College baseball opening day is on deck, and an ex-Met is trying to restore the pride of one local team

Getty Pictures; Phil Hinds/Hofstra Athletics

Properly, not less than there’s one New York baseball crew in motion this week, when the Yankees and Mets had been supposed to start out gathering in Florida.

“We began working towards on Jan. 17,” Frank Catalanotto advised Publish Sports activities+ of his Hofstra membership. “We've got our first recreation on Feb. 25 at Houston Baptist.”

The Lengthy Island native, who wrapped up a powerful 14-year main league enjoying profession with the 2010 Mets, will probably be making his Division I teaching debut — as will his Houston Baptist counterpart, transient former Yankee Lance Berkman — with the Delight. He captured the school baseball world’s consideration along with his stellar job main Division II New York Tech, taking that program to the NCAA match in 2019 (its first match bid since 1983) and posting a 9-5 report in 2020 earlier than COVID shut down the remainder of the season. Catalanotto spent final yr giving hitting classes at Baseball Heaven in Yaphank earlier than the Hofstra alternative arose.

“Hofstra baseball hasn’t been good shortly,” Catalanotto mentioned (Hofstra completed 17-22 final season, its eighth straight yr with no successful report). “The very first thing is to get into the match and win the [Colonial Athletic Association]. That’s positively one thing that’s doable. We need to make youngsters within the Northeast assume, ‘OK, Hofstra is the place to go to play.’” All three of his coaches — Jimmy Goelz, Chris Rojas and Matt Wessinger — performed professionally.