Hosts Mike Guidone and Chris Caputo open the hour by remembering the late Don Cooper with Bob Hirschfield, the longtime Long Island baseball coach, best known as the former head baseball coach at NYIT, where he led the program for about 30 years. Before coaching, he played at St. John’s University and was part of its 1968 College World Series team. Bob shares stories about Cooper’s journey from a standout New York high school player to a respected Major League pitching coach.

Hirschfield looks back at Cooper’s days at McClancy and NYIT, along with the pitching workshops where he helped young players sharpen their skills through practice stations, video review, and plenty of repetition.

Cooper’s approach was about building on what a pitcher already did well. Rather than completely changing someone’s mechanics, he focused on small adjustments, pitch location, sequencing, and confidence. Hirschfield recalls how Cooper made each player feel valued while reminding them that improvement took hard work.

The conversation also touches on NYIT’s move to Division I, the New York Baseball Academy, and the connections that helped players and college programs grow. Stories of Cooper stepping off a plane in shorts to run a clinic or talking baseball at a local deli capture someone who stayed close to his roots and always made time for others.

Throughout the segment, Cooper comes across as more than an accomplished White Sox pitching coach. He was a dedicated teacher and mentor who made learning enjoyable, believed in his players, and helped them believe in themselves.

Takeaways:

• Mike and Chris open the episode with a sincere homage to Don Cooper, and he is vividly depicted as charismatic, loyal, and pedagogically gifted in both pitching craft and mentorship.
• Coach Bob Hirschfeld, delineates Cooper's concrete methodology — repetitive location drills, pitch sequencing, and psychological scaffolding — arguing that elite pitching is as much cognitive engineering as biomechanical power.
• Mike and Chris revisit NYIT's program arc, where he recounts fiscal crises, resilient recruiting itineraries, and adaptive travel-based exposure strategies that sustained Division I competitiveness despite institutional resource constraints.
• Bob articulates a managerial ethos centered on maximizing existing player traits rather than wholesale mechanic overhauls, a pragmatic developmental paradigm focused on confidence, repetition, and situational sequencing.
• Mike and Chrispivot to football coverage with AJ Rovener, who explains that the Giants' evolving identity will likely rest on defensive tenacity, superior special teams execution, and pragmatic quarterback contingency planning.
• Fred Kangi, diagnoses widespread declines in high school participation as multifactorial — post‑COVID disengagement, pervasive club-year specialization, and shifting youth priorities — necessitating systemic feeder-program revitalization.
• Mike and Chris propose pragmatic remedies: he urges cross‑sector collaboration among schools, community leagues, and private clubs to implement school‑first policies, flexible scheduling, and incentives for multi‑sport participation to arrest attrition.
• Mike and Chris close with layered anecdotes and strategic implications, reminding listeners that consistent coaching philosophy, community engagement, and mentorship remain indispensable to preserving the long‑term health of athletic ecosystems.

The views expressed in the following program.

Do not necessarily represent those of the.

Staff, management or owners of wgbb.

Live from the WGPB studios in Merrick, New York, this is Sports Talk New York.

From the windy and wet studios here in Long Island, New York, this is WGBB Sports Talk New York.

I'm your host, Mike Widone, joined as always by the man we call Cappy, Chris Caputo.

As we have the Nor' Easter edition of our Sunday night talk, got a packed show for you.

Very happy in just a moment to welcome coach Bob Hirschfeld from NYIT to talk about his friend and former major leaguer Don Cooper, who was a mainstay in the baseball world, especially here on Long Island, New York City with the Chicago White Sox.

A little later on in the half hour, we're going to talk to A.J.

Rovener about the offensive explosion out at what we call old Giants or new Giants Stadium.

And then later on in the show, we're going to finish up with Fred Kanji, who's going to join us just to give a unique perspective on the state of high school sports and how the lack of student athlete participation is affecting things and the coaches.

But before we do any of that, welcome back to our esteemed co host, Cap Chris Caputo.

How you doing tonight, buddy?

Mike, thanks for welcoming me in.

And you know, we're back in the studios.

It's a little bit rainy out there and windy and you know, the sports are kind of taking a back seat.

But there is some playoff baseball in New York.

There is some football going on and there's plenty to talk about tonight.

Absolutely.

It's a shame the Yankees, you know, got rained out in their last game today.

Don't have to make it up.

So poor people were out there for three hours.

Yeah.

Buying hot dogs and beer.

Pete Alonso didn't get to hit another bomb.

Yeah.

Well, that's a whole other story for another time.

But one of the main stories we want to focus on tonight is Don Cooper, who was a pitching coach for the White Sox, also played a little bit for the Yankees and Blue Jays and Twins throughout his career.

A New York guy spent his college time and some other time coming back to New York Institute of Technology, which is a place both you and I coached.

And and we'd like to welcome in coach Bob Herzfeld, who was the head coach at NYT for so long and can give us Really a great perspective on the man they called Coop, Don Cooper.

Coach Mike and Chris here on Long Island.

How are you doing tonight?

I hope things are doing okay down up with you guys.

I know how tough it could be down at South Shore when you have these Northeasterns.

Yeah.

You know, luckily we're.

Well, we got to the studio okay.

We didn't have to get into a boat.

I'm in Hicksville.

Chris is a little bit closer to that, so not too bad.

But thankfully we're here, we're dry, and we're happy to talk to you and, you know, we're hoping that you could give us your perspective on Don Cooper.

Just, you know, how you came to know Koop and his.

Just his whole background and, you know, the great effect that he had on nyit, baseball and beyond.

Yeah.

Well, first of all, I got to tell you, my name is Hirsch Field.

Oh, I'm sorry.

That's okay.

But that's a mistake a lot of people make sometimes.

But as far as Coop, let me talk about him.

First of all, I first came across him when he was playing actually basketball from McClensey High School.

That's back when I was coaching at St. Agnes High School in Rockville center under Frank Morris.

And a lot of people don't realize he was a heck of a basketball player, hate to shoot.

And I never saw him play baseball in high school at McClancy.

But he was first recruited by a guy by the name of Al Goldis and Richie Tappett.

