Baseball

Title run still has lots of luster for DeJohn

Guy Cipriano

UNIVERSITY PARK — Go ahead, ask former State College Spikes manager Mark DeJohn about the Batavia Muckdogs' 2008 postseason run.

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But be prepared to listen.

For a man who has seen more than 2,000 professional baseball games, DeJohn holds vivid memories of the Muckdogs’ New York- Penn League championship season.

He remembers Day 1, when a diverse group of players converged in western New York.

He remembers Game 79, when the Muckdogs defeated the Jamestown Jammers to bring a championship to a city that desperately wanted one.

The title possessed special meaning for their manager.

DeJohn played for the 1972 Batavia Trojans. He then received a chance later in life to bring the city its first NY-PL title in 45 years.

“The booster club would say we haven’t won a championship in 43 years, we haven’t won a championship in 44 years, we haven’t won a championship in 45 years,” DeJohn said before Tuesday’s game against the Spikes. “Now, the booster club says we haven’t won a championship in 10 months.”

The Muckdogs used DeJohn principles to win their title.

Players learned how to operate as professionals and received enough innings and at-bats to prove their value to the St. Louis Cardinals. Once the NY-PL All-Star Break concluded, DeJohn tried everything possible to guide his team toward the postseason.

“It was probably my most enjoyable summer,” said DeJohn, who led three straight Double-A teams to the playoffs from 2002-04. “It was a great bunch of kids. The goal at the beginning of the season is to teach them to play a little bit. I then tell them if we are there at the all-star break, we’ll go and try to win.”

The Muckdogs edged Jamestown by a half-game to capture the Pinckney Division title. They opened the postseason at Lowell, where they suffered a 4-3 loss in the first game of a best-of-three semifinal series. The series then headed to Batavia, where the Muckdogs rallied from an 8-2 deficit to take the second game 11-8 before winning the final game 3-2.

The finals started at Jamestown’s Diethrick Park with Batavia trailing 3-2 entering the top of the ninth. Jermaine Curtis responded to the championship pressure by hitting a two-run, game-winning homer. The Muckdogs completed the sweep two nights later at Dwyer Stadium.

“The thing about it was I never thought at the beginning or even later in the season we would win the New York-Penn League Championship,” DeJohn said. “Sometimes you get lucky when you get in the playoffs.”

The Cardinals aided DeJohn by keeping many of his key players, including pitchers Arquimedes Nieto, Scott Gorgen and Adam Reifer, infielders Colt Sedbrook and Curtis, outfielders Frederick Parejo and Shane Peterson, and catcher Charlie Cutler, in Batavia for the entire run. The situation contrasted the approach the Cardinals displayed in 2007, when the Muckdogs lost some key players and went 33-41.

Instead of concealing last season’s accomplishments, the Cardinals brought DeJohn, along with pitching coach Doug White, hitting coach Jeff Albert and trainer Manabu Kuwazuru, to Busch Stadium for a pregame ceremony before a game against the Cincinnati Reds. The staff received watches and DeJohn garnered the organization’s prestigious George Kissell Award for player development work. Players and coaches received championships rings in spring training, a customary minor-league baseball practice.

“Any time you win at rookie ball it means a lot because we want these guys to be in an environment where they are competing and winning,” said Cardinals vice president of scouting and player development Jeff Luhnow, who’s with the Muckdogs this week. “They get used to that. A lot of the guys that were here last year are in (Double-A) Springfield or (High-A) Palm Beach continuing that tradition. That’s what we are looking for. We love to win at this level, and hopefully we can do it again this year.”

The Spikes recorded their only winning season using Cardinals’ prospects in 2006. The Player Development Contract between the organizations expired after the season, and the Spikes entered a four-year agreement with the Pittsburgh Pirates.

The Spikes entered Tuesday 64-104 all-time as a Pirates’ affiliate after finishing 18-56 in 2008. Last year’s Muckdogs went 9-1 against the Spikes.

Such is the business of baseball.

“It could have happened in State College,” DeJohn said. “But I guess if I could really have picked a place to have it happen to me, personally, I’m happy it was Batavia because of my connection to the city.

“You know how baseball is. The fans have always been great to us here, even when we come back. We knew they had plans with Pittsburgh.”

A ring sat on DeJohn’s desk as he talked.

It still hasn’t lost its luster.

Guy Cipriano covers the Spikes for the Centre Daily Times. He can be reached at 231-4643 or gciprian@centredaily.com.