed Mary Beth the game ball.

The fortune read: "The ones who prepare are the lucky ones."

And that is my softball story for the year.

"The greatest role models are people who bounce back from mistakes."
—NBC Arena Football League analyst Michael Irvin, who said Sunday he didn't think Alabama coach Mike Price should have been fired for visiting a strip club

Postscript: In 1991, I was n Dallas to write about the Cowboys for Sports Illustrated. I had an interview scheduled with Irvin at the Cowboys' complex. Irvin said: "We're not doing it here. We're gonna do it at my office. Follow me in your car." I followed Irvin and Alfredo Roberts, a Cowboys tight end. We ended up near downtown in the parking lot of a strip club. We entered the strip club. Irvin sat down on a couch. I sat across from him. The music was loud. Girls came over to Irvin. He said to me: "Go ahead. Ask your questions!" He was laughing, but he meant it. So for the next 45 minutes, he gave me a great interview about the Cowboys rising from the ashes. Irvin, by the way, was not fired for going to the strip club.

MMQB: How do you feel about the Bills drafting running back Willis McGahee now, a few days after you said the selection felt like a slap in the face?

Henry: After talking to the coaches, I have a better understanding of why they made that pick. I definitely feel a whole lot better about it now.

Translation: The coaches have brainwashed Henry into thinking he'll be the man in 2004 and beyond. That's what coaches have to do sometimes.

MMQB: Do you think your fumbling had anything to do with the selection?

Henry: I don't believe that my fumbling the ball last season had anything to do with the selection.

Translation: Of course it didn't. By the way, I look like Brad Pitt, write like Frank Deford, do TV like Walter Cronkite and once hit four home runs in a game off Randy Johnson.

MMQB: Do you think that your team's decision to draft a running back so high diminishes what you did last year?

Henry: Drafting [McGahee] is only going to make this team better. I can't wait for him to arrive so we can get to know each other and just make each other better.

Translation: I seem to remember Joe Montana saying after the 49ers traded for Steve Young: "I can't wait to go out for milk and cookies with Steve. He's going to be my new best friend. We're going to make each other better, and I've heard the NFL is going to pass a rule this year legalizing two starting quarterbacks in the game at once. So this is such a great decision by my trusted mentor, Coach Bill Walsh.

Reminds me of the attorney who once represented Barry Switzer, Jerry Jones and Larry Lacewell of the Cowboys, Larry Derryberry. They once dined together. At the table: Barry, Jerry, Larry and Larry Derryberry.

Imagine if the late Harry Caray had ever encountered the Cowboys Four. I can just see Jerry Jones standing up, holding out his right hand to the announcer, and saying: "Harry Caray! Jerry Jones. How are you? Let me introduce everyone. This is Barry. Barry, Harry Caray. This is Larry. Larry, Harry Caray. And this is Larry Derryberry. Larry, Harry Caray."

SHED NO TEARS FOR TRAVIS HENRY. From Jim McDonough of St. Louis: "I don't have anything for or against the Buffalo Bills or Travis Henry. However, in this stat-happy world, it's easy to spit out numbers and imply somebody isn't being treated fairly. Henry is being well-compensated and if he is unhappy, he shouldn't have signed his contract. As in the case of Bill Self, he should abide to the terms of his contract. I doubt there are any clauses in his contract stating that the Bills cannot use high draft choices on running backs if he put up a certain number of yards in a season. I'm sure that the Bills' management team probably knows more about football than you or I will ever know. I'm also sure they are trying to make decisions to the best of their ability and trying to do what is best for their organization. I'm from St. Louis and it's hard to picture Marshall Faulk having his feelings hurt if the Rams drafted a running back in the first round. I think he would say, 'Bring it on and let's see who's best.'"

Jim, if the Rams were excellent on offense but 27th in points allowed last year (the Bills' profile), and they took a running back instead of defensive help with the 12th pick in the draft, would you like the selection?

DID THE PATS OUTSMART THEMSELVES? From Keith Tom of Irvine, Calif.: "I have to give Bill Belichick the benefit of the doubt as far as the specific players the Patriots picked, but I don't like the overall maneuverings. Specifically, they traded up from 41 to 36 and then 50 to 45 with a net loss of a third-round pick. I would have sat tight at 41. If cornerback Eugene Wilson wasn't available at 41 then they could have picked Bethel Johnson at 41, not much different from 45. And they would still have No. 50 and No. 75 to get a corner or any other 'value' pick."

