Through floods, demotions, Milone keeps hitting
HARTFORD — Perhaps you’ve seen the images of TD Bank Ballpark in Bridgewater Township, New Jersey, submerged in water after remnants of Hurricane Ida caused heavy damage on the East Coast late last week.
Somewhere in those images is Thomas Milone’s Jeep, one of about 16 cars owned by Somerset Patriot players that was parked in the players’ lot and damaged or destroyed by flooding from the nearby Raritan River.
Milone, the Monroe product and former Masuk High star, was on the road with the Patriots in Bowie, Maryland when the storm hit. The players were apprised of the damages on Friday, but didn’t see with their own eyes until the team returned home on Sunday evening.
“A lot of people had a lot of stuff that’s really meaningful in their cars, so it’s tough to see things like that,” Milone said. “We just try to stick together as much as possible and be there for each other. If anyone needs anything, help as much as you can. Everybody’s been good about it.”
Milone, who’s been living out of a hotel the past few weeks since returning to Somerset after a successful stint at Scranton/WilkesBarre, said he lost mostly “replaceable” stuff that was in his Jeep, though that included several bats and other baseball equipment.
“It’s definitely a tough scenario,” Milone noted, “but at this stage of the game, we can only try to stay positive as best we can and take it day by day.”
One “positive” from the whole situation is that Somerset wound up switching the site of three games this week with the Yard Goats from its home field to Dunkin’ Donuts Park in Hartford. Milone gets a chance to play in front of family and friends in Connecticut for the first time in his eightyear professional career before the series switches back to Somerset for the final three games, beginning Friday.
“It’ll be fun to see everybody and play back in my home state,” he said prior to Wednesday’s game.
Milone, hitting ninth in the order on Wednesday and playing right field, ripped a single up the middle in his first at-bat and scored the game’s first run.
Of course, you could make a strong argument that Milone shouldn’t even be with Somerset right now.
‘YOU’VE GOT TO CONTROL WHAT YOU CAN CONTROL’
He began the season with the Patriots, the Yankees’ Double-A affiliate, and hit .324 in 10 games before being promoted to Triple-A Scranton in midMay. He didn’t skip a beat, hitting .314 with the RailRiders for a month before being sent back down to Somerset.
Milone continued to hit with the Patriots, and when he was promoted back to Scranton on July 16, he seemed destined to at least spend the rest of the season there, especially while remaining a productive, versatile member of the RailRiders’ outfield.
Instead, on Aug. 10, he was sent back down to Somerset. Patriots manager Julio Mosquera remembers meeting with Milone in his office shortly after his return.
‘I told him, ‘You ready to play? I am happy to see you. I understand that you might not be happy to be here, but you know what, you’ve still got to play the game the right way,’” Mosquera recalled.
That wasn’t going to be an issue with Milone.
“He’s a great person, a great athlete,” Mosquera said. “He understands that the only way to do it is to go out on the field and keep proving that you can do things, and good things are gonna happen. He took it the right way.”
“I mean, it was definitely tough, but it’s something you can’t control,” Milone reasoned. “You’ve got to control what you can control, take it day by day. There’s a lot of really good talent here and a lot of really good guys ... When you get on the field, you just try to perform, try to win games and make the playoffs.”
Indeed, the Patriots are in the thick of a postseason race, sitting atop the Double-A Northeast standings, 2 1/2 games ahead of Portland entering Wednesday night’s bout with the lastplace Yard Goats.
“It’s always fun to be in the playoffs,” Milone noted. “Clearly, we all play to be in the big leagues. But if you play for your own team and try to win ballgames, usually the individual stuff is better that way, too, because you’re playing for each other. That’s really our goal.”
Thomas Milone’s “individual stuff” has been the best of his career so far. He was hitting .290 with 10 homers between his two stops this season — .294 with Somerset, .285 with Scranton. He had a teambest 38-game on-base streak with Somerset (stretching over three different stints) that was finally snapped on Aug. 25. Mosquera is comfortable playing him at all three outfield positions, noting his ability to chase down flyballs is “second to none.”
“Thomas has a lot of talent,” Mosquera said. “He brings a lot to the table. He’s a versatile outfielder, his hitting is showing up this year a lot, he’s had a lot of good at-bats for us. He’s done it in Triple-A, he’s done it here, he’s putting up professional at-bats. That’s what you look for.”
So why is Thomas Milone back in Double-A?
“I think one thing is the consistency,” Mosquera continued. “Throughout the minor-league system, the more consistent you get, the better opportunities you’re gonna get in this game. If he continues to be consistent, it doesn’t matter where you play right now: Double-A, Triple-A. At this stage of your baseball career, he proved that he can play in Triple-A, proved he can do it here.”
It also doesn’t help his cause that Milone is a 26year-old, veteran minorleague free agent, not a young homegrown talent whom the organization prioritizes. The Yankees also have had an abundance of former major-league outfielders at Triple-A (Greg Allen, Jonathan Davis) who have gotten the chance to be promoted to the big leagues this season before Milone.
“You’ve got to look at the positive side: You’re still playing the game, a lot of decisions are going to be made that you can’t control,” Mosquera said. “We’re gonna put you in a spot that we think is right for the organization and for yourself. It was easy for him to understand that part.”
You won’t get any complaining from Thomas Milone, whether it’s his Jeep being destroyed in a flood or being demoted to Double-A.
“It’s been a really fun year,” he insisted. “I’ve been around some really good guys, good teammates, good coaches. I’ve been comfortable almost everywhere I go, so it’s a nice feeling, for sure.”