Manhattan College Captures MAAC Championship

By Howard Goldin

BRONX, NEW YORK, June 4- In the early weeks of the 2012 college baseball season, few Manhattan College rooters would have expected their favorites to be facing the two-time defending NCAA champions, South Carolina, in the first game of the NCAA playoffs on June 1st.

During the off-season, Kevin Leighton, the coach who headed a resurgence of the Jaspers during the past half-dozen years left the college to accept the vacant head coaching position crosstown at Fordham University. He was succeeded at Manhattan by Jim Duffy. Duffy, a standout player at Seton Hall, served as an assistant baseball coach at his alma mater for seven years.

The year started very disappointingly for Duffy and his players as the Jaspers only won one of the first 15 games they played. At that point, things changed. Manhattan won 32 of the remaining 43 contests to capture the MAAC regular season title, the MACC Championship Tournament and enter the NCAA Tournament with a 33-25 mark. 

Duffy explained the change, “We just worked really hard, strung together some wins and battled back and figured out what worked.”

Manhattan’s 18-6 record in the MAAC earned it the regular season title for the fourth time in the last five years, missing it only in 2010. The Jaspers were victorious in the conference championship for the second straight year. The only other conference title won by Manhattan was in 2006.

The team was exceptionally comfortable in its own home field, a public park, Van Cortland Park, as it was the only Division I club to go undefeated at home, 18-0, during the 2012 season.

Manhattan dropped its first game in the double elimination MAAC championship, which took place in Troy, New York.  The Jaspers then relied on their submarining righty Taylor Sewitt to go all the way to the title.

The senior from Highland Mills, New York won each of Manhattan’s final three contests. He began by hurling a nine-inning shutout. On the following day, he pitched the last two innings without surrendering a run and earned the win after the jaspers came from behind. In the final game he won with an 11 inning relief appearance victory over Canisius. His tournament mark was 22 innings of scoreless pitching during which he threw 296 pitches. His efforts earned him the award as Louisville Slugger National Player of the Week.

Manhattan’s reward for winning the MAAC title was a trip to Columbia, South Carolina for the first round of the National Tourney. In the opening contest, the Jaspers were scheduled to meet the two-time defending national champion University of South Carolina Gamecocks.

Sewitt, Manhattan’s starter, entered the game with a scoreless streak of 33.2 innings. Sewitt and South Carolina starter Colby Holmes hooked up in a sterling pitching duel in which neither hurler gave up a hit or a run in the first five innings.

Sewitt’s scoreless streak ended at 39.1 innings Adam Matthews doubled in two of the gamecocks with two out in the sixth. Two more scored in the inning to put South Carolina ahead, 4-0.

Joe Rock of Manhattan singled to left with two out in the eighth. The hit was the first given up by Holmes. The winning pitcher left the game after the eighth having surrendered only one hit and one hit batsman while fanning nine.

Manhattan relievers gave up three runs in the eighth to conclude a 7-0 victory for South Carolina.

The next opportunity for the Jaspers in the double elimination tourney was a Saturday contest against Coastal Carolina. The game was tightly contested during the first five innings as the score stood 1-1.

The Carolina tide covered Manhattan as the Chanticleers scored 10 runs during the next three innings to end the season for the Jaspers.

Although the Jaspers lost both games at the NCAA in South Carolina, Duffy and his players can savor the pride of a MAAC regular season and tournament title and the opportunity to represent the Bronx on the national collegiate baseball stage.

Pharmacy Burglarized

PHARMACY BURGLAR: Cops are asking for the public’s help in trying to catch a man who broke into a Riverdale pharmacy. Surveillance video shows the suspect breaking into the Hudson Parkway Pharmacy at around 3:30 a.m. on May 31.

Anyone with information is urged to call CRIMESTOPPERS at (800) 577-TIPS. All calls are confidential..

Finally for Mets Fans

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Santana no-hitter one of those good moments for a Mets fan

By Rich Mancuso

BRONX, NEW YORK, June 3- There I was, night off from the ballpark, listening and watching my favorite alternative rock band “Weezer” in Atlantic City New Jersey in the Bogata Hotel showroom. It was planned, the birthday gift from three weeks ago. What wasn’t in the plan was Johan Santana throwing a no-hitter at Citi Field on the first day of June.

A Friday evening at Citi Field where, I would usually be situated, upstairs in my perch in the comfortable press box, but the first no-no in New York Mets history, 50-years of futility and I was not there to see it.

Yes, frustration. And moments after Mets SNY Television voice Gary Cohen said after being questioned, ‘did he ever think it would happen, his response, ‘No, but now it has’ Weezer would finish their last number.

That number, “Say it Ain’t So.”

But it is true. After 8,020 games, Mets radio voice Howie Rose, and fans of the second baseball team in New York, can now say, the New York Mets have made baseball history. They are no longer one of two teams to not have a pitcher throw the illustrious no-hitter.