You could be right. But Wilson was one of six players in their mix at No. 19, along with players such as Boss Bailey. When all these guys started coming off the board, the Patriots had a choice: They could risk losing a player they valued as mid-first-rounder, or they could sacrifice one of the nine picks they had left in the draft to make sure they got a guy they really wanted. As Jimmy Johnson told Belichick -- the two had an early-April meeting to talk draft strategy in Florida on Jimmy’s boat, which I wrote about at the time -- you shouldn't worry about dumping a pick if it ensures you get to take a guy you really want. And they really wanted Wilson.

OUR HEARTS DON'T BLEED FOR CHRIS SIMMS, KING … From Kurt Walter of Westlake Village, Calif.: "Enough on Chris Simms. Major Applewhite was a more dependable college quarterback. Simms had the job given to him and Applewhite had to bail his butt out numerous times. Simms was a turnover machine in big college games. His talented Texas squads were nearly always favorites. Yet Simms found a way to screw up in the pressure cooker. I think we get all the talk on Chris Simms because his dad in an ex-Giant. It seems the East Coast media can't get enough of Simms. Here on the West Coast, I just don't see what all the fuss is about. Production is all that matters. Potential is a coach killer."

Lots of NFL scouts agree with you, Kurt.

… SO STOP DEFENDING HIM. From William Logan of Prince Frederick, Md.: "Peter, Peter. Who cares about the Simms family? I'm sure you eat dinner with them regularly, so you're obviously crushed. But besides that, why should I care about a filthy-rich family and their little boy any more than say, a dirt-poor family and theirs? It is becoming apparent you know nothing about college football. Zero. You simply watch a few game tapes with some of your general manager buddies and inhale all the hot air they feed you. Your insights are hardly that at all, and you have a thing for underachieving white quarterbacks. And oh, the pain of being drafted in the third round. He's lucky the NFL is still in the market for big, white quarterbacks who haven't accomplished anything on the field. You just lost a reader."

So I guess you don't want a Phil Simms autographed bobblehead as your reward for getting a letter published here?

NEVER DOUBT THE REACH OF THE CLEVELAND BROWNS. From John Salminen of Jakarta, Indonesia: "I love your column and news items. In my 20-plus years as an educator overseas (I am a high school band director), I have been following you ever since I was able to get a modem and a computer. But I was puzzled by your comment that Cleveland had two picks and 463 needs, and got Jeff Faine and Chaun Thompson. Was this cynicism?"

Wow! The Browns' faithful are everywhere. John, what kind of Dawg Pound is there in Indonesia? The answer to your question is: Yes. I believe they could have done much better to improve their speed on defense and their lack of depth on the front seven. Remember how they rid themselves of their starting linebacking corps after the season? To me, Boss Bailey would have looked pretty nice in Cleveland.

1. I think my feelings for Trent Dilfer and his family can be summed up in this -- one of several eloquent letters I received this week on the subject -- fine piece of writing from Kyle Dodd of Birmingham, Ala.: "Although I'm a huge NFL fan and an ardent admirer of your writing, my comment is not related to football. I just read that 5-year-old Trevin Dilfer, son of Seattle's Trent, passed away due to heart disease. I'm a father of a 2-year-old boy, and I know that you're a father as well, so I'm sure you'll understand when I say that the English vernacular cannot even begin to describe how sorry I am for his terrible loss. I'm not at all a Seahawks fan, but from this day forward, and until the day he hangs up his cleats, I'm a Trent Dilfer fan. If you ever have occasion to see or speak to him in the course of your work, please express, as only another father can, how deeply, deeply sorry I am for his loss. Thank you." Great job, Kyle. Dilfer is one of the really good guys in football. I have tremendous respect for him as a person. I can only imagine the pain he's going through, and I echo everything you just said. You don't gameplan for times such as these.

2. I think Larry Eustachy deserves to get fired.

3. I think Mike Price doesn't.

4. I think here's where I draw the line: Larry Eustachy was in charge of at least 12 Iowa State student-athletes, and probably a few more students and school employees, when he went on the road with his basketball team. On several occasions, apparently, Eustachy left his charges and went on one-night benders. There is evidence that while on said benders he tried to make time with college girls, though he was double their age. Let's say I'm a parent, and I have a good basketball player for a son, and Eustachy comes into my living room and asks my son to spend the next four years at Iowa State under his stewardship. I might trust Eustachy to be telling me the truth. But what happens if he falls off the wagon and starts up the road-trip follies again? Bottom line: I am not entrusting my son to a man I barely know who tells me he's a recovering alcoholic and he won't fool around on the road anymore. Sorry. Now, as for Price, here is his big offense: He went to a strip club and apparently picked up a dancer there. This would be a stupid thing for most married head football coaches to do, but it's especially idiotic in Alabama because of how offensive it is to so many religious people (or simply moral ones) around the region. But let me tell you a secret. Lots of married men go to strip clubs, and they go to work the next morning, and they go on with their lives. It is not illegal for a married man to enter a strip club. Alabama fired a man for entering a legal business establishment, then hiring (and apparently doing little else) a woman to keep him company. I wish I could give every married Division I basketball and football coach sodium pentathol right now and ask him two questions: Since you've been married, have you ever entered a strip club? And since you've been married, have you ever paid a woman for company? My guess is that 50 percent would answer the first question with a yes, and 20 percent yes on the second. Neither is a fireable offense, in my opinion.

