By Don Leypoldt

It was hard to escape the irony at the Vermont Mountaineer Hot Stove Dinner on January 25th.

The dinner celebrated the successful completion of Vermont’s 10th season in the NECBL.  It saluted all of the community members - who came out in frigid temperatures that resembled good ERAs- who together have made the Mountaineers possible.

So at an evening that toasted the uniting of team and community, why were the evening’s three biggest stars most noted for “breaking?”

Colorado Rockie LHP Christian Friedrich, whose fantabulous 2006 summer led the Mountaineers to the first of two straight NECBL titles, was honored for “breaking in” to the Big Leagues.  Friedrich received the club’s Robin Roberts Award, given to the player making significant advancement in professional baseball.

When there is “breaking news” in Major League Baseball, few do a better job of reporting and concise analysis than ESPN’s Buster Olney.  Olney may be a Baseball Hall of Fame voter who remains one of the most recognizable reporters in the game, but he is also still the dairy farmer who grew up 30 minutes south of Montpelier.  Olney closed the evening by engaging in an extensive Q and A with the crowd of over 200.

“The idea of being here to try and promote baseball in Vermont, is pretty cool,” Olney told NECBL.com, “because there wasn’t a lot of it when I was growing up.

“When people ask me where I’m from, I always say Vermont even though I’ve lived in New York for 15 years,” Olney continued.  “My family had a dairy farm in Randolph Center.  My stepfather still owns the farm.  My brother lives a mile away and he is still a farmer.  This is definitely home.  When I come back to Vermont, it doesn’t feel like I’m a visitor.  It feels like this is where I need to be.”

Lastly “Breaking Bad”, the smash hit AMC television series, is the vehicle through which Giancarlo Esposito won a 2012 Critics Choice Best Supporting Actor Award.  Esposito, (“I know all about Phil and his brother,” said the actor, alluding to the pair of NHL greats to the laughing crowd, “but my name is Es-POSE-i-to!) may alternate between playing a drug lord and an evil mirror on television, but on a night where the smile never left his face, he talked about commonality and togetherness.

Not “breaking.”

“It’s about bringing people, to be their best selves, for an incredible cause,” he declared in one of his most notable lines of the night.

The cause this night was the Mountaineers, the team who went to four NECBL title games between 2005 and 2009 and who sent their sixth alum to the Big Leagues in three seasons when Friedrich debuted on May 9th. 

“The Mountaineers are a real jewel in Montpelier during the summer time.  It gives families something to do,” lauded Montpelier mayor John Holler.  “It brings in tourists from around the region.  It’s a real highlight of the summer for us and we’re so pleased the Mountaineers are here.”

Those Mountaineers have a new coach, who was introduced at the dinner.  Joe Brown, the current head coach at SUNY Cortland and one of the most successful coaches in Division III history, takes over for long time helmsman John Russo.  Brown has won 78% of his games while leading the Red Dragons to two national runners-up at the College World Series.  Brown also led the Sanford Mainers to the 2008 NECBL championship.

The dinner opened with Esposito taking the mike.  On the surface, the critically acclaimed actor seems incongruous with a baseball banquet.  But Esposito is a huge baseball fan…and skier, making a trip to Vermont a perfect compliment to his interests.  He was a catcher in Little League, and is still a rabid Yankee fan who vividly remembers how he felt the day Thurman Munson died.  Esposito remains good friends with NECBL founder Joe Consentino.  

Esposito reminded the crowd that acting is also dependent on team work.  A truly great actor checks his ego at the door and does all that they can to make their counterparts better.  

And like a talented young Minor Leaguer facing the long odds of Major League super-stardom, Esposito had poignant advice for dealing with the naysayers.

“Not listening to them,” he stated matter of factly.  “Listening to my heart instead of listening to people who weren’t positive.  I’d take my best and leave the rest- that’s my best advice.  I knew that I loved what I did and I’d be happy just being a character actor and not having any fame or glory.  If it didn’t come, it was fine because I knew I was in the right business and that I was doing something right for me.  

“That’s the most important advice that I got, from George C. Scott and from Burt Lancaster- just follow your heart.  If you don’t have the mettle to stick it out and love every moment of it, then get out now,” he advised.  “Stay around people who are like minded, who are going to uplift you and keep you stimulated and excited about what you do, and find new ways to re-create yourself.  We heard so many great stories tonight about guys who had injuries, or who did something positive like change their pitch or change the way they did something in order to stay in the game.  That really is an analogy for life.”

Chris Friedrich had to make changes to improve his Major League stock.  As a freshman phenom from Eastern Kentucky, the 6’4” southpaw had a 36:5 strikeout to walk ratio for the ’06 Mountaineers.  His 1.41 ERA would have tied for the NECBL lead had he thrown enough innings to qualify.  He did throw enough innings to win the NECBL’s Rookie of the Year.

Friedrich was the starting pitcher in Vermont’s title clinching game at Torrington.  “It was a very memorable game because it was the first championship I ever won where I was at an age to appreciate it,” he said.  “When you’re young, everyone gets a medal so you don’t know how much hard work goes into it but you go to college, lift five times a week, eat and sleep baseball.  To go out and win a championship that you’ve worked for is one of the really cool experiences that I had.”

The Evanston, IL native ranks ninth in Division I history for fewest hits allowed over nine innings.  That dominance led to his being a first round selection by the Colorado Rockies in 2008.

But Friedrich did struggle in the high minors.  “An elbow injury and an ill-advised conditioning plan that had him around 240 pounds led to an unsuccessful and shortened 2011 season at Double-A Tulsa,” wrote Thomas Harding on MLB.com, “where he went 6-10 with a 5.00 ERA in 25 starts.”

