Tag: Amaury Pi Gonzalez

That’s Amaury’s News and Commentary: Really Inside Baseball–Exclusive with Mickey Morabito A’s Traveling Secretary

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Oakland A’s Traveling Secretary Mickey Morabito who has been with the club since 1981 (file photo sfgate.com)

Really Inside Baseball: Exclusive with Mickey Morabito Athletics Traveling Secretary

That’s Amaury News and Commentary

By Amaury Pi-González

Mickey Morabito is the longtime Oakland Athletics Traveling Secretary. Like everybody else in the baseball world he is on “stand by” but not just sitting at home watching the flowers bloom. I talked with Mickey, whom I have known since he came from New York to the Bay Area. At this time just beginning the month of May, if there is a baseball season it would be an abbreviated one, like the 1981 season.

Q: We all are living a unique experience, with basically the whole country paralyzed, including baseball. As a Traveling Secretary how has this affected your job?

MM: It’s been stressful. I had to keep in touch with all our hotels, letting them know to cancel our rooms. I have been canceling three weeks out, as of now I have cancelled all my hotel rooms through the Houston,Texas trip at the end of May. I also called to let out bus and truck companies know we won’t need their services….I feel bad for all of the hospitality industry…including our airline since we are not flying. I am hopeful we can play some kind of abbreviated season.

Q:As far as you can remember any other situation that resembles this when it comes to travel with the team?

MM: We have experienced weather situations. Once when a hurricane came through the Tampa area we cancelled our series there and flew to Baltimore, the next stop on that trip. We had also had mechanical situations with our plane that caused re-routing.

Morabito’s job with the Athletics is one that requires organization and communication all the time. To make the team performs well on the field, so that players are on time and rested, wherever they go, especially when they go on the road. To make sure all players, manager, coaches and staff are all on the same page.

Q: Can you give me an idea of some of the stuff that goes on before every road trip?

MM: I distribute a detailed itinerary for each trip…that has all charter times, bus times to airports and stadiums that the players and our traveling party can follow.

Q: I remember when you first arrived in Oakland from New York,with Billy Martin did you expect to be with the A’s organization this long?

MM: I didn’t really know what to expect when I came here with Billy…it looked like we would only be in Oakland for the 1980 season and then would be sold to Marvin Davis and moved to Denver. But thankfully the Haas family stepped up and bought the team from Finley and kept the A’s in Oakland. I have enjoyed my 40 years here.

Q:I know you are a big baseball fan. When you were growing up, who was your favorite team and player?

MM: I grew up a big Yankee fan,living in Brooklyn so it was a dream to get a job working for them…my favorite player growing up was Bobby Richardson.

Q:I do not think there is a school for your type of job. For those, especially young people that love the game and might be interested in doing what you have been doing so well for so many decades, did you have a mentor? What is your advice.

MM: I was the Public Relations Director in New York and when I came to Oakland, Finley told me I had to do both jobs to start. So it was a lot of on the job training, but since I have traveled with the Yankees I had a clue about what happened on the road. The Yankees traveling secretary at the time was Bill Kane, who was a good mentor for me. Somebody wanting to get into this job, I would recommend just getting any job,I would recommend just getting any job in baseball opportunities to get started.

Q: Can you name your best day as Traveling Secretary and your worse?

MM: Winning the ’89 World Series against the Giants, one of the worse was losing the wild card game to Kansas City.

Andy Dolich, longtime baseball executive in the Bay Area, with the Oakland Athletics, Dolich helped change the face of sports team advertising through the Clio Award winning “BillyBall” and who has also known Morabito for decades told me: “Mickey Morabito is the best in the business. He is the Swiss Army Knife of solving the complex world of moving teams around the country. He was the team’s answer to the GPS before there was a GPS”

I want to thank Mickey Morabito for taking his time for this interview. Just because there is no baseball as we can see he is busy today with his work. Hopefully we will see him soon.

