Yankees pick Semmel pitches in to help Stamford Hospital
Former Westhill standout starts fundraiser for center where cousin works
Montana Semmel grew up a Yankees fan and, not surprisingly, Derek Jeter was his boyhood baseball idol. At 18 now, with a fastball that has tipped 97 mph on the radar gun, Semmel has his long-term aspirations, his long-term dream: The 6-4 right-hander from Stamford wants to work out of the fabled Yankees bullpen in the Bronx.
“I love watching Aroldis Chapman,” Semmel said. “That would be pretty cool to have his job.”
He knows being the “next Christin Lucia” would be pretty awesome, too.
Long-term dreams have crashed into short-term realities during these days of a global pandemic. In the hardest-hit city in one of the hardest-hit states in the nation, the short-term reality — at least we hope it’s short-term — is that it’s hard to find many people in Stamford who haven’t been touched in some way by COVID-19.
Statistics like ERA and WHIP and baseball’s sabermetrics have been put aside. Numbers like Stamford’s state-high 3,006 coronavirus cases heading into the weekend and 173 of the 3,339 state deaths are what we count and contemplate.
Semmel, taken by the Yankees in the 36th round of the 2019 MLB amateur draft, was touched quicker than most. He spent two weeks in quarantine at a Tampa hotel during spring training after a clubhouse attendant and two minorleague players — including his catch partner Denny Larrondo — tested positive for coronavirus. He said a couple of his Stamford friends’ grandmothers have since passed from COVID-19 and a few friends who had it are now symptom-free.
“I’m still hanging in there, working out and throwing with my brother every single day, trying to stay in shape,” Semmel said. “You can’t do anything about it. So you’ve got to hang in there and sit tight.”
The idiom “sitting tight” and the reality of sitting idly aren’t the same. With his cousin Christin working as a critical care nurse at Stamford Hospital, Semmel told his mom Melanie and his dad Kurt that he wanted to start a fundraiser for the hospital. So that’s what he did at the start of May. Donations to the COVID-19 Pandemic Response Fund will help cover necessary equipment, technology, patient programs, services and support operating expenses at the hospital.
“Early on, I wasn’t really bothered by the disease itself,” Semmel said. “We were kind of stuck in the hotel. They brought us food and everything. There was nothing really to be scared of, we just didn’t know what was going on, what the season would be. We were more worried about baseball than COVID-19.”
That would change as the baseball world was suspended while he was in quarantine. Semmel returned to a different Stamford.
“Christin would call my mother every day, telling her how bad it is,” Semmel said. “Everyone knows how bad it is now. Hearing it from a family member — we’re very close — it just hits harder and motivated me more to help the community out.
“I called my agency (Beverly Hills Sports Council), they called Stamford Hospital and we got it going. Let’s see what I can do, how much I can help raise.”
Stamford Hospital, which has seen a slight reduction in COVID-19 patients in recent days, has been at the state epicenter of the disease. Lucia, 40, works as a clinical resource nurse. The clinical resource responds to all emergencies in the hospital. She’s “the roving ICU nurse.”
These are the times when we are reminded how loosely we can use the term heroes during the easy times. It is during the hard times we learn about the real heroes. In military battle or the medical battle with a pandemic, millions of folks on the front lines put themselves at risk.
Kurt Semmel was a lieutenant in the Stamford Fire Department. Melanie was a 911 dispatcher. Montana’s brother Hunter wants to be a fireman. Fireman.
Roving ICU nurse.
A 911 dispatcher. A budding baseball “fireman.”
Coming to the rescue evidently runs in the family.
“I was born and raised in a front-line family,” Semmel said. “I’m all for it. I’d give anything for them. That’s the how I feel, right? Give the front line all my support. I’m very thankful to what they’re doing, now especially.
“I want to say that no matter where it is, everyone should support the front line and their hospitals.”
Semmel, who graduated at 17 from Westhill last June — seems like 10 years ago, doesn’t it? — signed with the Yankees’ Kelly Rodman in July and pitched 91⁄3 innings in six relief appearances at their Gulf Coast League affiliate. He had overcome Tommy John surgery as a junior and was training hard at Overdrive in Bobby Valentine’s Sports Academy through the autumn and winter, prepared to show up for his first training camp in the best shape of his life.
Early in March, he left camp for a few days to attend the Connecticut funeral of the 44-year-old Rodman, one of MLB’s three full-time female scouts. And then instead of throwing his first bullpen, instead of extended spring training before heading to a short-season club in Staten Island or Pulaski, Virginia, he returned home and became part of the long wait.
“I’m probably going to be a relief pitcher, that’s what they like me as,” said Semmel,
who throws a fastball, slider and changeup. “As far as improvement there hasn’t been one main point for me, just better overall with my mechanics and everything.”
Major league baseball will have to figure out a return first. With the traditional minor league seasons expected to be wiped out, some taxi squads are expected to be formed. Who knows exactly what will happen as far as organized camps for minor leaguers? In the meantime, Semmel does his designated workouts.
“I’m very anxious, I want to get back on the field,” Semmel said. “You can’t do anything about it. No one can, really. It’s a world pandemic. You can only wait and see what happens.”
So he dreams big, sits tight, but not idly, and does the best kind of work a young man can.
“All my friends and family have encouraged me,” Semmel said. “Even random people are messaging me on Instagram and Facebook telling me how awesome it is.”
To help Montana Semmel with a donation: support.stamfordhospitalfoundation.org/nyyms