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Yanks skipper roots for our Duda
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del.icio.us“I really root for him to do well,” said Mike Gillespie — who, in addition to being Staten Island Yankees manager, was also a coach at USC when Cyclone slugger Lucas Duda was a starter there.
“But that home run against us? He could have waited to hit against it someone else.”
Gillespie was speaking minutes after Duda buried his team in the first round of the New York–Penn League’s playoffs, driving in five runs in the two-game sweep, including a two-run shot in the series opener on Sunday in Staten Island.
“That homer was a rocket,” said Gillespie of Duda’s blast, a screaming line-drive shot off the “batter’s eye” screen in distant center field.
Duda and Gillespie’s relationship goes back to when Gillespie was recruiting the left-handed first baseman out of high school in California.
“He was a well-known, outstanding player and everybody knew about him,” said Gillespie.
Duda played for two seasons with Gillespie.
“He’s strong — there’s power in there,” he added. “Off the field, he’s really quiet. At first getting him to talk is like root canal, but when he gets to know people, he shows a dry sense of humor.”
Gillespie is obviously an admirer of Duda, and the feeling is mutual.
“He was an awesome coach,” said Duda, “and he’s even better as a person. I talk to him every time we play the Yankees.”
It’s ironic, considering that coaches are always saying things like, “We beat ourselves.” In this case, Gillespie beat himself: He did too good a job with Duda.
But that’s baseball.
“If someone had to beat us, I’m glad it was him,” he said.
©2007 The Brooklyn Paper
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