Did you say 3 Cs? (WGR)

Editor's Notes: Due to BOD policy, unless a parential consent is given, student photographs may not be published. Any photo seen prior to this update  that identifies any of the students from MCSM has been removed and will not reappear unless parential consent is filed with the principal. 

El Barrio-Spanish Harlem – On April 7th 2010, New York Yankees Scout Cesar Presbott was spotted in the baseball fields of Spanish Harlem’s Jefferson Park off 1st Avenue, not far from Manhattan Center for Science and Math (MCSM) high school, just 3 days after the Yankees opened the 2010 season in Boston.

Mr. Presbott was doing what he loves to do the most: become a teacher of baseball fundamentals to young aspiring baseball players. And while Mr. Prsebott’s main function as a New York Yankees’ scout is to evaluate and judge the talent of future prospects, the students belonging to this school’s baseball team known as the Manhattan Center Rams were about to experience the passion and intensity offered by an award winning scout in a special baseball lesson otherwise known as a baseball clinic. Mr. Presbott has worked as an area scout for the Yankees for the last 17 years.

The Manhattan Center Rams had already warmed up playing catch on an unusual spring day that resembled a heat-wave Dog Day of summer when they were gathered for a pep talk from Mr. Presbott.

His pep talk, before the students broke out of their grass “classroom” formation for a fielding-throwing drill, included the potential of the substantial financial reward that hard work and practice on the field could lead to as a player in the Major Leagues.

This is instruction out of the classroom, for sure. (WGR)

Then Mr. Presbott proceeded to model a simulated infield play that involved catching a ground ball and throwing to the first baseman. As Latino Sports writer Aris Sakellaridis wrote in this website in January 2009, “He’ll roll up his sleeves, put on a glove and conduct his own personal clinic.  He’ll take ground balls and show the correct way to pivot the feet and transfer of the ball.”  He’ll call it ‘The Yankee way.’ 

The Yankee Way in motion (WGR)

“The Yankee way” drill involving two sets of players lasted some twenty minutes with Mr. Presbott intermittently taking over the drill to model the catch and pivot saying along the way, “Don’t just be happy to be good but work at being the best; otherwise stay home.”

Then Mr. Prescott regrouped the students for a final drill, but this time mental one. It is one that probably can be deemed as “Presbottism.” “Don’t forget the 3 Cs,” he reminded them.   

Manhattan Center Rams Manager Richard Leon explained to this writer what each word associated with the C stood for, but in Spanish. Mr. Presbott is a native of the Dominican Republic so he has sprinkled his baseball clinics with Spanish language words.

Cesar Presbott In motion Part 2 (WGR)

Here we go: the first C stands for Cabeza (use your head); the second C for Corazon (to have heart); the third, the third (yes, a repeat) C stands for Cojones (you have to have balls in baseball, no?).

Mr. Leon has been the Ram’s manager for 10 years. Actually he is also a teacher, but at Isaac Newtown Junior High School of Science & Math housed in the same building as the High School. His assistant coach is John Silvers, teacher-dean at MCSM.  Rafael “Chuchi” Ponce, who manages his own Little League Team, the Boricua AllStars Little League, also serves as assistant coach.

Between the Manhattan Center Rams and the Little League team under Mr. Ponce, baseball is alive and well in El Barrio, Spanish Harlem – despite City and Budget cuts. With people’s needs financially strapped by government fiscal policies – and these economic times mean exactly that for the budgets affecting public and social services, Ms. Esperanza Ramirez steps in to feverishly make things happen; that, for example, help keep a little League team functioning.

For the nation’s pastime, why not; if baseball is to have a home grown pool of future players the efforts of people like Ms Ramirez, Mr. Presbott who also runs the Cesar Presbott Foundation, Rafael “Chuchi” Ponce, Cesar Diaz, and John Silvers would bring a baseball game to a city park near you.

Finally, each student of the Manhattan Center Rams ended their 3:30 to 5:30 after-school baseball clinic receiving a baseball jersey from Mr. Cesar Prescott with the name “Rams,” and the student name on it. Manager Diaz and his coaches will pick up from where New York Yankees Area Scout Cesar Prescott left off – in an afternoon after school workout and game in El Barrio-Spanish Harlem.

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