Amaury Pi Gonzalez is the Oakland A’s Spanish play by play voice on itunes and on 1010 KIQI San Francisco and does News and Commentary each week at http://www.sportsradioservice.com

That’s Amaury’s News and Commentary podcast: Kapler says Puig most likely will not join Giants

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Former Cleveland outfielder Yasiel Puig leans against the dugout last season is negotiating with the San Francisco Giants in a deal that is reported to be close to getting done. (AP photo)

On That’s Amaury’s podcast:

#1 Giants manager Gabe Kapler said that a deal acquiring Yasiel Puig is not even close but sources said that Puig was for awhile on the Giants radar. How much would have a Yasiel Puig acquisition would have meant to the Giants.

#2 Yasiel had a reputation when he played with Los Angeles, Cincinnati and Cleveland and there were players who reportedly didn’t like him. He’s been shipped around since LA how would have fit in at the Giants?

#3 There is no doubt Puig is a talent with Cleveland he hit .267, 148 hits, 24 homers and 84 RBIs he can definitely provide power in the Giants offense.

#4  Would Puig have been the  same or somewhat kind of personality that former Giant Barry Bonds was in the clubhouse and field to the game?

#5 Some of the things that were said about Puig by some of his former teammates that he could be controversial and self fish could those issues be distractions if he had joined the Giants?

Amaury Pi Gonzalez is the Oakland A’s Spanish radio talent on KIQI 1010 and does News and Commentary each week at http://www.sportsradioservice.com

 

That’s Amaury’s News and Commentary: Baseball in Cuba could start before US

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Cuban baseball will be back April 30th after the Coronavirus shutdown well before Major League Baseball will consider coming back (AP file photo)

Baseball in Cuba could start before US

That’s Amaury News and Commentary

By Amaury Pi-González

According to the Havana Times. All official sports events have been canceled in Cuba until April 30th at least, in response to the global Coronavirus pandemic. That includes baseball,the one sport that people have been playing almost as long as the United States. The population of the largest island in the Caribbean is approximately 11.5 million and as of today Cuba’s total of 1,389 Covid-19 cases and 58 dead.

It would be easy to start baseball in Cuba,because everything is controlled by their government. There are no complications like here in the US with MLB the MLB Players Union,the 50 different States/politics open or not open for business and of course a much smaller country..

Here is easily explained:

1-Owners of teams. None. The Cuban communist government owns baseball and all other sports.

2-Players. Baseball players get paid by the government and the stars make around equivalent of $2,000 per year.

3-Fans/Games. Cubans pay subsidized prices of just a few centavos

4-Media. Private ownership of broadcast media(radio,TV,print is prohibited)and the government owns all mainstream media outlets *(below)

5-Largest most famous Stadium: Estadio Latinoamericano, Havana, 55,000 capacity,build in 1946.

*Cubans were allowed to have cell phones in 2010,however the Internet is very limited and strongly censored.

Baseball Si, Bullfights No

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Illustration of a bullfight in Cuba (image from wikiwand.com )

Baseball Sí Bullfights No

That’s Amaury News and Commentary

Amaury Pi-González

Cubans that came to the US to study in 1860 were introduced to baseball and right after the Spanish-American War in 1898 (US fought to help Cuba gain its independence from Spain-1902) Cubans learned to play the game from American soldiers.The Cubans accepted the US game and since then it has become Cuba’s passion.Cuba was a colony of Spain from 1492 to 1898.In other words since Christopher Columbus discovered the island during his first trip toward the New World.

Bullfighting was present in Cuba during its colonial period (Spain brought it to the island as well to most of Latin America) but the United States military under pressure of civic association and because Cubans never really took-on to bullfights which they considered a degrading spectacle and was abolished by the US military after the Spanish-American War in 1901.

Cubans then adapted the game of baseball as their #1 pastime. Since Cuban independence in 1902, to date, Cuba has banned bullfighting, however,today in Latin America México, Colombia,Peru and Venezuela and some others still have bullfight arenas and scheduled bullfights.

Bullfighting never really re-appeared in Cuba.However,on August 31,1947 a Sunday in La Habana at the Gran Estadio del Cerro (today Estadio Latinoamericano where baseball is played) a total of 30,000 people witnessed the demonstrations of Mexican Matadores,Fermín Espinosa, and Silveiro Pérez aka “Armillita”. It was not “pure”bullfighting,because you could not stick(Picadores)flags to the bulls or kill them. It was the only way the authorities agreed to invite the Mexican Matadores to the capital of Cuba.