And Al Goldis lives in Sarasota.

Down here, he's in the Scouts hall of Fame.

And Richie, he left Tech right away, and Richie Tappen took over.

So he.

Donnie basically played under Richie.

And just before I got there, he was drafted.

And I believe he was under control at the end of his junior year.

And he signed when he completed his senior year, you know, before the draft you're eligible to sign in those days, just before the draft from the previous team.

And then he went on, and that's when I first met him when he was playing.

He would come back for an alumni game when he was playing his first year, you know, with the Yankees.

And he made pretty good progress through.

And I did watch him play, and I did go see him play a couple of times in the minor leagues when he was pitching various teams, we drove up to Pawtucket, we drove different places.

I saw him pitch in Toledo, and we became pretty good friends and we was involved in things that the New York Baseball Academy my wife and I put together years ago.

And he wanted to become involved with it in the off season.

He listen, he wasn't making a lot of.

Making a lot of money in those days.

And he was always looking for a dollar.

In the off season.

He used to come back and we started the pitching workshop at New York Tech.

And on Sundays, and it became so popular, Donnie, wherever Donnie was, once he started playing and moving different locations, we would fly him in and pick him up.

And Rita, who was basically my boss in the New York Baseball Academy, she would pick him up at the airport and he made his presence felt.

He'd be coming out of Sarasota and be snowing in New York.

And he'd come off the plane in shorts and a coach's top and his one little bag, and Reid would be outside picking him up at LaGuardia or JFK.

So one thing you know about Koop, whenever he came into the room, he owned the room.

He was such a personality.

Everybody always enjoyed talking to him.

And he was great.

He would hold court and he loved talking about any sport, but specifically baseball and pitching, obviously.

And the people in the pitching workshop loved him.

And they would come and we would do 240, 280 kids every Sunday in two hour blocks.

And he'd be in charge, you know, as he eventually evolved and he was in the big leagues.

And then he became a pitching coach in the minor leagues.

And his job, basically, he had to run the bullpen.

So he had three portable mouths.

And the kids would come in and everybody had a chance to pitch on the mound.

And then the other station, they would do the drills.

Another station, they'd do video review because we taped every player.

And kids would come back for years in these programs.

And then he would come in the summertime when we did the programs at New York Tech, if there was an all star break, he'd fly in, go around in the golf cart.

And he loved the kids with him.

One thing about Donnie, you know, he knew all about Tech history.

He was very loyal.

He never forgot his roots.

I mean, he's the type of guy.

He'd go to Maspeth, where he lived, and he'd go to get an egg sandwich at the deli.

He spent two hours at the deli speaking to everybody.

That was just Kim, you know, just a wonderful guy, great work ethic.

People asked me the other day, what do you think was his best ingredient?

You know, to me, his best ingredient.

He, when he spoke to you, he made you feel that you were so important, that you could.

You could achieve anything if you wanted to work at it.

He would give, he used to say, I'm giving you the information, but you have to put it into practice and that's up to you.

So he encouraged and he created such positive feelings with a young player that these kids would come back.

And some of the, so many of them went on, you know, going to the academy, not just with pitching, they went on to play and be successful in college or in high school.

And some of them played professional baseball.

But that's what it was all about, was making kids have fun doing.

And he was have fun playing the game, enjoy yourself.

Everything to him was a game.

He loves creating games, challenging guys to throw strikes in a row.

He was just a wonderful personality and I enjoyed every minute working with him the entire time.

And he's certainly going to miss him.

And I was in shock the other day when I heard it.

You know, it's such a.

As we do talk periodically, even though he lives in Nashville, you know.

So when was the last time you did talk to him, Bob?

Two weeks ago?

Yeah, two weeks ago.

In fact, we're having a get together mixed on October first of all, my former coaches at New York Tech and anybody that were key coaches in the NYBA all those years were involved and it's a gathering about 70 people, including their wives.

And obviously I sent an invitation to Donnie and I knew we probably couldn't attend, but coming to Nashville, but he texted me back and he said, I'm sorry, I can't attend.

You know, I wish I could be there.

Give everybody my best, as always.

Love you guys.

You know, that that was always his response, you know, and such a shame.

And everybody's been contacting me, whether his friends with the White Sox, with, you know, Papa Jack, you know, Ronnie Jackson, with Dallas Williams actually came out of Lincoln High School.

You know, they're all Tommy Thompson.

We spoke the other day.

He used to bring Tommy in.

Tommy was the catching coordinator.

And Tommy used to also come in and, and spend a lot of time at New York Tech and come in and watch our pitches throw.

In the morning, six o' clock in the morning, he would come in and it's such a shame that we lose somebody just like that.

We're talking with Bob Hirschfield, who was the men's baseball coach at nyit, about the loss of Don Cooper.

Don was a player at NYIT and then later returned to the team to help out.

And what do you think led to his success at the minor and major league level?

You know, could you talk about how he was able to just have a conversation with the kid and make him feel like he's the best player on the planet.

What do you think made him the White Sox pitching coach?

And eventually, you know, he did coach as the manager for two games.

What made him so successful?

I think that's a good question.

I think, you know, there's a lot of people that understand mechanics of your motion and your delivery.

He was not a big guy to change.

A lot of people.

He would like to see what you can do.

Obviously you're successful.

You wouldn't have.

Wouldn't have gotten here.

I'm talking about the pro guys.

And his main objective was, let's see what you have, and let's see how we can work with what you have to make you more effective.

This is what you need to do.

You need to pitch more to one side of the plate.

If your best pitch is this pitch and you want to set up your other pitch, then, well, then you're going to have to be able to pitch that fastball inside.

And he would make those guys feel.

I watched him work in the bullpen, you know, when I remember when the White Sutch was down here playing in Toronto, we met him in the bullpen Reader and I read it, being my wife.

And we worked with a couple of pitchers that were, you know, on their off days, side days, and obviously in Tampa, down there, the bullpens are on the field, but we're right next to the field.

So we're hearing every pen.

And you just watch the way he mentally can work with the guys.