It is so, and the San Diego Padres have that lone distinction.

Mike Baxter, the kid from Queens, crashed into the center field wall on the warning track to keep the suspense going. The Carlos Beltran ball that hit the chalk beyond third base appeared to be an extra base hit. The umpire, according to replays may have got it wrong.

To Mets’ fans, and to Santana, the call went their way. The no-hitter is in the record books and well deserved for a pitcher who many said was finished.

It was back in late March. Santana was not supposed to come north with the team at the end of spring training. The comeback from shoulder surgery, which shut Santana down all last year, was slow and cautious. However, it was soon, according to Santana, working according to the plan.

That plan, which was heard since his opening day start in early April, was continue to make adjustments as this Mets team had trouble scoring runs, but staying competitive. Then the last three starts you sensed the plan was ahead of schedule.

Santana was throwing more pitches, going deeper into games. The change up was effective, so was the slider. The fastball was getting close to his velocity, clocked close to 90, or more.

The manager, Terry Collins was more concerned about the pitch count. Last Saturday, at Citi field, Santana threw 94 pitches, the complete game shutout over the San Diego Padres. Collins let him continue, as he did Friday night with a career high 134 pitches, concerned about the shoulder.

After that sixth inning, Collins asked Santana, “How do you feel?” The ace, who said afterwards, he came to New York “to win a championship for the organization and fans,” told his manager, ‘I feel good, let me continue.’

It was a momentous occasion for a franchise that has been troubled with financial issues .And nothing has seemed to go right since that last game of 2006, when Beltran struck out with runners on base, at Shea Stadium, in game seven of the National League Championship Series. 

That was against the same St. Louis Cardinals who go in the record book as victims of the Santana no-hitter.

It was the first and real significant moment at Citi Field for Mets baseball. Santana erased the close calls of Tom Seaver, the last Mets pitcher to take a no-hitter into the ninth inning. The first one, of three close calls, a perfect game broke up by Jimmy Qualls of the Chicago Cubs in 1969.

It will be remembered what Johan Santana did Friday night. The umpire, Adrian Johnson, at third base, may have missed that Beltran call in the sixth inning. But that does not matter now. Johan Santana may have put the New York Mets back on the map with that outing on the mound at Citi Field.

Just hope “Weezer” does not get in the way again for another possible and maybe another no-hitter in New York Mets baseball history, or perhaps another first, a perfect game as they go into game number 8,021.

E-mail Rich Mancuso:  Ring786@aol.com

Mother Remembers Fallen Son

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By Michael Horowitz

BRONX, NEW YORK, June 1- Emily Toro, the mother of a fallen hero in the second Iraq war, was on hand, Sunday, to add poignancy to Co-op City's Memorial Day observance at the Veterans' Memorial Park on Bartow Avenue.

Among the local dignitaries joining Sunday's local observance of Memorial Day were Rep. Eliot Engel, Assemblyman Michael Benedetto, and Community Board 10 District Manager Kenneth Kearns.

Toro, who became as Gold Star Mother after her son, Private Isaac Cortes, was killed in Iraq in 2007, said that she really did not understand the importance of taking time out to observe Memorial Day until her son was killed at the age of 26.

Toro, commenting after Sunday's observance, said that her son, who grew up in Parkchester, was killed as a soldier in the Army's 110^th Mountain Division.

“My son, who had worked as a security guard at Yankee Stadium, saw joining the Army as his path to joining the New York Police Department,” Toro noted.

Along the way, Toro pointed out, the Army nurtured a sense of patriotism in her son that burned deeply within him at the time he was killed.

Lirio, for his part, said, after Sunday's Memorial Day observance, that he is extremely proud of his daughter, Capt. Jasmin Lirio, 29, a career military officer who previously served in the second Iraq as a platoon commander.

In his remarks at Sunday's local observance of Memorial Day, Assemblyman Benedetto stressed that those who have served in the military throughout the nation's history deserve special praise for answering the call of duty without asking questions about their missions.

Benedetto said that most Americans do not fully appreciate the way those in the military have sacrificed their youth, the healthy bodies, and even their lives to keep American free.

Rep. Engel, for his part, stressed that too few Americans take time out to reflect, even on Memorial Day, on the sacrifices that those in the military have made to maintain the freedoms that Americans enjoy.  

Third Time’s Not the Charm

Third Time’s Not the Charm for Check Cashing Chump

By Dan Gesslein

BRONX, NEW YORK, June 1- Guess he thought the third time would be the charm in trying to rob an East Tremont check cashing place. However, cops say the crook struck out all three times at the same store.

According to investigators the same man tried to rob the same Pay-O-Matic check cashing place at 890 East Tremont Avenue three separate times in the same day. The first attempted robbery occurred at 12:45 a..m. on May 30. The man, whose image was captured on surveillance video, walked into the check cashing place and demanded money. The suspect was unable to complete the robbery and fled.