But baseball flourished in the largest island in the Caribbean. It was in 1874 when the Cubans build their first baseball stadium in the Matanzas province. La Liga Profesional Cubana de Béisbol (The Cuban Professional Baseball League) was in existence from 1878 until 1961,when the Fidel Castro communist dictatorship banned all professional sports from the island.

From 1871 to 1961 the main teams in that most famous Cuban Pro-League were: Almendares,  Habana,Cienfuegos and Marianao. This Cuban league was the earliest baseball league founded in Latin America.Right after Cuba other Latin American countries learned baseball.Cuban promoters and players took the game to, México, Nicaragua, Venezuela and others who started their own leagues in the 1880s.

Although I have never seen a live bullfight in my life,I have been lucky as a kid growing up in Cuba to have seen a lot of the great Cuban and American baseball players of that time,in that old Cuban Professional Winter League. Like Orestes Miñoso, Luis Tiant, Sandalio(Sandy) Consuegra, Julio(Jiquí)Moreno, Octavio”Cookie”Rojas, Frank Herrera, Mike Fornieles, Julio Bécquer,Edmundo (Sandy) Amorós, Camilo Pascual, Pedro Ramos, just to mention a few, as well as American baseball stars that played for those teams in the 1950’s and until 1961: Jackie Brandt, Brooks Robinson,Bob Shaw, Jim Bunning, Bob Allison, Al Spangler, Bobby DelGreco, Billy Muffett, Bill Werle. Also many African-Americans played in Cuba like Monte Irwin and Don Newcome

According to the Havana Times. All official sports events have been canceled until April 30th at least, in response to the global Coronavirus pandemic.

Amaury Pi Gonzalez is the Spanish radio voice for the Oakland A’s and does News and Commentary each week at http://www.sportsradioservice.com

Headline Sports podcast with Michael Duca: A look at some of the greatest pitchers to ever play the game

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Former Dodger pitcher Juan Marichal (right) and former Dodger catcher John Roseboro (left) pose in this 1980s photo

On Headline Sports with Michael Duca:

#1 MLB.com has been running a lot of trivia and a look back some of the best players over the years. We’ll start with former San Francisco Giant and Hall of Famer and everybody’s favorite Juan Marichal he had five seasons of 20 or more wins and 13 of them was with the Giants.

#2 Was former Los Angeles Dodger pitcher Don Drysdale most feared because of the kind of pitches that he can throw or was it because he can come inside and knock down a hitter?

#3 St Louis Cardinal Bob Gibson he was a force out on the mound and he seemed like another pitcher that could throw high and inside if he had to. Was he a lot like Drysdale that way?

#4 He had three 20 game winning seasons and was a pitcher that kept hitters off balance it was that kind of motion that forced him to retire early but when Sandy Koufax retired he went down in MLB history as one of the greatest pitchers in the game.

#5 Former San Francisco Giant Gaylord Perry had two 20 game winning season for the Giants if someone would ask what Gaylord’s best pitch was everyone knew the answer even though Perry would give you a different answer.

Michael Duca does Headline Sports each week at http://www.sportsradioservice.com

 

That’s Amaury’s News and Commentary: Place Your Bet? Las Vegas Casinos back in May

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Roulette Wheel (photo from ebay.com)

Place Your Bet? Las Vegas Casinos back in May

That’s Amaury News and Commentary

Amaury Pi-González

If New York is the ‘city that never sleeps’, Las Vegas is the ‘city that never stops gambling’. The two cities have a couple of things in common when it comes to closure, (1) The famous New York gangster Bugsy Siegel was the first to open a huge hotel-casino in the strip. The Flamingo in 1946. Although it was not the first it was the most famous. The first casino ever on the strip was the Rancho Vegas in 1941 a smaller type of gambling establishment. (2) The largest economic fallout for Las Vegas was September 11,2001 when terrorist attacked New York’s Twin Towers.. And for those that like this type of stuff, Las Vegas was also closed (but not this long) when President John F.Kennedy was assassinated in 1963

Because of Covid-19 pandemic, Las Vegas has been closed. But now Nevada Governor Steve Sisolak who closed all nonessential businesses for 30 days including all casinos and later extended the closure to the end of April might be ready to open this next month. Billionaire Steve Wynn owner of Wynn Hotel-Casino in Las Vegas(as well as other locations)says he is ready to re-open. Wynn has continued paying all his salaried, part-time and hourly employees until the 15 of May,which is costing the company approximately $3 million per day or $180 million for two months according to Matt Maddox,CEO of the Wynn company.