I mean, you talk to different guys that play for him.

Like even Chris Sale did a beautiful interview.

Chris came out of Florida, Gulf coast, and he was very, very successful with the White Sons.

And he was, you know, targeted.

Now he's with Atlanta.

I think right now he's doing pretty good too.

But he battled injuries after he left down.

Remember what he was able to do?

I mean, he had four stoney pitches, pitch a World Series, no relievers.

That's crazy.

Learning how to be effective, you know, learning how to be effective, get through an inning without having to, you know, pitch like a gorilla.

You know, every pitch come to throw as hard as you possibly can and max effort.

No, what you got to do is be able to locate the ball.

Got to be able to locate.

You got to watch what they do.

You got to set them up.

You need to sequence.

And his practice routines were great.

Just to learn to establish, teaching kids how to pitch sequences, you know, first of all, he'd work on locations.

You know, be able to repeat your delivery.

That's one thing he was excellent at.

Encouraging guys to repeat your delivery by putting the same pitch in the same location two, three, four times in a row.

Now, once you can do that, do it to another location with the same pitch or a different pitch.

And now work on sequences.

How do you set somebody up?

How do you.

If you break the pitch as a righty to righty, you're breaking pitch as you're out pitch.

How do you set up your breaking pitch?

You off your fastball.

You know, if a guy pulls the ball, what are you doing?

He pulls the ball.

How do you mix speeds on him, those type of things?

Well, these are.

These are the factors, I think.

And, you know, he used to tell me, listen, the most important thing as you move up is working with guys between their ears because you can get them to believe in themselves.

They obviously have the stuff to be able to do it.

It wouldn't be there.

You know, you can really help them along.

And that, in essence, was, I think, the critical thing that I saw him work with guys when I was in the clubhouse once with the White Sox, talking to these different players when Ozzie was their manager, and just.

I tell you, I'm still in shock that he's gone.

Well, you certainly, you and the baseball world have our condolences.

And, Ed, you.

You know, I was really struck, as you were describing Don, as he would come back to the baseball academy, a real labor of love.

And as you mentioned, he never forgot where he came from.

And to come back, you know, for a day or come off the plane, really a testament to the kind of guy he was.

It was not only at New York Tech, he went back to McClancy.

Yeah.

Leto was the coach of McClancy at the time.

He's now the president of McClancy High School.

He always visited McClancy if you came at certain times, if, let's say, the white sucks were in town, you went during the day, you'd see Donny Cooper hanging out in Nick Millio's office.

That's just the way it was.

He liked to be busy.

He loved his friends.

He had friends all over the country, all over the world.

And anybody that's played under him or worked under him has spoke nothing but raves about him.

That's for sure.

Bob, did he have a funny side to him or maybe like an argumentative side that was beat, that went beyond, you know, just the baseball and the psychology that he brought out?

He had an Excellent sense of humor.

Excellent sense of humor with guys.

But he could, you know, he could take.

He could take a hit, too, but he could dish it out, you know, and that.

I think that helped him.

That helped.

Players love him.

You know, he could give it out, he could take it back, and he never got his back up.

He never forgot what it's like to be a player.

I think that's important, you know, when you're in administration or you're managing or in coaching, never forget what it is to be in that dugout as a player, in that locker room as a player.

Never lose sight of that.

You know, you've coached a lot of years, too, so you know exactly where I'm going with that.

Yeah.

So once again, we're speaking with Bob Hirschfield, the former coach of the baseball program at nyit.

And Bob, we wanted, while we like to come back to Coach Cooper, we'd just like, for just a second to take it a little bit out of lane here.

Talk about just your time at nyit New York Tech, because you certainly saw it all there.

Unfortunately, there is no athletic program at the moment.

You know, many.

Some sports had kind of come and gone for a while, including basketball.

What was it like to take a program that into Division one at a school that basically everything else was Division two a very unique situation?

Well, actually, that's one of the reasons why Richie Tappan hired me as a pitching coach is because we were going to make the move to Division 1, and it wasn't the baseball, by the way.

It was also women's volleyball, Division 1 under Gail Wasmus.

And they were very competitive, by the way, and those teams were very good.

Excellent.

They might have been Division 2, but we played a lot of Division 1 schools.

Not the big powerhouses and stuff, but we paid a lot of Division 1 schools, and we always did adequately, well.

My dad told me, listen, don't be the head coach of a team where kids aren't good.

You'll look bad in a hurry.

That's great advice.

I knew that we had a chance to win, but one of the things I always had in my mind, I said, listen, I'm the head coach here.

I want to be in a situation where, if I was a player, what would I want to do?

What would I want out of my college experience?

Everybody was a commuter then.

Everybody.

Yeah, you know, sure.

And I said, well, that means we Got to travel more.

So I had so many friends all over the country when I played baseball in college and with the USA team that I started calling friends up in Houston, Texas.

My friend David hall played for Texas.

I got in touch with the guys at University of Houston, John Skeeters at Sam Houston State.

You know, my friends at Georgia Southern, we started doing weekend trips.

Yeah, you certainly did.

Travel.

That's a great.

Yeah, we travel and travel and travel.

And that's what gave the kids great experiences and also exposure, Exposure.

And we were off like a rocket ship.

I mean, we were.

We were really doing great.

I mean, we might take bad records early in the year, but once we came back here, forget it.

We were beating everybody and we were out recruiting everybody back here.

We lost the whole team.

And I had put kids all over the country, in different places, down to Texas, whether it was in Florida, whether in Georgia, whether it was local here at St. John's was seen in all places around Fordham and different places like that, and had to rebuild the team with never the resources that I once had.

I mean, that first year, it was so bad, we would get beat so bad it was almost comical.

I said this story a couple of times.

I said, listen, you know, we put the flag up in center field.

You remember we had to play the national anthem.

I told the kid, I said, listen, put the flag up, half mask.

He says, who died?

I said, take a look around, Pat.

We're getting our butt beat every single day.

How were you able to kind of wrap your head around that when you worked so hard and had such a successful program and then had to blow it up and restart again?

That had to be very challenging mentally as well as, you know, just putting the miles on the car and driving around.

