T.j. Chism was home in Philadelphia during this past offseason when a friend told him Frank Viola was the new pitching coach for the Brooklyn Cyclones, Chism’s minor-league team in the Mets organization.
“I’d never heard his name before,” the 22-year-old left-hander said. “Nobody really knew who he was going into spring training. He was just the new guy who was loud and had a New York accent.”
It wasn’t until later that he and his teammates figured out their new coach had a pretty impressive resume — including the 1987 World Series MVP and the 1988 Cy Young Award, both with the Twins.
And that’s fine with Viola.
“These kids don’t care who I am,” Viola, who pitched for the Mets from 1989-91, said.
“Once they learn, they might be a little interested, but they’re much more interested in what I can do for them — which is the way it should be.”
Viola, 51, last pitched in the majors in 1996. He spent 10 years coaching high-school baseball in Orlando and another three in a collegiate summer league in Florida,
so he’s accustomed to
the fact that most of his
players aren’t too aware of his history.
Now, he’s back in pro baseball. Viola talked to Mets assistant GM J.P. Ricciardi at the winter meetings in Orlando in December. The two had previously run into each other when Viola was doing Red Sox broadcasts for NESN and Ricciardi was GM in Toronto.
“When you have a chance to get a guy
who won a Cy Young
Award, you take him,” Ricciardi said.
“I knew if we didn’t, someone else would grab him. And most guys
want to start at the top.
Frank didn’t care where
he went.”
Said Viola, who spent less than a year in the minors after being drafted out of St. John’s in 1981: “I just wanted to get my foot in the door. I never had to pay many dues while I was playing, so maybe now I will.”
So after meeting with Ricciardi; Paul DePodesta, VP of player
development and scouting; minor-league field coordinator Dickie Scott; and minor-league director Adam Wogan,
the Long Island native
came home.
“It’s been a while since I’ve been here,” said Viola, who won 20 games for the Mets in 1990.
“The last time I was here, I think I was
booed profusely, of my own doing.”
The atmosphere figures to be considerably more relaxed at MCU Park than it was at Shea Stadium.
“You can definitely tell this is where he wants to be,” said right-hander Jeff Walters.
“It’s obvious that he’s worked with young players before, because he really knows how to deal with us.”
Walters is from Orlando and faced Viola’s team in the collegiate summer league after his freshman year.
“I knew who he was and thought his players were lucky to be taught by a guy like that,” Walters said.
And while the Class-A season only recently started, Viola already is having an impact.
“He’s changed my aggressiveness towards hitters,” said Chism, who worked with Viola in extended spring training in Port St. Lucie. “He’s big on attacking guys.”
He’s also big on letting pitchers pitch.
“I kind of like the Nolan Ryan thing,” Viola said of the Rangers part-owner and CEO.
“Let kids go a little bit longer and suck it up. Why not get hit in the minors and learn from that rather than get to the big leagues never having done it?”
He hasn’t decided whether he wants to coach in the majors, but Ricciardi has no doubt Viola can.
“Frank will go as far as he wants to,” Ricciardi said.
Right now, that’s to Coney Island.