He changed his diet and his conditioning program.  In turn, Friedrich dropped the weight and improved his mechanics, thanks also to some workouts with Phillies’ star Cliff Lee.  Friedrich pitched five plus innings while yielding three or fewer earned runs in half of his Major League starts.  In his second start, he fanned 10 eventual World Champion Giants while holding them to just one run in seven innings.

“I was laser focused in my debut,” he told the Montpelier gathering, “and I looked up at the crowd and saw my Mom smiling from ear to ear.  I actually got mad,” he laughed, “because she broke my concentration!”  

Friedrich said the butterflies settled down by the third inning, and he pitched a tremendous game at Petco Park to earn the win in his debut.  “But I’m probably more nervous now standing in front of you then I was at the debut,” he told the crowd.

He shouldn’t have been.  Friedrich still stays in touch with his host parents from Vermont and talked about “the flood of memories” that came back to him during what he felt was a great summer.

(Note: NECBL.com will be shortly publishing its exclusive interview with Christian Friedrich)

While Friedrich may have been an adopted son, Olney is a native to the Green Mountain State.  Before the banquet, he took time to address the Vermont Junior SABR branch that goes by the Buster Olney chapter.

He told the crowd how he would go home from Little League and describe in intricate detail every moment of the game- usually a rout on which Olney’s team was on the short end- to his mother.

“Buster,” she replied, “you have the tremendous potential to be very boring.”

Boring he is not, as Olney regaled the crowd with stories about Trevor Hoffman, C.C. Sabathia and other “A” listers that he gets to cover.  Olney always loved baseball- the youngster spent his hay baling money on gobs of baseball cards- but he was inspired to become a writer after the legendary Red Smith visited his high school.  He got his first job out of Vanderbilt covering the Triple-A Nashville Sounds.  Eventually he landed at the New York Times, and then finally to ESPN.

“I was lucky that I went to ESPN, who has about seven different networks, so I could go on air and screw up about a million times,” is how he described his transition from writer to broadcast journalism, “and get many reps.  I was like a young hitter trying to get batting practice.  

“When I was a writer, I always looked down on the people in television,” he admitted.  “Once I got into (TV), I realized that it is the exact same challenge.  You’re trying to convey a thought or an idea but instead of doing it in an 800-word newspaper story, you’re trying to do it in 30 or 40 seconds.  What’s the most effective way to do it?  It’s the same challenge, just a different dynamic.     

“I always tell young reporters- and even broadcasters- do as much writing as you can.  It helps you to learn how to synthesize your thoughts,” Olney recommended.  “It forces you to go ask questions, which is extremely important.  One of the things that I talked about tonight is that I get to ask people who are the best in the world about the things that they do.  

“The newspaper industry is dying but at the same time, the desire for information is exploding.  Think about someone like an Adam Schefter, who works for us covering football.  He has something like 2 ½ million Twitter followers.  Now, reporters and broadcasters are followed on Twitter.  That gives you an idea of the demographics and interest that we have right now in sports,” he concluded.  “I think there is a bright future.”

NECBL.com asked Olney if he saw any trends in college baseball.  “Baseball’s general managers, about 18 months ago, held a meeting where they talked about how they needed to help college baseball.  They talked about ways in which they were going to do that,” he explained.  “The feeling is, with lacrosse growing, and college football having more scholarships, that they need to find a way to get 16, 17 and 18 year old kids to play and choose baseball more often.  It’s clear that they have identified that as a problem.”

Not all of the evening’s talk was lighthearted.  There are long-term concerns over the changing demographics of college baseball.  As a Hall of Famer voter with some contrarian opinions, Olney’s Q and A ventured into steroids and some of baseball’s all-time great players, who may not be on an all-time character team.

But in the end, the game’s ability to unite and promote good is always stronger than the negatives.  Olney told the story of Batting for Vermont, a Twitter campaign that he and his brother launched to raise funds for the Green Mountain State, which had been battered by Hurricane Irene in August 2011.  The two auctioned off nearly 200 items of unique memorabilia.

“As a reporter, I didn’t want to ask players for favors. I felt that was a tricky spot,” he explained.  But once he starting asking around, players came out of the woodwork to help.  Yankee GM Brian Cashman and then Red Sox GM Theo Epstein drove to Olney’s hometown for a fundraiser.  Minnesota pitcher Carl Pavano, whose family has a house in Vermont, donated a fan experience.  Star outfielders B.J. and Justin Upton, Oakland GM Billy Beane and others flooded Olney with signed jerseys and shoes. 

“If we had raised $1, I’d have been happy.  We raised $200,000.  And I had nothing to do with it,” Olney said modestly.  “It was all the players.”

Batting for Vermont was one example of how baseball and celebrities can come together to give back to their communities.  

“I had grown up watching the Yankees and they were heroes to me,” Esposito explained.  “Sometimes it comes rather quickly where all of a sudden I am thrust in the limelight.  I have a bigger part or bigger notoriety.  It’s part of my responsibility to give back.  

“I probably didn’t understand that as much as I do today because early in my career I didn’t have kids.  Once I had kids, I realized I was always under a watchful eye and that all eyes are always on me,” he observed.  “That was my responsibility: to also be an example.  My mother used to say, ‘Do as I say, not as I do.’ I never thought that made sense at the time, but we are very visual people.  When we see someone do something that is right, it links up with all of the feelings that are good about doing something righteous, courageous and honest.  And we record it.  That recording and that imprint stays with us for a long time.”