You know something, when you.

When you're traveling and you're going around staying in hotels, you're traveling nice, you're having steak dinners, you're having a great time with your assistant coaches, all former players that played for me and, you know, a lot of them came back, they had to get degrees and, you know, they didn't finish up.

They needed an extra semester.

And I had a great staff and it was a lot of fun.

Was it tough?

Yeah, it was tough.

You weren't making a lot of money, that's for sure.

But thank God I had the camp and, you know, when I finished, I was the only full time Division one, only Division one coach that Was part time in the country.

Amazing.

I was still part time.

Yeah, yeah,.

Yeah.

And outside of having worked at nyit, it's almost impossible to even imagine that.

And I mean, it's just.

It's just wild to even think that way.

Well, thank God.

Thank God for a reason.

Yeah.

She basically ran the camp.

I'll be honest with.

She was the best.

Still is.

I mean, she helped me start that camp.

Was her idea.

Go found it.

Our idea with the name too, by the way.

And we got it going.

And it went from when I started that camp.

I was in Rockville center, and.

That's right.

I work for the rec center down there.

And I had 14 kids.

And when I was at New York Tech, we wound up having over 400 kids for six weeks.

400 Each week.

Yeah.

Bob Atkin.

I mean, it was.

It was a major production back in the 80s.

I actually attended the camp in Rockville center and had a great time.

And I remember Don showing up one day and, you know, thinking, it's a big deal.

And, you know, it's great.

You know, it's a way to kind of keep it going.

My question to you, you were talking about the 90s.

Was there a moment where you kind of felt like NYIT is back after that, that hiatus that you kind of had to have?

Was there a moment where you said, you know, this experience is kind of bringing us back because you did have to stick around in a Division 1 game.

You know, you're going out there and recruiting against teams that have resources that are way beyond you.

But did you have that moment where you felt like this is back?

I knew personally, I knew we would never be back where we were at this time.

I could still attain quality players, not like I used to have, but I would have enough quality players that I could compete and help them develop and become successful at what they were.

Whether it was summer weeks.

I get kids in the Cape League, I get kids out in the Northwoods League.

I help them gain exposure so that they have an opportunity to perhaps play baseball professionally after they graduated.

But I never had to do depth that it would.

Would have at the one time.

So it was tough.

And then we never really.

We never really got in a stable conference that sort of got locked up.

At one time, we were at part of the ECAC south, which is basically almost Colonial League or whatever, you know, the league is called now.

The Hofstra is in basically now.

We were asked to join that league because I played all those teams.

East Carolina, George Mason, James Madison.

I Played all those clubs all the time, and we got turned down.

The president wasn't okay.

Bob, was there any thought of going back to Division 2 for baseball?

Yes, there was.

There was.

But needless to say, the president, even though he wouldn't, was going to conference.

He liked the idea that of the schools we were playing all the time, whether it was Ivy League schools, whether it was Fordham, in other words, the schools we had on our schedule, St. John's yeah, was nice.

And we still were competitive.

You know, we still.

We want.

We beat St. John's a couple of times.

We beat all a couple of times.

You know, we just.

We just weren't the consistency that we once were at one time.

And then we had to jump to different types of conferences with the Mid Continent or the Great west, you know, and the kids enjoyed it.

The kids enjoyed it, sure.

But we did that.

We ended up playing Miami.

I said to kids, listen, you think we belong in the ncaa?

Go beat Miami.

You don't beat Miami two out of three, then you really don't belong in there.

So you stop mowing your lawn early.

Well, I can tell you as someone, I worked, you know, at Tech in two different capacities.

My first stint was as an assistant for Coach Morris.

And, you know, he was one of those guys, as you know, who told it like it was.

And he certainly had great respect and admiration for you, and, you know, had nothing but, you know, the utmost respect.

And that was a tough go for Coach Morris.

If you.

If, you know, if you weren't someone he respected and liked, you were definitely.

You didn't have a second chance.

And he always made it a point to point out what you were doing, how your program was just kind of a beacon for everybody else at the school to follow and how you treated your players and what your players said about you.

So just tremendous stuff.

You still.

Your players, your players were quality guys, and you can't say that about a lot of places and about a lot of programs.

So, you know, certainly, whatever.

Whatever you got was well earned, Coach.

It couldn't survive.

You worked.

They couldn't survive.

If we had, you know, practice sessions and all that, you know, the work we did, fiscally, they just couldn't deal with it, you know, but we had a.

You know, one of the things I had to learn, you know, managing was I had to learn better how to work with kids that failed.

Yeah.

You know, when I first started, I had a lot of kids that you.

A lot of kids that were very successful.

You just didn't want to get in their way.

But I will tell you this.

I think in the end, I became a better coach in the end than I was when I started.

Because here, and thank you.

Frank Morris taught us that.

Oh, yeah, every coach, you become a better coach if you, if you think positively and you learn from your mistakes or.

And you change, you modify things.

You do.

And I think that helped.

And the context I had through the baseball academy.

I remember I had Rick down used to come out.

He was the hitting guy.

The Yankees haven't really hit since Rick down unfortunately left the Yankees, but Rick was our friend and he invited me, he would come out and visit the camp and work with the kids.

And he says, why don't you come out to one of my clinics in Vegas?

So I said, you have a clinic?

And he says, yeah, it's all pro coaches, all guys working in the minor leagues and the big leagues.

They have about 40 or 50 guys.

So, okay, I'll come out.

I went out there two, two or three years.

I took some of my staff members with me and it was fantastic.

You learn.

They would do things like, how do you coach first base?

Absolutely.

You learned.

Never stop learning.

Yeah.

And so you become a better coach each year you coach.

And I was fortunate.

I played at St. John's at St. John's Jack Kaiser was a one man show.

We had one head coach, that was it.

No assistance.

He was big at teaching everybody how to play.

If you played at St. John's you learn how to play shortstop.

Right.

You learn how to play ace, you learn how to play third, you learn how to catch, you learn how to play first outfield, you know, pitching.

You don't really do much in pitching, you know, but you learn from your other team members out in the bullpen down there.