5. I think these are my personal thoughts of the week:

a. Good luck at Yale, Sarah Hughes. Well-rounded people of the world everywhere are rooting for you.

b. Why is everyone making such a big deal of the World Series home-field advantage being tied to the All-Star Game? I love baseball's Midsummer Classic. It's the best of the professional all-star games. But I don't love it when it's treated as even more of an exhibition than an actual exhibition game, as it was last year. I like the fact that now players are going to be playing for something, and that we'll probably see the starters longer.

c. Coffeenerdness: My dark roast recommendation of the week comes from the Circle K stores at the rest stops on the Mass Pike. A 16-ounce cup of dark roast, extremely good dark roast, is $1.14.

d. I know few of you give a whit about the New Jersey Devils, but defenseman and captain Scott Stevens is one of the toughest hombres this side of Dodge City. Last Monday, Stevens took a slapshot in the side of the head and ended up with a wound that required nearly 20 stitches to close. He spent the next two nights in the hospital. He played again 47 hours after getting hit. Vince Lombardi would bow down to this guy.

e. Just wondering, Six Feet Under-makers: Is this still a show about a family running a funeral parlor? I forget.

6. I think I love the new Green Monster seats atop the left-field wall at Fenway Park. I sat in them with daughter Laura for four innings Sunday while at the game with WEEI buddy Dale Arnold and his 13-year-old daughter, Alysha, who had the best line of all: "It's like seeing a new ballpark," she said. Absolutely right. I've never seen the view from behind the left fielder's shoulder, and it's a totally new perspective on a ballpark that I've been visiting for 40 years. When Laura and I went back into the stands after our turn out there, people who saw that we'd been there looked at us longingly and said things such as: "What's it like up there? How's the view? How'd you get those tickets?" The seats are sold out for the season. If I could give the Red Sox one piece of advice (other than please trade for Billy Wagner), it would be this: Build more Monster seats.

7. I think, and I hate to be a wet Jets blanket, that this is what Mike Starr, a Kentucky writer who follows Wildcats football, wrote about the first draft pick of the Jets last week: "I have discounted multiple personalities, alternate universes and identity theft. Nope, of all the explanations, this is the most logical: There are two Dewayne Robertsons. The 'old' Dewayne Robertson was a good, occasionally, but never consistently great defensive tackle for the Kentucky Wildcats. A player whose UK career yielded no higher honor than last season's second-team All-SEC designation. The 'new' Dewayne Robertson --- the one that the NFL hype machine kept pumping and pumping and pumping in the weeks leading up to the pro football draft -- has morphed into a superhuman. Or, at the least, a clone of Tampa Bay Buccaneers superstar Warren Sapp." The Jets traded two first-round picks and a fourth-rounder to move up to take Robertson, who played two-thirds of the plays last year for Kentucky and had 5 1/2 sacks. When Robertson showed up at Jets camp for a weekend minicamp, beat man Dave Hutchinson from the (Newark) Star-Ledger reported that he "has energized the entire organization. Front office personnel, coaches, scouts and veteran players were wearing ear-to-ear smiles. Coach Herman Edwards was absolutely giddy. … "

8. I think I have no idea whether Robertson will succeed. He looks as if he’s an excellent prospect. Maybe there's nothing the Jets can do about this. Maybe the New York hypesters would do this anyway. But the draft road is strewn with The Next Warren Sapps who became The Next Kenneth Sims. Sheesh, settle down about the poor kid already.

9. I think, after talking to Houston GM Charley Casserly last week, it's simple to figure out why he picked Drew Henson in the sixth round. Casserly is smart. He now knows that for the next 11 1/2 months that if anyone wants Henson -- maybe a one-in-five chance if Henson keeps playing this lousy in Class AAA -- they'll have to come through the Texans. And in the unlikely event Henson decides to return to football after this baseball season, the Texans would be able to deal him, easily, for a first-rounder in next year's rich draft.

10. I think it sounds as if Brett Favre's going to give the Pack at least two more years, doesn't it?

Sports Illustrated senior writer Peter King covers the NFL beat for the magazine and is a regular contributor to SI.com. Monday Morning Quarterback appears in this space every week. Click here to send him a comment.

 

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