Welcome to Staten Island, Mr. McMahon

New manager brings years of experience to the Richmond County Bank Ballpark

By: Robert Pimpsner

April 29, 2008 – In September of 2007 the New York Yankees made a move in their player development department.  That move was hiring former college head coach Pat McMahon as the new Special Assistant for Player Development and Scouting.  In addition to his duties in Player Development, Mr. McMahon will be taking over the reigns as skipper of the Staten Island Yankees.  At the collegiant level he was 555-287 between Old Dominion, Mississippi State, and the University of Florida.  At the 2008 Back-to-Baseball Bash Baby-Bombers.com had the chance to briefly sit down with the new Baby Bomber manager.

Baby-Bombers.com (BB):    Now that you seen the Ballpark, what do you think of it?

Pat McMahon (PM):             It’s just, it’s so impressive you know and we talked just a minute ago about initial feel.  You know from the minute I flew in early from Indianapolis and from the minute I walked into the ballpark everybody has come up and said hello and introduced themselves.  That’s very impressive to make you feel very welcomed.  If you’re a player with aspirations of playing in the major leagues and you have the opportunity everyday to come to the ballpark and look across the harbor and you see the beautiful skyline of NYC it puts so much into perspective.

BB:     You were working down in extended spring training, what prospects have impressed you so far?

PM:     Well, you know one of the things that I think generally speaking is what I have been very impressed with the teaching and the developmental plan, from the coaches and the managers and the organizational perspective.  From the players perspective I am very impressed with their work ethic and their attention to detail.  The spring training perspective the outline, from a player development perspective where the players and coaches line from an organizational attention to detail was just phenomenal and Pat Russell [player development director] I think deserves an awful lot of credit putting a wonderful plan in place with Mark Newman, that’s important to me.  From an individual player perspective what I been very impressed about is their attention to detail on a professional level.  I mean they are working hard on a day-to-day plan to get better and so individual players there are so many you know from a pitching development prospect from catching from infield there are so many young talented players too.  To name individuals I should go on-and-on through the entire organization, but I will tell you that seeing a lot of our players perform against some of the other organizations in spring training has been very exciting to me.

BB:     Being a former college head coach and now a professional manager do you feel there are adjustments you have to make to how you coach the players coming in?

PM:     You know, to me baseball is an individualized sport wrapped around a team sport and so players must understand that their strengths and to stay within their strengths to perform at optimal levels.  That’s so important, if a player [as an example] is a power hitter that is trying to use the short game is not conducive to his overall development.  By the same token a player who can really run is just trying to hit homeruns might not be in line to help his development.  So from that perspective getting down to pitching and catching etc, those are key components that players must understand their own individual strengths to help themselves improve and also stay within the developmental plan, their objectives as a player.  So what appears to be a very simple question is very complicated because that’s a key component and also mentally the big difference would be the day-to-day repetitions of work.  At the college level you play a three-game series a couple days off games in the middle of the week.  Professional players day-after-day-after-day need to perform and stay within themselves to continue to work hard and get better and can they handle that.  Can a player handle 0 for 14 and not take their offense to their defense or his defense to his offense can also be apart of that process.  So wonderful question, I appreciate it, we can go on-and-on about that if that makes sense.

BB:     In your new position with the Yankees you’re allowed to assist in the draft process, is that correct?

PM:     Well, yes.  Technically the title is Special Assistant for Player Development and Scouting.  So what has been exciting to me is after spring training I been on the road with our scouts looking at players and that’s been a wonderful, wonderful and very enjoyable process to look at some of the better players and prospects at the collegiant and high school levels that will have an opportunity through the draft to become professionals.  So it gives me another frame of reference that I am very appreciative of about seeing the bigger picture of what goes on from every aspect within the New York Yankees.  I had the chance to go down to the Dominican on two separate occasions in the Dominican Republic and see some of our Latin American players perform and the coaches down there which has just been a tremendous experience.

BB:     Does this put you in a better position to understand the ability of new the players that are coming in after the draft?

PM:     You know, I think it does because being in instructional ball with some of our top line prospects and then being down in early January where we brought players in and then see all the players from the Triple-A down to the younger players who were just drafted players.  Seeing a player who has been around for an extended period of time in professional baseball along with some new prospects that are just come into play.  To see the development because a lot of it is physical maturity, a lot of it is understanding what they need to do within their strengths to get better, understanding their own objectives positionaly and organizationally.  So there are many, many facets there that are huge components to seeing the big picture is a big part, for example our Triple-A club different then our players who have just signed professionally.  There’s a huge age gap, there’s a huge developmental strength gap to see that combination and also seeing some of the very young, young players in the Dominican Republic.  There has been a wonderful networking for me to see everybody at one time.