Not so much from Coach Kaiser.

The Coach Kaiser got you situational baseball all the time.

So you were well schooled there and that helped.

And then obviously working under Coach Morris in basketball, you learned a lot too.

No question about.

Yeah, and the same thing with him.

It.

It was not about positions, it was about playing and learning how to play the game.

Coach, we actually have a caller on the line.

You might know this guy, Ed from Bayville.

Ed, Teeny.

Ed.

Welcome to the program.

Hey, Mike.

Hey, Chris, how are you?

We're doing good.

Thanks for calling in, Ed.

You're welcome.

I heard coach was on, so I.

Wanted to give a call Coach, you.

Probably don't remember me, but way back in the day, I heard Chris say it.

Teeny T I N I I went to Locust Valley High School.

Did you eat at Joe's Deli for breakfast in the morning?

Yeah, of course.

You have to.

So I heard Chris say that earlier.

He went to the camp down when you had it down on the South Shore.

I graduated Locust Valley in 85.

When I was in 8th, 9th, 10th grade.

I went to the camp you had over at Tech, obviously.

Locust Valley, small baseball school.

I learned more from you.

Oh, yeah.

Great coaching staff there.

Good guys.

I just wanted to thank you.

I learned more in that camping.

Those clinics that you held over there brought me a whole other level and appreciation for baseball.

And I heard you just made a comment a moment ago about how Morris and these guys taught you how to become a better coach.

I've ended up coaching for years in different sports over the years, as both Mike and Chris know, in different capacities and watching how you operated that system over there, the guys that came up through your coaching tree that were coming to help out in the camp and instill your lessons and, you know, put their own spin on it, it's carried.

I mean, I'm talking, you know, we're talking 40 years down the road and those lessons and those things.

Yeah, right, Exactly.

I don't want to age all of us, but we're all in that same boat.

But I just wanted to thank you because it gave me a perspective that I didn't have even As a kid, 14, 15 years old, let's say.

It allowed me to look at the sport and appreciate the final points of the game and really look to develop those points.

So I just wanted to thank you.

While I have you, I just want to congratulate you on the upcoming on your New York State hall of Fame induction coming up in a couple months.

So I want to congratulate you on that as well.

Thank you.

Thank you.

It's well deserved and just.

I know that.

I know.

God.

Say hello to my friends at davill too.

You got it.

And just once before I go.

I know, I know.

The segment was dedicated a lot towards what's Coop.

I met Coop once a couple of times over the years.

I had a good friend that was in the White Sox minor league system right when Coop started coaching.

This is kind of early, early 80s, let's say Rob Resinikoff, he's a lefty pitcher.

He bounced around in the Miners for about five or six years.

Great guy.

So I know Chris, I think just asked you the question about injecting.

The coaches take it seriously.

They inject humor.

And coach, as you know, the pitching bullpen is a world of its own.

Those guys, I was never a pitcher, but those guys live a different life.

And I heard story after story about cooperation through.

Through Rob Reznikov, about they were breaking chops 24, 7 in that bullpen, keeping it light, keeping it easy.

And to your point earlier, Coach, he wasn't looking to.

He wasn't looking to break them down and start them from scratch.

He kept it loose, he kept it easy, and he would tweak and he would give observations.

And as you said, we're going to hit this spot 10 times with a fastball, we're going to hit the spot 10 times with a cutter, we're going to hit that, that change up 10 times, and then we're going to build sequence, we're going to build a pattern, and we're going to go from there.

You said it perfectly.

That's exactly what he was.

And I'm very sorry for your loss and the baseball community.

And Mike and Chris, great job getting coach on.

And even the references to Coach Morris in context with Coach Hirschfield, that's a grand slam for you guys.

So, Coach, I'll let you go.

I just want to put my two cents in, give you my appreciation.

And Mike and Chris, you guys do a great job.

Keep it up, guys.

Ed, thanks.

Thanks for calling.

It's nice to have the guy who taught me everything about coaching finally call in.

It only took about three years.

Thanks, Eddie.

Have a good night.

I had to let you spread your.

Own wings and do it on your.

Own, but you're doing a great job, what you guys are doing out there,.

And we appreciate you.

Thanks so much.

And Coach Hirsch, before we let you go, you know, again, just what are you up to these days?

And are you staying involved with the game?

Actually, you with me?

Yes.

We're here.

Okay.

I'm no longer involved with the camp.

You know, after I.

After I stopped running the camp and I got involved with broadcasting, I did, yes.

St. John fired me.

Actually, Eddie Cole got involved in this.

He was working at St. John's and Eddie was working for public relations, marketing or something for St. John's and he brought me in and I started.

Didn't know anything about broadcasting other than just talk baseball.

And I had a great guy, Warner Purcell, who broke me in for the first two years, and I really enjoyed that.

I did it for only almost.

I don't know nine or 10 years.

I did the Big east playoffs with Spencer Ross, who used to broadcast.

I had a great time.

Yeah.

But you know, after a while, you know, the kids are all out of the house.

We have a house in Florida.

It was time to, you know, turn the pages.

Left coaching.

It's time to turn the page.

And that's what I did with the broadcasting.

I enjoyed my experience.

It was a lot of fun.

And I knew all the coaches that see if they played Georgetown.

I knew Peter Wolk if they played.

Yeah, that's good.

But eventually all those guys were retiring too.

Yeah.

Yeah.

So Eddie Blankmire left St. John's he retired.

He went over to work for the Mets.

It was a different world.

So that's it with that.

We travel a lot.

Good.

Yeah.

My high school teammate in basketball and baseball and his wife was a St. Agnes girl.

We travel all over the world.

We take cruises.

We've been to China, we've been to Antarctica.

We've been to Northern Europe, Southern Europe.

Been to the Panama Canal.

Very nice.

We've been in safaris.

I've been all.

I got a lot of dots on my map, let's put it that way.

Is your grandson still playing on the ATP tour?

He's actually canon.

Yes.

He was a four time all American and he's recovering.

He had an operation on his wrist.

Oh, wow.

