Courtesy of the Niagara Gazette
By Doug Smith
A chance encounter in the rain gave Base Paths a peak into the heart of Purple Eagle baseball, Niagara University’s under-appreciated stepchild.
Under the eaves of the pressbox at Cornell University’s Hoy Field, he figured out that his fellow refugees were Californians. “What, don’t we have local accents?” the woman said. “I heard you discussing plane reservations,” he replied. “I’m from Los Angeles and he’s from San Diego,” she said, indicating the athletic-looking gentleman.
“San Diego?” BP responded. “Gee, I know a kid just signed with the Padres, Wynton Bernard.”
“You know Wynton Bernard?” the gentleman said. “He stays with me sometimes. I’m his hitting coach.”
He was ex-Major Leaguer Phil Plantier, Padre hitting coach, watching son Ryan play for the Big Red en route to Opening Day in New York,.
He asked about NU Coach Rob McCoy, whose team had just swept Manhattan. “Is he a happy kind of guy who loves the game?”
“Hard to love the game when it treated you as poorly as it did the last two years,” BP told him, detailing late-season heartbreak. “But through it all, yes, he is.”
“You can tell it with Wynton, how much joy he takes out of the game and what a good attitude he brings. He’s had good coaching in school.” He talked about how defensive “emotions” had devastated Cornell in Yale’s five-run first (four unearned).
Then the game, 5-5 after one, settled down, Cornell won 8-5 with Plantier going 1-3, and Dad was off to CitiField, packing a freshly-minted high opinion of baseball on Monteagle Ridge.
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