Then about 10 hours later the same man tried to rob the site. Once again the would be robber left empty handed. Then again that night the suspect walked into the same Pay-O-Matic and again demanded cash and again left empty handed. 

The only thing cops say the robber was successful in was that he got a clear image of his face caught on surveillance video. Now investigators are asking for the public’s help to catch this robber.

The suspect is described as a black male, 6 foot 1 to 6 foot 2. He weighs between 175 and 180 pounds. He was wearing a black

du-rag, black shirt and black pants. 

Anyone with information is urged to call CRIMESTOPPERS at (800) 577-TIPS. The public can also summit tips by logging onto the Crime Stoppers website at WWW.NYPDCRIMESTOPPERS.COM or by texting their tips to 274637 (CRIMES) then enter TIP577.

All calls are strictly confidential.

Cops Seek Chokehold Crook

By Dan Gesslein

BRONX, NEW YORK, May 30- Cops are asking for the public’s help to catch a mugger who attacked a woman with a violent choke hold.

Police released a surveillance video inside a building on Monroe Avenue which recorded the crime. In the video the man is seen putting the 54-year-old woman in choke hold and throwing her to the ground. He then grabs the victim’s purse and runs off. The attack occurred at around 10:40 a.m. on May 19. 

The mugger is described as a black male with braided hair wearing eyeglasses. 

Anyone with information is urged to call CRIMESTOPPERS at (800) 577-TIPS. All calls are confidential.

13th Congressional Race Update

100 PERCENT

By Robert Press

Bronx Politics

BRONX, NEW YORK, May 29- Congressman Charlie Rangel and current State Senator Adriano Espaillat were in the Bronx Week parade, as the parade route went right through the new 13th Congressional District where both are candidates. However we sat down with another candidate in the race Mr. Clyde Williams. 

Mr. Williams’ concerns are that the district needs have not been met by Congressman Rangel, and that the other candidates lacks the experience to know how Washington works. High unemployment, lack of jobs, poor public education, lack of accountability, and high oil prices are just a few of Mr. Williams concerns. He said that Congressman Rangel has done good work in the past, but that is in the past and this is the present. Tourism is a key to new jobs, and Mr. Williams wants tourists to spend a few days rather than a few hours in the 13th C.D. and the Bronx. New Hotels, Restaurants, and other tourist spots can produce 5,000 new jobs Mr. Williams says.

The disparities in health care and education are enormous, and need to be fixed Mr. Williams said. His experience in working for both Presidents Clinton and Obama will help him achieve his goals of fixing the district. I asked if Mr. Williams was positioning himself for another shot in 2014 or a special election and Clyde Williams said that he is in it to win it. While Mr. Williams is from Harlem he thinks that the key to winning the race are the 200,000 Bronx voters that were placed in the new district. Mr. Ephraim Cruz of “Bronx For Change,” Mr. Ricky Martinez Chairman of “The Committee of 100 Democrats,” and many other Bronxites who have come up with the “Bronx For Clyde” campaign. You can go to my blog archive 13th Congressional District to see more on candidate Clyde Williams and photos of him with two members of his Bronx campaign staff.

Ms. Joyce Johnson (who ran against Congressman Rangel in 2010) is another candidate in the 13th C.D. Race, and in an interview on NY1's “Inside City Hall” she said that “nothing has changed.” “Congress is broken in Washington and in the 13th C.D. Congressman Rangel won the 2010 Democratic primary with 53 percent of the vote against five challengers. This year there are four challengers to him with Community Activist Mr. Craig Schley rounding out the field of candidates.

Speaking of congressional elections could Bronx Borough President Ruben Diaz Jr. be setting up for a future citywide race for mayor by endorsing some non Bronx candidates? Diaz has endorsed Manhattan congressional candidate Charlie Rangel in the 13th C.D., and Diaz has endorsed Hakeem Jeffries in Brooklyn's 10th C.D. to replace Congressman Ed Towns.

Assemblyman Marcos Crespo hosted his 1st annual “Parent Leader Recolonization Breakfast” on Friday May 25th. Over 50 parent leaders, parent coordinators, and day care directors from the 85th A.D. were honored for their service to help the youth, families, and communities of the 85th A.D.

The Bronx Democratic County Committee Dinner will take place on Thursday July 21st at Marina Del Ray. Cocktails start at 6 p.m., with the dinner and program scheduled to begin at 7 PM. You can go to my blog at www.100percentbronx.blogspot.com to see the list of honorees, and you can call the BDCC at 718-704-7039 to reserve your seat/table or for more information on placing a journal ad.

Don't forget to check my blog at www.100percentbronx.blogspot.com for more details on these stories, photos of the events, or late breaking items that come in after our deadline. If you have any comments about this column or would like to have an event listed or covered in this column or on my blog you can e-mail us at 100percentbronxnews@gmail.com or call 718-644-4199 Mr. Robert Press.

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