RON DARLING ON MLB NETWORK’S HOT STOVE TONIGHT AT 7:00 P.M. ET
Former Mets pitcher Ron Darling, color commentator for national baseball coverage on TBS and Mets coverage on SNY, stopped by MLB Network studios today for an interview that will air on tonight’s Hot Stove, beginning at 7:00 p.m. ET. Darling sat down with Matt Vasgersian and Al Leiter to discuss the Mets’ off-season moves and 2009 outlook, as well as his thoughts on his former manager Davey Johnson leading the U.S. team in the World Baseball Classic, and his work as a broadcaster.
Highlights of the interview include:
ON CITIFIELD OPENING AND SHEA STADIUM CLOSING:
“It was your home. It may not have been a great home, but it was your home and I’ll miss it in that way. You know, we’ve had a Volkswagen in the parking lot for so many years, and now there’s this Bentley right across the street and I think we are all excited to go over there, watch the team there, you know the different sight lines, new ball park, 21st century kind of thing so I’m excited.”
ON THE METS’ OFF-SEASON MOVES:
“I think the first thing they had to address was of course the bullpen, with Billy Wagner out for another year after getting hurt last year and they did that. They got K-rod who had the best year any reliever has ever had, they’ve got Putz who has outstanding stuff who is a closer himself, as a set up man. I think Sean Green of course coming over is going to really help them, from Seattle. Their bullpen is settled and I think that they are going to have those outstanding years from their outstanding players in Beltran, Wright, and Reyes.”
ON WHO WILL BE A LEADER FOR THE METS 2009 TEAM:
“I think that Mr. Wright is going to play a bigger role this year you know as he gets a little older. I think Beltran is amazing, one of the best athletes I’ve ever seen put on a uniform, Delgado what an amazing year last year, probably the older kind of gentle giant on that team, but this is really Wright and Reyes’ team and I think they are only going to go as far as those guys take them.”
ON DAVEY JOHNSON MANAGING THE U.S. TEAM IN THE WORLD BASEBALL CLASSIC:
“I think Davey’s changed. The time when I played for him, he was kind of a ‘Swashbuckling’ type of manager, a guy out there who had no problem saying in ’86 at spring training that the team was going to run away with the division. I mean who would do that, no one would accept Davey. I think he’s changed. A lot has happened in his life and I think he’s so happy to have the opportunity to be back with young players and I think what you tend to forget is in is early years before he became a manager, he was a roving instructor, one of those guys who likes to teach. So I think that that’s going to be the great thing for him and this Classic.”
ON THE DYNAMIC OF THE 1986 METS TEAM:
“The leaders were Hernandez and Carter, guys who had come over and learned winning baseball from where they played, but I think even more importantly you say ‘had fun’ and you’re right, it is a different time [now], a lot of the stuff that happened in ’86 certainly couldn’t happen now in 2008 and 2009 but that team was so solid and I’ll tell you the nature of that team. We were coming back we had lost a 4 game series in Chicago, we get into St. Louis about 8 o’clock at night and Davey Johnson pulls the bus over at a Morton’s Steakhouse. He rushes the entire team in and we all go in there and sit, after a 4 game loss, heads down, the whole team sat in there for 3-4 hours and just kind of discussed how the game went. That’s how close they were.”
ON BROADCASTING BASEBALL:
“I think the biggest key for me was being away from the game for 10 years. I retired in ‘95 and like most players that retire, you don’t even want to look at a game because the last time you looked at a game, line-drives were going by your head as a pitcher. So you don’t want anything to have to do with the game so I was away for the game long enough so that when I did come back, the game had changed. I think that was a good thing so it was refreshing for me to take a look at it to try and describe it. And I think the thing that I try to remember is that I used to play, certainly can’t play anymore, and to appreciate the athletes that are playing. That being said, my audience is not the NY Met players, it is not the NY Met ownership, my audience is the people that are watching the game. And I try to keep in my head, my father was a high school baseball coach, when I do the game, I’m talking to him. And I know that if there’s something in the game that he wants answered, I try to talk about it, and that’s how I try to do the broadcast.”
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