DAN DUQUETTE’S THE BACK OFFICE

Tony We Love Ya; Tony We Miss Ya !

Wed, 9 Dec 2009 06:26:07 -0500

At noon today at Yankee Stadium next to the Babe Ruth Bat a group of friends of Tony Ferrara will gather to remember a man and pay tribute to his life which ended as we know it on Thursday after 84 glorious years. Ferrara is truly an ambassador for the game of baseball and he touched people on all levels of the game at their core with his heart.
Ferrara attended the University of Miami on a baseball and basketball scholarship. He graduated from the University of Miami and then signed a contract with the St. Louis Cardinals, for which he played four seasons of professional baseball before a shoulder injury during a spring training game cut short his playing career.Ferrara then enrolled in law school at the University of Miami. But, his devotion to his studies was side tracked by his passion for coaching, and he soon found himself on the coaching staffs of both the baseball and basketball teams.
Ferrara went on to work with several major league clubs, including the New York Yankees, New York Mets, Seattle Mariners, Chicago Cubs and Oakland A’s. Ferrara has served these teams in various capacities, including as a bullpen catcher, scout and batting practice pitcher. Ferrara’s unbridled enthusiasm for the game of baseball has made him one of the most endearing people at the New York Yankees’ fantasy baseball camps in Florida.
Ferrara has coached at the collegiate level, including five seasons as the hitting coach for St.John’s University. He has coached internationally, including a stint as a manager of a team in the Israeli Baseball League. Ferrara also coached three seasons with the Newark Bears in the Atlantic League.
Ferrara has also worked in both television and film. Ferrara was hired as a technical advisor for the classic baseball movie The Natural. Ferrara worked alongside Robert Redford in many of the baseball scenes, and Ferrara appears in the film as the third base coach. Ferrara wears number 7 on his jersey in honor of his longtime friend, Mickey Mantle.
Tony is survived by his friends and good buddy Art Shamsky ,who visited almost daily for the last 6 weeks.The group of boys from the Israel Baseball League fondly remembered Tony online this week and were thankful Tony gilded our souls by telling us every time he left us plainly " I love ya".We love you too Tony and we miss you. Tell me when I see you next that it was a bit of heaven when I saw you throw BP at Yankee Stadium and then all day at Gezer field in Israel overlooked by King Solomon's summer home when you were 82 years young!

Appel Overlooked by Israel Baseball League

Tue, 1 Dec 2009 17:56:33 -0500

In 2006 at the Dan Duquette Sports Academy we held the first ever tryout for a fledgling professional baseball league in Israel which was launched in 2007. We also held tryouts around the world in Los Angeles California, Miami, Florida, Dominican Republic and Israel. Apparently overlooked in tryouts for the league was a player who was right there under our own eyes for many of the talent sessions.....our PR consultant, the ubiquitous Marty Appel, former PR director of the New York Yankees.
Evidently Marty got his break recently at a Yankee Fantasy Camp. This just in from Marty over the weekend. "At 61, I got up for one at bat at Steinbrenner Field in Tampa last week, (I was in camp as a guest speaker).....and lined the first pitch I saw into center field for a base hit. No kidding! No grounder, no error, a major league single. Went farther than Luis Gonzalez's hit that won a World Series. Don't tell Lourdes, but this surpassed my wedding as my year's highlight :). "
I replied. " Awesome you are batting 1.000"
As only a crack PR man would say Marty replied. "Not to mention my OBP and Slugging pct; which is why I retired immediately."
Great record Marty but unfortunately you also go down in the books as another one of my scouting mistakes.........
If you miss baseball already visit www.duquettesports.com and register for your 2010 summer camp session, travel team tournament or corporate retreat.

Congrats to the Lord Jeffs !

Tue, 24 Nov 2009 18:21:23 -0500

Congratulations to the 2009 Lord Jeffs for an undefeated season, a NESCAC championship and a thrilling victory over Williams. We're incredibly proud of our team and their 8-0 record.
On Saturday November 14th the Amherst College football team defeated Williams College 26 to 21 on Weston Field in Williamstown MA. It was the first time since 1984 that the Lord Jeffs closed a football season with a perfect record and it was the first time that Head Coach EJ Mills got his team through an unblemished season. Said Mills,
"Our guys turned it around this year and we beat Middlebury, Trinity and Williams who have been our toughest competitors. I am very proud of this group of men who dedicated themselves to achieving this 1 year ago when we lost by a point to Williams."
The most important part of this for those involved in the rivalry is that 7 times in recent history Amherst travelled to Williamstown with a 7-0 record and 7 times they finished the season at 7-1. "This group got the monkey off our back" said Mills. One of the reasons that I could not attend and instead committed to attend the induction of Greg Vaughn who I signed with the Milwaukee Brewers into the Cape Cod Baseball Hall of Fame, was that I had witnessed 3 of these games myself and it was too painful to bear considering another time when the rival ruins your season and makes their year. Fortunately, our family was represented at the game as our daughter Denise a Williams 2009 graduate went back for her first "Homecoming". When I asked her how it was she said, "Daddy it was awful, we lost in the last minutes to Amherst".
Now you know how we used to feel.

EJ Mills has coached at www.duquettesports.com
Dan Duquette graduated Amherst in 1980

The Boss:Simply Brilliant!

