St. John's University Athletics
Bobby Valentine Highlights Fifth Annual Baseball Bullpen Winter Banquet
2/11/2011 12:00:00 AM | Baseball
Feb. 11, 2011
- WATCH Bullpen Banquet Interviews
- WATCH The Video Honoring Bob Sheppard
- WATCH A Special Edition Of The Batters Up Blog With Bobby Valentine
- Photo Gallery
QUEENS, N.Y. - Former New York Mets manager Bobby Valentine, who led the Mets to the postseason in consecutive seasons for the first time in club history, highlighted the Fifth Annual Baseball Bullpen Winter Banquet held on Wednesday night at the New York Athletic Club.
"I thought Bobby was outstanding and I thoroughly believe that he enjoyed himself as much as our players did," said head coach Ed Blankmeyer. "When he spoke to the team, he spoke like a coach and discussed a lot of the mental aspects of the game and it really reinforced some of the things that we've been working on as a team."
A star-studded evening, Hall of Fame coaches Jack Kaiser and Lou Carnesecca, St. John's alum and four-time All-Star John Franco, and former Brooklyn Dodger pitcher and three-time All-Star Ralph Branca were all in attendance for the fifth annual event.
"This is a great game, but it is also a tough game," Valentine told the players prior to the dinner. "But if you simplify the game, you can be very successful."
Valentine joins Roger Clemens, David Wright, Franco and Ron Darling on the list of guest speakers for the annual banquet.
"Having these great guest speakers every year means a lot to us," said redshirt senior Joe Witkowski. "They each share different messages that are shaped by their big league experience and to have the chance to talk with them and ask questions has a big impact on us."
The event also featured a special video honoring Bob Sheppard. The video, which included comments from Kaiser, Carnesecca and five-time World Series champion Derek Jeter, honored the man known throughout the sports world as the "Voice of God." Sheppard's roots, however, are at St. John's as an alumnus, athlete, professor, longtime "Voice of the Redmen" and member of the St. John's University Sports Hall of Fame.
The Peter P. Smith Most Valuable Player Award was presented to Jeremy Baltz. The program's first consensus All-American, Baltz earned both NCBWA National Freshman Hitter of the Year and Louisville Slugger National Freshman Player of the Year honors after leading the nation's freshmen and breaking St. John's single-season records in both home runs (24) and RBI (85). The BIG EAST Rookie of the Year and a unanimous first team All-BIG EAST selection, Baltz batted .396, posted a .771 slugging percentage and was the NCAA Charlottesville Regional MVP.
Kyle Hansen was presented with the Howie Gershberg Award as the team's most outstanding pitcher. The Jack Kaiser Award winner as the Most Outstanding Player of the BIG EAST Tournament, Hansen earned Freshman All-America honors after going 8-3 with a 3.71 ERA and 85 strikeouts in 94.2 innings. The righty limited the opposition to just a .227 batting average and allowed two earned runs or less in nine of his 15 starts.
The St. John's baseball team begins the 2011 campaign playing Minnesota (Feb. 18), Michigan (Feb. 19) and Ohio State (Feb. 20) as part of the third annual BIG EAST-Big Ten Challenge.
