Mike Mongiello, now 30, played baseball for a long as he can remember, pitching and hitting as a member of the Secaucus Little League right up through high school, where he acquired a reputation of one of the great athletes to graduate from Secaucus High School in 1986. In the back of his head was the idea that he could make the major leagues. He came close to realizing that dream, but now, 14 years later, he finds himself working in the retail business after having gone back to school to get his degree in marketing. Yet he still can’t get the game out of his head, that one-on-one competition between batter and pitcher. “What I miss is being on the mound and having a hitter come up, knowing he is a fastball hitter and I’m a fastball pitcher and saying: ‘Here it is, Pal, let’s go,'” Mongiello said. “I like the competition.” Although he did a little pitching last summer, he has spent most of the last two years helping other youngsters learn the fundamentals of the game, one of whom may some day make the dream come true. “The nice part is that I’m able to get back to the kids and I enjoy the sense of accomplishment when kids get better,” he said. Something to be proud of Mongiello’s career in professional baseball lasted slightly over six years. After playing three seasons at Fairleigh Dickinson University in Teaneck, Mongiello found himself drafted by the Chicago White Sox in 1989, one of those magical moments in a man’s life when a childhood dream seems very possible indeed. But the minor leagues proved just as difficult as old movies seem to convey. It involved riding from town to town in buses, playing long games in small stadiums, then hopping the bus again to another town and another opponent. “It was tough,” Mongiello said. Yet it also taught him what it meant to be part of a team, to suffer through the trials and tribulations with the same people who played behind him. Over the next few years, Mongiello made progress. In 1990, he played for a team in South Bend, Indiana. In 1991, he took the next step up to a team playing in Sarasota, Florida, where he became a relief pitcher – often called “the closer,” someone who came into the game at a critical moment when his team was ahead and made sure the other team didn’t score. That year, he accumulated 23 saves and an amazing earned run average of 2.25. A year later, Mongiello played for the Birmingham Barons, one step closer to the big leagues, and a year after that, he made the grade with the Nashville Sounds, one step below the Chicago White Sox. His role shifted during this climb, allowing him to learn various aspects of pitching many other people might not have learned, giving him insight into the roles various pitchers play in helping win a game. Then, in 1995, just when he thought he finally would make the Spring Training Roster for the Chicago White Sox, the whole situation fell apart. The person who signed him had moved on, and he found himself in his mid-20s, when other people younger than he was already had years of major league experience under their belt. Mongiello decided to go back to school and get his degree in management, leaving the dream of a major league baseball career behind. Yet baseball remained in his blood. Helping the kids Even though the career he envisioned when a kid had slipped through his fingers, Mongiello found himself connecting with many of the kids who wanted the same thing he’d wanted back then. Mongiello decided to start a baseball clinic in 1996, working with area kids and sharing his knowledge with them, so that one of them might break through that last level into the major leagues. “I teach them the fundamentals of pitching,” Mongiello said, noting that while some kids want to learn trick pitches, he emphasizes the advantage of the fastball. “The most important aspect of pitching is location. Everyone wants to throw the ball at 100 miles per hour, and it’s great if you can, but not so great if you can’t get it over the plate. When it comes to pitching I tell them it’s ‘location, location, location.’ That’s the bottom line. If you can locate the ball, it’s a lot easier.” Mongiello will hold his clinic this year at Secaucus Recreation Center, with two different classes: one for ages 8, 9 and beginning 10, and one for boys 10 to 12. “I’m only working with younger kids this year because of time constraints,” Mongiello said. “I won’t be working with anyone over 12. It’s a shame. While I liked the younger kids, with the older kids I get to work on things like the stretch and pick-off move.” Mongiello said this is the best time of the year for his once-a-year clinic – before baseball season opens. He plans to teach new players his expertise in gripping the ball, while demonstrating different pitches, as well as how and when they should be used. “I try over everything that can happen in field. I don’t like to have anything happen they don’t expect,” he said, noting he will go over grips, delivery, fielding and other aspects of the game. “Pitching is more than just throwing a baseball,” he said. One thing Mongiello won’t teach young kids is the curveball. “I don’t teach kids younger than 16 the breaking ball,” he said. “If their muscles and bodies are not fully developed, they can hurt themselves.” But the former SHS slugger will teach some kids the cut fastball, which is a fastball that a pitcher grips slightly off center. “There is no strain and it can be very effective,” Mongiello said. “I tell the kids ‘Look at what Andy Pettitte has done on the New York Yankees,’ and their eyes get big.” Mongiello will also teach kids stretching exercises and good physical fitness, and talk about the importance of a good relationship between pitcher and catcher and the necessity to play a good defense. The clinic will be held at the Secaucus Recreation Center, 145 Front St., on Friday evenings for four weeks. The dates are March 3, 10, 17, and 24. There will be two different classes: one for ages 8, 9 and beginning 10, from 6:15 to 7:45 p.m., and one for boys 10 to 12 from 7:45 to 9:15 p.m. Classes are limited to 10 kids. For more information, call 348-4949 or to register call the Secaucus Adult School at 974-2027.
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