METS FANTASY CAMP 2012
METS FANTASY CAMP 2012
Mets Fantasy Camp Player Profile: Mike Lary
Baseball, almost alone among our sports, traffics unashamedly and gloriously in nostalgia, for only baseball understands time and treats it with respect. The history of other sports seems to begin anew with each generation, but baseball, that wondrous myth of twentieth century America, gets passed on like an inheritance.
Stanley Cohen , the great baseball writer didn’t write that about Mike Lary ,but the quote like his uniform fits him perfectly.I noticed Mike Lary on day one of camp, it is hard not to. In a camp filled with players cursed with middle bodies, Mike, a 33 year old network engineer from Little Rock Arkansas, is one of the most physically fit athletes in the complex . His manager Buddy Harrelson calls him “Mad Mountain Dean.” Mike has one of those personalties that people gravitate to. I knew at one point in the camp , he was one of the stories I wanted to hear. Sometimes a writers intuition pays off.
Camp has been a whirlwind of activity and my writing has been done late at night and really has consisted of recaps of the days activities. I really wanted to capture the players stories as well, but before I knew it camp was winding down.
Today I wanted to talk to Mike a bit, get some back round on him and his email address so I could follow up with him.
What happened afterwards was one of the big highlights of camp for me. With notebook and pen in hand , I walked over to Mike to get his story. The first question I have been asking campers is how and why they are here ? Mike responded because of “The high stinky cheese “ a reference to a line from the movie “Rookie of the Year”. Mike’s good friend and former colleague at Alltel Ben Boyd tweeted that line in a Delta airlines contest that was asking for the best sports movie lines. In June Ben found out he had won an all inclusive trip to Fantasy camp for himself and 3 of his close friends. Ben didn’t have to ask Mike twice as Mike knew a little bit about camp, but a lot about baseball. To be 100% accurate Mike’s response to the question was “Hell Yes “ with just a twinge of an Arkansas accent. Mike couldn’t wait to get on a field again as he was a very good prospect in high school until he blew out his elbow in his senior year. Baseball is also in his DNA, as he told me his Dad played semi pro ball for the Tigers and his Grandfather played Pro ball. When I asked Mike how far in professional ball his grandfather got he said the Majors. Now if you are reading this and are a huge Met fan you have a huge advantage and may know where this is headed. I pride myself on my knowledge of Met History as well as major league baseball history, however I was thrown off by the jersey Mike was wearing in the beginning of camp. As you can see by the photo on the right the clubhouse guys goofed and added an extra “R” to Mikes last name, as we were talking and Mike revealed his grandfathers name was Frank Lary, I let him know that not only did his grandfather play for the Tigers, but he also played for the 1964 and 1965 NY Mets. And if that wasn’t good enough, I informed Mike that two of his grandfather’s teammates were in camp, Bud Harrelson (Mike’s Manager) and Al Jackson . Mike and I went in search of the two of them, to get some insight into a man Mike has never met (irony in that word should not be lost on anyone).
While Bud Harrelson did remember Frank, It was Al Jackson that really touched Mike. Al Jackson described Frank Lary as “just a great guy,a man of great character, a man of his word, someone that didn’t tolerate any bullshit.”
Reflecting on that description a little bit later, I asked Mike what those words meant to him. Mike paused a second and then said “ Sounds just like my dad, and maybe me a little, but I guess that depends on who you ask.”
I asked Mike if he had called his Dad to relay the story to him, and he said he had texted his mom, and she responded “Dad said that Frank really only spoke about his real good years on the Tigers, and they had meant to see him seven years ago, but life got in the way.”
I was happy I was able to give Mike some first hand accounts of his grandfather, the man his teammates also called "Taters," "Mule," and the "Yankee Killer” (was 27-10 against the Yankees). We moved on to his experience at camp to close out the interview. Mike beaming from ear to ear said “ It easily has been the best experience in the last 15 years of my life, to be a serious competitive ballplayer who had dream taken away due to injury and then to come down here all these years later and strap on the cleats and to be surrounded by legit Hall of Fame guys, playing and getting a small taste of what life in the Big Leagues is like is a dream come true. Mike continued on to say” Honestly the first day during outfield drills I had to fight back tears, I just had this sense come over me that this is where I was meant to be, it’s what I should have been doing all along, I already can’t wait for next year as I am definitely come back, it’s been the absolute perfect balance,games, time to work and talk with the pro’s, time to hang with teammates and friends, working and talking with Doug Flynn and Turk Wendell is beyond words, and you can’t just single them out because everyone here is just so positive, authentic ,just such real people.”
Ok so that story should be good enough right ? Well it gets just a bit better, As I am sitting in the coaches room writing this story, with a crazed New Orleans Saints fan by the name of Ron Swoboda (an entire story in itself), I am looking into the career of Frank Lary a little more, and I notice that on Wikipedia and Baseball Reference.com there is no date of death listed.I continue dig a little deeper and within in a few minutes and a couple of searches on the web I have a phone number and address. They say truth is stranger then fiction, well Mike’s grandfather lives on a street named Baseball way ! I turn to my son Josh and tell him I found Mike’s grandfather and he is still alive and I have a phone number. Josh tempering my enthusiasm a bit, said “you just can’t go by the internet, his grandfather could have passed and it maybe his number, but you just can tell Mike his grandfathers alive without knowing that for a fact “ Point well taken and as you can see in the photos, you don’t want Mike on your bad side. I dialed the number and I didn’t want to tip Frank off that he has a grandson who happens to be a wonderful man, someone who after spending a little time with this week, I would describe the same way Al Jackson did of Frank. Frank answered the phone and I just told him that I was at Mets Fantasy camp and was talking to Al Jackson about some of the pitchers he played with in his day, and would love to interview him one day down the road, to which he agreed.
Ok so I turned to Josh once again for advise now that I verified that Mike’s grandfather was in fact alive and well and that I had his phone number. Josh said” you can tell him he is alive and you have his number if he wants it.” Great advise,I did just that at the awards banquet tonight and Mike was really excited about it, he promised to keep me updated, so I can add to the story.
I know a lot of the guys in camp have been going to the blog, if you notice at the bottom of each page there is a comment section, that is for you to share your thoughts and to have a thread amongst yourself. You guys made the camp something very special for Josh and I , I will be adding lots more profiles in the next few days, but please feel free to comment on each entry. If you had the privilege to play with Mike on Buddy’s Guy’s, talk about it below in the comment box.
Sunday, January 15, 2012