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Post 218 Has Seen Privatization But Will Bottom Line Be Similar
By Matt Manley
As far as the makeup of a baseball team is concerned, the Mercer County American Legion League has two kinds of teams.
The first is the team that is composed primarily of players from one school with select players from other area schools filling in the remaining roster spots. Teams like Ewing, Broad Street Park, and Hamilton have used this method and have enjoyed recent success.
The second kind of team is the one that draws a relatively similar number of players from several area schools. North Trenton, Hightstown, and Bordentown have all had success with this method.
Until recently, Princeton Post 218 has been the first type of team. The main components of the team have been players from Princeton High School, while the remaining roster spots have been occupied by players from other area schools like the Hun School, Lawrenceville, and Princeton Day School.
However, over the last two years, the makeup of the team has changed quite notably. After carrying 13 and 12 players from PHS on an 18-man roster in 2001 and 2002, respectively, that number has dropped to eight in each of the past two seasons.
Post 218 Manager Tom Parker, who guided the team for the past 15 years, has seen this change before.
"The make up of the team seems to swing back and forth every so often," explained Parker. "I've been doing this for years now, and we've had some teams that had more private school kids than PHS kids much like this one. Most of the time we get our core group from PHS, but sometimes we end up getting a lot of good private school kids like we have this year."
Maybe more surprising than just the number of private school players is the impact of this year's group of private school players. On the 2001 team, PHS was normally represented at eight of the nine positions on the field on most days, with of course, a few games with two or three private school players in the lineup. That number dropped into the range of five or six PHS players in both 2002 and 2003.
This season, despite an equal number of PHS representatives as last year's squad, only two PHS players (Doug Austin and Rob Begin) appear regularly in the starting lineup, while several others appear in only certain situations. Parker believes the new reliance on private school talent will only help the team in the future.
"The good thing about it is that we're able to draw good talent from a lot of different places," Parker pointed out. "It's nice to be able to get guys who can play from a few different schools, so when we do get a lot of Princeton High kids, we can be that much better off."
While Parker did not seem concerned after experiencing this change before, the players seemed to respond with a different overall impression when assessing the team's changed composition.
Two players that are familiar with coming from each of the two different sides are Alex Sugiura and Dan O'Brien, both of whom transferred from PHS to PDS after their sophomore seasons.
"You get a different perspective in that you're playing with guys that you competed against all year," said Sugiura. "To gel with each other instantly is impossible, so I think we've had to use these first few games to get a feel for each other as a group."
"We're playing with guys who we've never played with," said O'Brien. "Some of the guys know each other, but a lot of us don't know what the others can do. Like today (Tuesday against Bordentown) was the first time I pitched to Brian (Scanlon)."
Similar thoughts can be found by talking to players from other schools. "It hurts us that we can't play together more often," said Austin, who played three years of varsity baseball at PHS. "We have a lot of guys from different places, and that's not necessarily a bad thing."
While agreeing with his teammates that most of them are unfamiliar with each other at first, Hun player Wellington Talkpa has a more positive perspective on the team's developing diversity.
"For chemistry purposes, it kind of hurts us," said Talkpa. "In terms of talent though, I think it can be good for us because we get a good mix of kids from a lot of places. Also, some of the talent that might go to waste during the year at PHS gets to play with a different group and play competitively."
In bringing up the shortcomings of the PHS program which has won a total of four games over the past two seasons, Talkpa's point raises another significant issue. With the recent success of Hun and PDS, who have played better than .500 ball and have fared well in the state Prep tournaments, are these shortcomings reflected in the talent and attitude of the PHS players? And if so, has the private school attitude rubbed off on the PHS players or vice versa?
"I feel like the prep school kids are hungrier," said Talkpa, whose Hun team regularly advances far into in the Prep A tournament, having won the title in 2002. "It seems like the PHS kids take losing a little easier because they have been through it. We are all just trying to develop the same hunger to win."
O'Brine, who has been on both sides of the fence, notices a difference in coaching. "I think the coaching is a little more complete in the private schools," said O'Brien. "It seems like the public school kids are behind everybody else on the first day of Legion practice. I know that's how I felt last year."
Surprisingly, PHS star Austin agreed with his teammates on their assessment of the difference in attitude between the players from different schools
"It seems like the private school kids are more confident and more intense," said Austin. "It seems like when we come together, it's the private school kids that are picking us up with their intensity, and it makes us play better."
While Parker acknowledges that his team struggled early as it incorprates the players from different schools, he sees the challenge as a minor obstacle and believes the team will be better suited for the future.
"Our team philosophy is just that, we are a team," explained Parker. "Everyone uses what they have learned from experience and uses that in situations on the field. They need to believe in what they know and come together to find their team identity."
Sugiura also thinks that the mix of talent is a good thing in the long run. "The more places we draw from, the more players we draw, the more talent we can choose from, and the better we'll be."
After its 20-10 win over Ewing last Monday, Post 218 had a record of 4-6, having gone 1-3 in its last four games. While there are still many games left to be played in the 2004 season, it looks as though the new team identity is well on the way to producing the same old result.