Mon, 9 Nov 2009 20:52:04 -0500

After the final out of the World Series Wednesday night, George Steinbrenner's son Hal, Managing Partner of the New York Yankees, stepped to the podium and said "Dad, I know you're home watching with mom. This one's for you."
So it was clear to everyone, the Captain of the Yankees, SS Derek Jeter set the record straight: "He's the reason we're here. First of all, we wouldn't be in this stadium if it wasn't for him. We wouldn't have this group together if it wasn't for him. This is a special moment. ... He deserves it."

Game 6's winning pitcher, the winningest pitcher in post season history with 18 victories, Andy Pettite followed: "The Boss put this team together. He set a standard for us to uphold. These guys embraced it and that makes it even sweeter to accomplish what we did."

"He's happy now," said George's elder son, Hank, who had spoken with their father after the victory, "He was just, I say, teary-eyed, emotional, very emotional."

The Yanks won not in spite of George Steinbrenner but because of him, his Will to Win.

This years team could be his ultimate accomplishment as the club rebounded from not even making the playoffs in 2008.  In 2009 the Yankees opened a $1.5 billion monument of a stadium amidst the worst economic times since The Great Depression and Steinbrenner humbly watched his team close from Tampa with his 7th World Series Championship; sons Hal and Hank at the Helm of the richest team with the biggest brand in the business.

I know from experience George Steinbrenner is a very straight forward man who is not satisfied unless at the end of the year, every year, he and his team are at the top of the heap. No other owner in MLB is even close to amassing his time on top, his record, club championships, value added to his team or economic contributions to the game and MLB.

Whatever time George has left to enjoy I am sure he will savor but few moments will be as satisfying to him as his justly deserved moment on Wednesday night;

God Bless you George you are the greatest.....simply Brilliant!

Bravo Bill, Bravo!

Mon, 2 Nov 2009 18:13:15 -0500

With his team's next win on the gridiron, Acton Boxborough High School's Bill Maver will have 200. The first 3 wins were for his hometown Quincy, MA: the last 196 for AB. Football in Acton MA is part of the fabric of the community and has been in its heyday for the past 15 years of Maver's 23 leading the High School. Acton is always in contention for the Dual County League Championship but from 1994 to 2004 Maver's teams also played for their Division Super Bowl 9 of 10 seasons and peaked from 2001 to 2004 when they won 52 straight games, 4 consecutive Super Bowls and Coach Maver was honored by the New England Patriots as 2004 Coach of the Year.

1994 (A-B)    11-0-0   (55-43-5 overall) Won Super Bowl
1995 (A-B)    10-1-0   (65-44-5 overall) Lost Super Bowl
1996 (A-B) 8-4-0   (73-48-5 overall) Lost Super Bowl
1997 (A-B) 8-2-0   (81-56-5 overall)
1998 (A-B) 8-3-0   (89-59-5 overall) Lost Super Bowl
1999 (A-B)    10-1-0   (99-60-5 overall) Lost Super Bowl
2000 (A-B) 9-3-0   (108-63-5 overall) Lost Super Bowl
2001 (A-B)    12-1-0   (120-64-5 overall) Won Playoff, Super Bowl
2002 (A-B)    13-0-0   (133-64-5 overall) Won Playoff, Super Bowl
2003 (A-B)    13-0-0   (146-64-5 overall) Won Playoff, Super Bowl
2004 (A-B)    13-0-0   (159-64-5 overall) Won Playoff, Super Bowl

Beyond the team accomplishments and the stable exemplary program, which he built for the community, as a teacher Maver mentored hundreds of young men searching for identity through sports.  I thank him for giving our son Daniel a chance to be manager of the Jr. High baseball team in 7th grade giving him the confidence to make the playing squad in Grade 8, and for giving him opportunity to contribute on football special teams.   I also thank Coach Maver for developing our son Dana to play QB. As a sophomore he played the 2nd half against Boston Latin and that gave him confidence he could play varsity football and be part of an elite society of men which he is fearlessly proud to represent today.

I wanted to hear more about the man from locals, so I asked around town to Ray Gallant who has coached with Bill for years who said, "Bill Maver is one of the finest men I have ever met.   He is tough, fair, a student of the game both past and present.   Most importantly his priorities are always with his student-athletes best interests in mind.   I was very fortunate to have my own son play for such an outstanding coach.   Players can see right through you if you are a phony, or are in it for yourself. This would never apply to a Bill Maver coached athlete. There is no AB player that can ever say that Coach Maver didn't give him a chance, teach him properly and teach him about life as well as football.    Coaching with him has been a blast. It has been a great ride with one of my best friends." If you want to hear more testimonials, go to the morning game at Westford Academy on Thanksgiving Day and ask the returning players what coach Maver has meant to them.

Think about this...any community that has a teacher in the Physical Education program at the Junior High School who also happens to coach Jr. High basketball, baseball, physical conditioning, weight training and HS football has a real gem. Current Natick High School football coach and Athletic Director Tom Lamb who is also a member of the 200 win club said "there is no better, wonderful example of consistent, hard working, professional, knowledgeable coaching than Bill and his staff. Also being a gentleman and a winner is a special combination that is hard to find!! The AB football team has been blessed with a special person!"

Bravo Bill, Bravo!

Join the community and watch the current AB team Fridays Nov 6 and 13 at Leary Field in Acton MA at 7pm.
Coach Maver also coached at www.duquettesports.com!