And he's almost about ready to regain himself.

But obviously, you know, when you don't play.

Yeah, it takes a lot of time.

Goes down, you gotta got to bury it again.

But he, he's close to being cracking a nut and get back in the action.

He bought a house down here in Orlando.

He lives with his brother who's a sheriff in Orange county, down in Orlando area here.

He was a great swimmer.

Baldwin Wallace.

And then we watch all the other little guys running around.

I got biggest gator.

My, my, my granddaughter Malin is going to be in a contest up in Boston in another week.

She's outstanding.

My other one down here also plays hockey and he plays golf.

And my one daughter's a lacrosse player.

Soccer.

And up in New York, my son Michael, he's got, you know, four children and they're playing soccer and lacrosse and baseball.

And I got them in Connecticut and they're playing lacrosse and ice hockey and field hockey and crew.

So they're all pretty active.

So if we think, other than traveling around the world, if I get up to see them play and compete, I love doing that, so does my wife Rita.

We love watching those kids play.

Fantastic.

Well, Coach Bob Hirschfeld, thank you so much for joining us tonight and giving your insights on Don Cooper, on your career at NYIT and beyond.

And again, we just, we can't thank you enough for joining us, giving us a few minutes about everything and what you're up to these days.

Hope to have you on again anytime.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Pleasure.

We're going to take a quick break and on the other side, we'll be back talking a little New York Giants football on Sports Talk New York.

You are listening to Sports Talk New York.

Tune in every Sunday night at 8pm on Long Island's WGPP broadcasting on 95.9 FM and 12.5 40am or listen live online at wgpbradio.com stay connected to sports Talk New York on WGBB by following us on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram @WGBB sports talk, you're listening to Sports Talk New York on Long Island's wgb.

And now back to the show.

And great segment right there with Bob Hirschfield talking baseball.

Now we're going to talk a little football.

It was a tough day out at Medlife Stadium in terms of the weather, but it did turn out to be a W for the G men, for the Giants.

And we're joined right now by Our Giants reporter, A.J.

Rovener.

A.J.

Mike and Chris here in the studio.

How are you doing tonight?

Great.

Thank you for having me on.

Happy the Giants were able to squeak one out.

Yes, one of those games where you're just, as you said, squeaky died.

Just happy in the NFL to get the W on your side.

No matter how ugly pretty it is, it's a win.

It counts the same if it was 40 nothing.

Giants.

Maybe it looks better if it was 40 nothing.

But anyways, 2 and 1 is 2 and 1.

And I've been a fan and employee for many seasons where we haven't been two and one through three games.

So I'm happy to be I'm happy to be over 500 three weeks in.

Right.

We got to talk number one, obviously, Jackson Dart being out.

Jameis Winston makes his first start, threw for only 117 yards.

But I guess the key part is didn't turn the ball over.

Ball over.

Number one, assess his performance.

And number two, what's the future of the quarterback position for at least the rest of the season for the Giants?

Well, Jackson Dart's irreplaceable And the first thing that comes to my mind is I went my entire childhood into my college years with just the quarterback I knew that was going to take every snap every Sunday.

And I think durability is one of the reasons Eli Manning should be in the hall of Fame already.

I mean, he just took the ball every Sunday with no complaints, and he dealt with injuries.

But talking about today's Giants, I mean, you saw the offense today and how it looked against the Rams on Monday.

So it's a guy you just simply can't replace.

And now you bring Jameis, who.

Listen, I love the guy.

He's been very nice to me.

And.

And.

But he struggled as a starting quarterback.

I mean, there's no secret about it.

Think he's one of the best backups in football.

But, you know, today went 14 of 22 for 118 yards, as Chris alluded to.

And then last week really struggled against Los Angeles.

But I think that both days were very challenging for different reasons.

To go against that defense last week cold turkey with no game plan around you and then throwing in a practical monsoon today.

So I think it's definitely an inaccurate way to judge how he's lost.

Right.

But someone's coming to Quest Diagnostics Training center this week.

If it's jj, if it's Matt Jones, if it's Jimmy Garoppolo coming out of retirement, somebody is going to be on the Giants roster because Jake Hayner, who they signed very late into the preseason, he's clearly not going to be the backup quarterback that had to this week.

Yeah, and I think that's tough.

We're talking with A.J.

Rovener, our Giants reporter.

Are we wondering, like, how difficult it is for the team to score?

Are we happy with the special teams getting four field goals from Dominic Zavata, or is the defense the story of the game?

First off, this is the best kicking unit overall I've ever seen the Giants have in my fandom in play over Jordan stat, I think is the best punter.

Football.

The air yardage that he next is just.

I've never seen it.

And.

And you said this a couple of weeks ago, and you're right on.

He completely changes in a game today where you knew it was going to be sloppy and he knew that field position was going to be so important.

I mean, he just flipped it all day.

And then Savada, it's a great story.

Listen, I have Michigan roots for my sister.

I've seen Dominic kick there and he's got a leg and I mean to go 4 for 4.

I don't care that some of them, all them were from under 40 yards.

The kick in this weather is hard.

And I mean.

So to go four for four, he's the difference.

That's the first game the Giants won since not scoring a touchdown in 13 years.

So to be able to dominate in that aspect was just very impressive.

And defensively they were great, but, boy, Cam Ward is a tough watch.

Yeah.

The Brian Burns injury update.

Do you have anything on the ankle?

There's no clarity yet.

I think he's gonna go get X rays tomorrow or maybe he went in tonight.

I can take a quick look.

I was trying to listen.

Yeah, MRI tonight.

Okay.

I didn't know if it was day or tomorrow, but tonight.

Yep.

So what's the Giants identity for the next, let's say five weeks?

The identity is to.

I don't think it's going to be pretty football.

Like, it was all flowers and roses against Dallas.

You know, the Giants had what, three drives in the second half?

Just controlling the line of scrimmage.

Controlling the offensive plate's not going to be like that.

It's going to have to be scrappy turnovers.

Javon Holland playing like the best safety in football.

I mean, he's got three interceptions and two forced fumbles in 12 quarters.