As of today Nevada had 3,728 cases of Covid-19 and 155 deaths.They are not on the top ten of cities in this regard.They are one of a bunch of States that are opening-up slowly for business.That is the plan by the medical experts on their three Phases plan made public by Dr.Deborah Birx last week.

The White House appointed world-renowned global health official and physician Ambassador Deborah Birx to the Office of the Vice President to aid in the whole of government response to COVID-19 as the Coronavirus Response Coordinator.She is working with longtime friend and associate Anthony Fauci MD. Director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infections Diseases. They have known each other and have worked together for over 40 years for various administrations.

Never in history Las Vegas has been shut down this long. This is a huge economy fallout in the billions of dollars. By far the largest economic fallout for Sin City. Las Vegas has 150,000 hotel rooms(more than any other city in the US) and Las Vegas is the #4 most visited city in North America; only New York #1, Miami #2 and Los Angeles #3 have more visitors each year. Once a little oasis for people traveling between Chicago and Las Vegas,today this desert city is a world destination.

Place Your Bet? No Sports-Books. 2020 could be the worse year in the history for Las Vegas. Even with the opening of some of the Hotels and Casinos as well as other businesses the loses will continue, especially as long as most professional sports leagues remain inactive. Their sports books generate more in revenue, especially March Madness and the Superbowl.

Captain Renault(Claude Rains)to Rick Blaine (Humphrey Bogart) “I’m shocked,shocked,to find there is gambling going on here!” (Casablanca 1942) At Rick’s Café Américain”

Amaury Pi Gonzalez does News and Commentary podcasts each Tuesday at http://www.sportsradioservice.com

 

Headline Sports podcast with Daniel Dullum: Fox’s broadcaster turns down offer to voice over porn flicks; Garrison off ventilator and on the mend; plus more

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Fox Sports broadcaster Joe Buck was offered voice over work to narrate porn movies for $1 million which he turned down (file photo from New York Post)

Daniel does Headline Sports each Sunday at http://www.sportsradioservice.com

Coronavirus concerns:

1 MLB: A’s minor league manager Webster Garrison off ventilator in fight with Coronavirus; new details released about Roy Halladay plane crash

2 NHL focused on flexibility as Dr. Fauchi sets parameters for return of sports

3 NFL: ESPN. NFL Network prepare for challenges of remote draft telecast

4 NBA: Adam Silver says league not in a position to make decisions on return; NBA and Players Association agree to 25 percent salary cuts starting May 15

5 RIP Bobby Winkles, College HOF coach, former A’s manager

6 Joe Buck turns down $1 million offer to narrate porn flicks

Daniel Dullum does Headline Sports each Sunday at http://www.sportsradioservice.com

That’s Amaury’s News and Commentary: The Baseball Situation

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Dr. Anthony Fauci said MLB and sports needs to take a very cautious approach to re-opening the season that players, working personnel, and family do not infect each other. (file photo from minnpost.com)

The Baseball Situation

That’s Amaury News and Commentary

By Amaury Pi-González

Even if there is a 2020 season,under the most recent plan by Major League Baseball of some kind of a season with 15 teams in Arizona and 15 in Florida playing with no fans in attendance,all the powers-to-be at this time do not seem to agree on issues pertaining to a season. MLB, the owners,the players.

Why owners are hesitant to start the season? Teams have already lost money, no ticket sales,no sales of parking lot spaces, no sales of souvenirs, food, suite rentals,the advertising (signage) inside the stadiums. If season is shortened, players would get paid portion(pro-rated)per their contracts. However they will not receive their full salaries if the season takes place with the regular 162 game schedule, something that is very unlikely at this time.

