Legion coaches should take the blame

Letter to the editor

To the editor:
   Bob Huzzy had no enthusiasm coaching the Post 148 baseball team. He never showed any emotional appreciation for good play. He always criticized, glared and snarled publicly. If you made a mistake he took you out. Most of the players disliked him and they all played better during the two weeks he wasn’t there. Rich Scheid chastised one pitcher with an obscenity because his arm hurt and he wanted to be removed from the game. Rich said that during a game, loud enough to be heard by every one in the stands. Is that what Mr. Huzzy means when he said that he and Rich had to bite their tongues?
   Mr. Huzzy played one player every game, and every inning even thought he knew he was suffering from shin splints and was in constant pain. He couldn’t even run all the way to second base when he hit a stand up double. There was another player on the bench that had played as a postseason all-star every season since he was 10 and for the last two years he started on the all-county all-star Babe Ruth team at shortstop. He never got a chance to play shortstop all year. By the way that player was selected by professional coaches to play this summer for the U-19 Baseball Factory team playing in the World Series in Florida.
   Another player played every game, every inning, even though it was obvious that he was struggling. That player played at four positions and did very poorly with lots of errors. At first base every time the ball was in the dirt he turned his head away and missed the ball. The favoritism for this player was obvious to all the players and was dictated by Gordon Tatum.
   The year started off with a lot of practice. Once the games started the practice stopped. When they started to struggle why didn’t he try to help that with batting practice? It’s really not very hard to teach that level swings make better hits. How many of their good hitters flied out this year?
   They had a great catcher, smart, very strong arm, very few pitches got by him and he hit well. Yes he did get an attitude once in a while, what 17-year-old doesn’t? Mr. Huzzy threw him off the team half way through the year. What he was replaced by was a player that couldn’t stop the ball, had no arm strength and hit about one in four. All of the infield players made jokes about him and other teams picked upon it very quickly. They ran on him constantly and it ruined many of the games. Meanwhile out in center field was one of the best catchers I have ever seen play and Mr. Huzzy didn’t even let him try out.
   To summarize, it’s not the players it’s the coach. He had good players. I was there, at every game, and I never saw anything good from the coaches. The kids never gave up, they all kept coming even when they didn’t play or were openly criticized. I think they were a great bunch of players and they deserve to be coached by someone else.
   Fuzzy Huzzy and Rude Rich, goodbye!
Don Lugannani
Roosevelt