So my goodness, has he been unbelievable.

But the identity is just find ways to win it.

That is what Harbaugh does.

Jermaine Illuminar alluded to it today in his press conference.

Cam Scatterbo, he goes, last year, we lose that game 100%.

And I agree.

Because when you have a different head coach that has standards and in 16 years only had one season under 501 or two, I believe it just.

It's different.

You establish that identity that you're expecting to come out and win each week.

And with no Jackson dart and, you know, depleted other positions, if you would have told me that the Giants would be two and one playing another weaker opponent next week, I would be thrilled.

Just one last question on my naj.

So, you know, with just doubling back to the quarterback, would you give up any players or draft capital to bring somebody in, you know, like at JJ McCarthy or someone where you'd have to make a trade?

Or is it someone where, hey, you're just going to take someone as a free agent to try to fill that gap?

Would you give up Anything?

Well, to be honest, no, because you already gave up stuff to get Jameis to an extension before the season started.

So you gave him a two year, $13 million contract extension to be in this role.

Like this is his job to replace Jackson if he went down, which I think the Giants do need to look into the quarterback situation in the offense.

There needs to be a plan that's put in place for what if he's not ready?

I mean, it's serious now.

You know, he's had numerous head injuries and now.

Now it's the leg.

But to be honest, I wouldn't give up much.

A late draft pick, sure, sixth or seventh rounder, but you can't give up draft capital.

This is why Jameis Winston is here.

This is why you gave A backup quarterback $13 million is to be in positions like this and find ways to win games.

Yeah.

And A.J.

You're doing a great job, you know, getting us all this information.

And I think you're spot on.

Would you give anything to the Giants trying to make a trade for the Bengals backup quarterback Joe Flacco, being that he has played under Harbaugh?

Well, you definitely know the connections there is only his only super bowl victory is with Joe.

So I mean, I could definitely see the connection east coast routes.

He played college football at Delaware, which I know, so certainly used to the weather on this side of the map.

And he's been very serviceable as a backup quarterback for a long time now.

I mean, if you remember just a few years ago on Cleveland, he went 4 and 1 and they were a fun story.

And I believe he took one team to the play.

So once again, though, it just can't be for much.

And I'm just not going to throw in the towel on Jameis after playing that Rams defense.

And then just impossible weather today.

It's just.

It's so hard to get an accurate judgment of what we're actually.

Without question.

Give them a few weeks.

Yeah.

And.

And like I said, you paid him the money.

Let, you know, give him.

Give him a full week of prep in a regular situation, you know, not a monsoon.

And Harbaugh was asked after the game because, you know, I usually have to stay after the game for about an hour or two and they'll.

It's cool.

They'll have the post game for all the employees playing throughout the stadium.

And Harbaugh was asked, do you expect Jameis to be the starter next weekend?

Does it change?

And does it change plans if you were to start a quarterback and he said no, James, that starting quarterback.

So I think it's more of a depth piece.

Yes.

More than anything.

But listen, Jeff, hot settler replace Sims.

And you know, you just never know.

It's a crazy league.

I mean, that defense is one of the best of all time.

But still, though, I'm not going to throw in a towel on a guy you just gave $13 million to.

I think that's just not reasonable.

Definitely.

Well, we appreciate you stepping in tonight.

I know it's a lot and it's wet out there and you brave the elements sometimes getting inside to maybe one of the suites.

But thanks so much for giving us a couple minutes of your time tonight and we look forward to talking you real soon.

Sounds good.

Thank you for having me on, fellow.

All right.

And as you said, two and one is two and one.

We'll take it, A.J.

Yes, sir.

Let's keep it going against Arizona next Sunday.

Most definitely.

Thanks.

Be well.

Stay safe.

AJ Rovener giving us the Giants Insider there.

They're 2 and 1, Mike, and you.

Know, it's better than 03 made, I think.

Great points on Very good.

What you want to, if anything, give up for a backup, you know, bring in a quarterback.

You did, you paid Jameis big money just in case this happens.

And you know, he, he's had, he has starter stuff.

Yeah.

You know, and you know, a whole season is a little different, you know, typically from a backup in the NFL, you just won a couple of games.

But, you know, I listen, I'm unabashedly a Giant fan and I'm hoping he does well.

And he certainly, he's going to keep, he's going to keep his spirits high.

Yep, he'll have a shot.

We're just going to change gears for the last 10 minutes or so.

We're going to bring in Fred Kangi to talk a little bit about the state of high school athletics and maybe some things that might need to be changed.

So, Fred, thanks for joining us tonight.

How you doing, guys?

Thanks for having me on.

All right.

Absolutely.

Fred, good to hear you and welcome and definitely looking for your perspective on how things are going because not only you coach many sports and you, you've seen, you know, how things kind of go up and down, but it seems at the time right now across all school districts, especially in Nassau and Suffolk county, that numbers are down, no matter who you are.

Yeah, Mike, it's really crazy to think about.

The numbers are down everywhere in all different sports.

I mean, on all different levels.

Middle school, JV especially.

There's not a lot of JV teams going on.

And, you know, it's really sad to see.

So where do you think, you know, why do you think there's.

There's such a decrease?

Can you pinpoint it to maybe one or two things, or is it just a big time where participation is down?

You know, because I have my own theories on that.

Excuse me.

I have all theories.

I believe this.

The major decline probably started around Covid, you know, when that weird.

You know, I know for football, that weird spring season was going on.

They had everything like flip flops.

That's when I started to see, you know, not a lot of kids coming back out to play as much as I did before the pandemic.

And, you know, I look at even bigger schools like Garden City, Farmingdale, who I'm sure is used to a whole lot of numbers.

I'll go watch film.

And I've got that sideline.

And it's just not as many kids as I used to see before.

So it's really crazy.

It is.

And, you know, you see teams like Baldwin with 20 kids on a varsity roster and, you know, other schools that are merging.

You know, obviously at East Rockaway, we now merge with West Hempstead for football and Malvern for soccer and lacrosse.

And it's just.

It's getting to the point where teams are not able to field it unless they look outside of that.