Because we are in unprecedented situation,these issues are very fluid. MLB is listening not only to politicians who have the power to declare stay at home policies and all the other stuff that we by now have become accustomed to, for the first time in our lives, but also most of these decisions are under the guidance of the medical experts. For example,this is what renown Dr.Anthony Fauci, Director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases believes has to be done: “Nobody comes to the stadium. Put (the players) in big hotels, test them every week, and keep them very well under surveillance. Make sure they don’t wind up infecting each other or their families and let them play the season out.”

Some players might not want to take their families to Arizona or Florida.Two of the higher profile players,both from Los Angeles area teams, Mike Trout of the LA Angels and Clayton Kershaw of the LA Dodgers already objected to the long time separation from their families.

According to Major League Baseball the original March agreement did not protect clubs in the event games were played in empty ballparks.The union says salary issues were clearly covered. The main trust of the issue by owners (as it seems) is that nobody ever anticipated playing games in empty ballparks.

Millions of people are currently unemployed,some might never get their jobs back. Across the country thousands of businesses are trying to survive,some might, some might not,they are racing for loans and grants from the government.

In the best scenario,suppose teams go back and play May and June in Florida and Arizona with no fans and then if the situation greatly improves they return to their respective cities across the country and let the fans in. But how about the fans? Going to the park,if you do not have a job baseball is not going to be a priority anyway, it is a luxury.

A unique and different challenge to all the people in the business of baseball who has never been in this situation, but the country also has never been in this situation. According to a report by Forbes,  Major League Baseball grossed a record $10.7 billion in revenue for the 2019 Season an increase from the $10.3 billion the prior year

So I leave it to your imagination. At the end this might be too big to solve, for the National Pastime at least for 2020.

Join Amaury Pi Gonzalez for News and Commentary each week at http://www.sportsradioservice.com

That’s Amaury’s News and Commentary: Sports in Limbo

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Amaury Pi Gonzalez (left) and Manolo Hernandez-Douen Spanish play by play announcers for the Oakland A’s working at the Oakland Coliseum radio booth might see limited or no action at the Coliseum due to the current pandemic shutdown (file photo from twitter)

Sports in Limbo

That’s Amaury News and Commentary

By Amaury Pi-González

As individual states begin to gradually open up their economy across the country, after 22 million people have filed for unemployment during just the last three weeks, the country is getting is eager to go back to work. Never in our history all 50 States were declared in an Emergency.

But sports (as we are used to, with thousands of people in the seats) could be the last thing to come back,maybe not at all this year. We are a long way for most people in the country to be tested for Covid-19 and probably much longer until somebody develops a vaccine.

We are in uncharted territory. If the economy continues to be closed, the population could lose more people to unemployment at the end to Covid-19. Because of depression, mental issues, drugs, suicide and other stuff that only God knows.

As much as we who love and work in sports for a long time would hate to admit. Sports are not essential in life. It is psychological to have sports back as people would always need a escape. However, you might be able to open a restaurant or other business and develop a system where you could space people six feet apart, but for a 40,000 seat arena, that is totally another problem.

The best analogy of the importance of sports, is my personal experience as a TV Sports Anchor.I used to prepare approximately three minutes of sports for the 30 minutes 6PM Newscast,they were usually at the end after the weather segment.

I cannot remember how many times those three(3) minutes which I worked for eight hours produced, wrote and anchored (and sometimes edited) became 1.5 minutes or less. There will be breaking news stories and they would usually, cut my sports segment. In some cases, the news director will tell met to tape a segment and go home.There will be no live sports today. Yes, folks, although sports is big business in our culture remains the ‘toy department’ in the media world.

So what would have to happen? To go to a sporting event, might be a much bigger challenge than to get on a plane at the airport. People’s temperature (individually) would probably have to be taken at the gate, everybody would have to be separated by at least six feet, but the seating would be the biggest challenge for obvious reasons, i.e. people proximity,eating, talking, screaming, going to the restrooms.

There are no drive-thru windows at the park so you can eat at home or bring your food and eat it inside the car in the parking lot. Needless to say if you want to go to a game that begins at 1PM on a Sunday afternoon, you better be at the park at eight in the morning. Teams will have to hire more attendants at the park. I am sure you can come up with many other scenarios, but none is very pleasant and if we want the fans to have a nice experience, some of these changes will be anything but nice, actually it would create more stress and less enjoyment. .

