Zoom with Boone a real boom for Cannons
It’s not often that youth, or high school-level baseball players get to talk about the sport with a Major League manager, but members of the Greenwich Cannons American Legion program had a special opportunity to do so.
New York Yankees manager and Greenwich resident Aaron Boone joined a group of Cannons players on a Zoom meeting last week. Alex Loparco, one of the coaches of the Cannons’ Senior American Legion team, arranged for Boone talk baseball with the athletes.
“They were definitely shocked when he came on the Zoom call,” said Loparco, a 2015 Greenwich High School graduate, who played baseball at Western New England University. “One of our players submitted a couple of questions to Aaron Boone and then he gave the kids an idea of what the sport is like at the highest level.”
Loparco said Boone described what’s involved in being a good teammate and how significant it is at every level of baseball.
“The discussion focused mainly on team culture and how to be a successful person on and off the field,” Loparco said. “He was awesome, he really went into depth and spent a lot of time talking to the kids.”
Loparco met Boone over the winter, while coaching a group of players during a winter clinic at Bobby Valentine’s Sports Academy in Stamford. Among the players Loparco coached was Boone’s 13-year old son.
During the winter, Loparco started a coaching podcast and Boone joined him on one of his podcasts.
“I was fortunate to talk to him for about 30-35 minutes,” Loparco said. “We talked about what his philosophies are as a coach and things like what has helped make him successful. He was also great when he was talking to the kids. His personality radiates to those guys.”
Due to the COVID-19 crisis, sports at every level is on hold. There are thoughts that the MLB season may start in June, or July, with games being held at non-traditional venues. It remains to be seen what will transpire, regarding professional sports.
As for American Legion baseball, the Regional and National Championships
have already been canceled, due to the coronavirus pandemic, and the organization is holding out hope that the state championships can still take place.
“At this point, we just want to play baseball at some point,” Loparco said. “Our season is scheduled to start in late June, so we’ll see if they can follow a contingency plan.”
The opening of summer baseball depends on the process in which state activities are able to open up and the availability of fields.
To keep members of the Cannons program in contact with each other, Loparco has scheduled Zoom meetings.
“Most of the kids join and we talk about what they are up, to different TV shows, they are watching and some baseball drills they can do,” Loparco said. “We’ve also had Q & A a bunch of kids I used to coach and some guys I played college baseball with. It’s a good platform for the kids.”