And, you know, that may become, Fred, a little bit more of a reality where teams are looking to merge for certain sports.

Well, I'll tell you, if East Rockaway and West Hamster didn't merge, West Hamster wouldn't have had a varsity football team.

Correct.

If East Rockaway.

West Hamster never merged by the end of week one with East Rock, we probably wouldn't have had a football team to compete in week two when it comes to injuries.

And, you know, it was just a tough game, a tough battle.

The numbers just wouldn't be there.

Right.

And we definitely wouldn't have had a jv.

You know, it is just crazy.

And, you know, when you don't have numbers, you know, with football, practice even becomes difficult.

You know, how do I get somebody prepared for this game coming up when I only have, you know, 17 kids at practice?

Yeah.

You know, that's not enough to practice 11 on 11 and, you know, do scout plays and things like that.

So.

It's pretty sad.

Chris.

You know, Fred, I wanted to ask you, from my point of view, you know, I'm certainly experiencing it a little bit now.

I coach tennis and basketball, as you know.

But in basketball, you know, we're starting to lose some kids because they're specializing in other sports.

They can't give us a full commitment to a basketball season because they have another sport that they have club or they're specializing in for college.

Have you seen any of that?

I mean, I can tell you for sure, it's like pulling teeth to try to get someone to commit to a full season without a showcase or, you know, an all star game.

They got to go somewhere else.

And when you have a game on a.

On a Saturday and Friday night, you know, they're in the car heading south to Baltimore to go play lacrosse.

Correct.

I do see a lot of that.

I see a lot of that with, with the girls with volleyball.

I see a lot of that with the boys with baseball, travel, baseball.

They're playing baseball all year round.

I know my son is playing.

My young son is playing fall baseball right now.

So I know these sports that are usually in spring seasons or in their particular seasons are now running year round.

It's tough to compete with that.

It's really tough to compete with that.

And me as a coach, I coach varsity flag football at East Rockaway.

And as a coach, I kind of have to make deals.

I have to settle with the fact that, hey, if you're going to play, I know that you're going to go to this tournament and miss this game and that game, and that's crazy that I have to do that.

So.

Yeah, that never was back.

Back years ago.

It was my way or the highway like that.

That never happened.

And I completely understand what you're saying.

You know, you gotta, it's.

It's that old phrase, you gotta adapt or die or else you're not gonna have anybody.

100%.

Yeah.

Coach, do we have any solutions to this, do you think, to make this any better, or is this just going to be certain sports are going to not be fully existent anymore?

I think that's what it is.

I think just the landscape is changing.

Those mainstay sports that used to be there are kind of, you know, passing now.

Yeah.

And I think, like I said, I coach flag football and flag football probably has the opposite effect of what's going on.

Yeah, the numbers are climbing every single year.

You're stealing the softball girl.

Oh, no.

They are changing to a sport that they like playing.

And I think, Fred, it really needs to come down to if somebody wants to play a sport, we have to offer it to them.

And if they don't want to play a sport, unfortunately that's going to become the downside.

Just going to have to look elsewhere for something else.

Absolutely.

Feeder programs talk a little bit about what needs to happen maybe at the ground level before they hit middle school or high school.

Listen, I know at East Rockaway I coached middle school football.

After coaching JV football for a long time.

The reason I went down is because you know what, I was tired of teaching a child how to get into ninth grader, how to get into a three point stance in ninth grade.

And if I'm teaching them that, then there's no way that I'm going to be realistically competing on a JV level for our school.

So I went down to try to help out and make sure that they understand more.

And I also try to help out in our community organization, that our youth organization, you know, just to try to show face and let them know that, you know, we're waiting for you up top.

You know, I think there needs to be more football organizations like East Rockaway football.

Right now East Rockaway Raiders football is East Rockaway Oceanside football.

So we, I was looking at the 11 year old roster and 11 year.

Old roster has three East Rockaway kids out of 33.

So you know, that's super tough.

But thank God for that because without those three kids there is nothing at all.

And the towns that don't have anything at all, you can definitely see it in the papers on Sunday morning.

So.

Yeah, the one other thing I just wanted to mention, Fred, and to Chris as well is that I think not that this is a good thing and I'm hoping it really doesn't happen or have to happen, but I think you might start to see schools have athletes playing on multiple teams.

Football, soccer, softball, flag football, you know, tennis.

Allow the Ryan Leary's to be Ryan.

Leary just to fill spots.

And it's, you know, I don't think it's for the betterment of the sport and for the kid, but if you have to keep the teams going somehow.

You know, I hate to say it, but I think we're kind of heading in that direction.

I mean, they're already playing outside and playing for high school anyway.

Yeah, you know, we talk about some of the soccer kids, you know, who play for academy soccer and they can't play high school at all, which is like, that's not Helping anything, that's not helping anything at all.

You know, that makes me so angry.

You're taking athletes and saying, hey, you're locked into my organization, my private organization here, and forget about your school.

You know, I've run.

I've run my own outside AAU program before, and I've always made it clear to my athletes that school comes first.

It doesn't matter what it is.

It may not be the actual sport that.

That I'm teaching, I'm coaching right now, but whatever you have going on at school, that comes first.

And, you know, that's just what I believe in.

So, yeah, we just need to.

I think what would help is for everybody to just realize that it's a problem and, you know, let's just put our foot down and figure out a solution together.

Absolutely.

It's not going away.

It's a tough thing, and there are certainly enough smart people and people invested in kids and sports to come up with a good solution.

Well, Fred, thank you so much for calling in.

This is something that, as I said, is not going to go away.

Look forward to having you on again, and we'll see you on the basketball court.

Yes, sir.

I appreciate it.

Thank you, guys.

Our pleasure.

Absolutely.

Have a great night, Fred.

All right.

Lots of good stuff tonight, Cap.

You know, with football, baseball, youth sports.

Wish we had another hour, but we'll be back in two weeks and kind of hit some of these and.

And we'll.

We'll be deep into the baseball playoffs.

Yeah, we'll see where the Yankees land.

Everybody stay dry and have a great night, and we'll see you in a couple of weeks.

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