The most logical option for sports to resume, MLB, NBA, NFL, NHL and MLS. For Baseball.Using the model proposed by the Office of the Commissioner of Major League Baseball. 1-Play in empty stadiums (Arizona and Florida) 2-Players quarantined in hotel rooms nearby the area where they play(Arizona and Florida)as proposed 3-Coverage: Games televised live with the announcers not at the park location but at a television studio, separated by individual booths Print Media and Radio Broadcast probably determined by individual publications and radio stations.

Eric Garcetti, the Mayor of Los Angeles, second most populous city in the country said: “Coronavirus will likely halt sporting events with crowds until 2021”

Stay well. Adios.

Amaury Pi Gonzalez is the Spanish radio voice for Oakland A’s baseball at 1010 KIQI San Francisco and 990 AM Sacramento for 41 home games and on tunein.com for 41 home games and does News and Commentary each week at http://www.sportsradioservice.com

That’s Amaury’s News and Commentary: Jackie Robinson Legacy is International

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Jackie Robinson who broke the color line in Major League Baseball in 1947 with the Brooklyn Dodgers takes a swing at Ebbets Field in Brooklyn (jackierobinson.com file photo)

Jackie Robinson Legacy is International

That’s Amaury News and Commentary

Amaury Pi-González

April 15,2020 marks the 73rd Anniversary of Jackie Robinson as the first African-American player in MLB,with the Brooklyn Dodgers at Ebbets Field in Brooklyn. His legacy and career was honored and his uniform number 42 retired by Major League Baseball by Commissioner Bud Selig 33 years ago on April 15,1997.

Robinson’s #42 was the first and only number retired by all MLB 30 teams. Generally people focus on African Americans who followed Robinson into baseball,but the great pioneer also opened the door for Black Latino players.

Jackie Robinson’s legacy goes beyond US borders.  Because of Robinson, Latino players of dark skin were also able to come and play in the big leagues with their American brothers.

Today almost 33 percent of all players in MLB are born in Latin America(higher percentage in the minor leagues)and after Jackie Robinson broke the color barrier,some great Latino black players,like Cuban-born Orestes(Minnie) Miñoso who signed as a rookie in 1949 with the Cleveland Indians, before becoming the last player in baseball history to play for five (50 years) different decades.

Minnie played from 1949 until 1980. The Cuban-born Miñoso was the first unquestionable black Latin American in the major leagues, although some others with some black ancestry had played in MLB. By early 1950’s other Latino’s of black skin included, Luis Márquez(Puerto Rico)signed by the Boston Braves and Cuban catcher Rafael(Ray)Noble with the New York Giants as well as Ozzie Virgil Sr.from the Dominican Republic.

According to SABR (Society for American Baseball Research) in 1947; 98.3 perfect of players were white,0.9 percent African-American, 0.7 percent Latinos and 0.0 percent Asian. Decades later, especially in the mid 1950’s the great Roberto Clemente (Puerto Rico) and 1960’s many more came from Latin America, like Juan Marichal, Orlando Cepeda, Manny Mota, Felipe, Jesús and Mateo Alou, Tony Oliva, Luis Tiant, Leonardo(Leo) Cárdenas, Tony González, Francisco(Panchón)Herrera, José Cardenal, Dagoberto(Campy)Campaneris and more not mentioned.

Some of these Latino players are remembered with statues in the cities where they played,the one and only Roberto Clemente not only with a Statue at PNC Park but with the Roberto Clemente Bridge in downtown Pittsburgh over the Allegheny River.

Today all baseball fans around the world honor the great #42 Jackie Robinson,because he is also a historic figure in countries like Cuba, Colombia, Dominican Republic, Panamá, Puerto Rico, México,Nicaragua,Venezuela, Jamaica and all countries where baseball is a major sport, not to mention in Japan, South Korea and Taiwan.

“I never cared about acceptance as much as I cared about respect” -Jackie Robinson.

Amaury Pi Gonzalez is the vice president of the Major League Baseball Hispanic Heritage Museum and does News and Commentary each week at http://www.sportsradioservice.com