Jerry Manuel’s coaching staff just got a lot bigger.
Boasting more than a millennium’s worth of experience, a feisty group of elderly Long Island softball players filmed an instructional video yesterday that they hope will re-introduce the not-so-Amazin’ Mets to the game’s fundamentals.
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“I may not be able to get around like I used to, but I know the basics,” said Ed Ottinger, 74, of Seaford. “And I think the Mets need a little help with that.”
The rangy outfielder with deceptive speed said that he and his crew of septuagenarian swatters had grown tired of the Mets’ bumbling ways and hoped that the Tom Emanski-style video might wake them up.
Things came to a head when the group convened for one of their three weekly doubleheaders after Luis Castillo’s infamous flub of a pop-up against the Yankees in June.
“They griped that we’re 70 and we’re better than these guys,” said Howard Cannon, a spokesman for the Bristal assisted living company that sponsors their league.
Sonny Richards, 71, said that the Mets season had come to resemble a blooper reel of dropped pop-ups, baserunning atrocities, and inexplicable balks.
“The players these days don’t seem to know the basics of the game,” he said. “It’s all in fun, but we wanted to show them how to do the simple things.”
In a copy of their training schedule obtained by The Post, the roughly 20 players outline some of the tenets of their baseball philosophy: don’t admire long drives, run out ground balls, use two hands when catching pop-ups, and never, ever, showboat on the field.
With cameras rolling, the members of the Long Island Senior Softball Association put their words into action. Picturesque bunts were laid down, fly balls were caught with two hands, and outfield flies were called for with authority.
Slick gloveman Sal Frosina, 71, lamented the loss of fundamental baseball knowledge that ruled the summertime pickup games of his youth.
The former Brooklyn Dodgers-turned-Mets fan said that the kids who didn’t know the basics of tagging up, putting the body in front of grounders, and backing up plays at the plate were left to watch their buddies have all the fun.
“When I was growing up, if you didn’t know the game, you didn’t play,” he said. “It was that simple.”
A spokesperson for the Mets said yesterday, “We appreciate the Bristal All Stars passion for and interest in the Mets and look forward to seeing their video.”