Long before Gregg Giannotti was pulling hammies trying to play first base for Boomer Esiason’s softball team, he was actually a pitcher in Little League and a first baseman in high school – and his coach was none other than Neal Heaton, former MLB pitcher, who called into Wednesday's show!
And he had quite a bit to tell Boomer about Gio’s past as a player.
“The only thing Gio couldn’t do was run. He never pulled the ball, he hit everything to right field! But he was never late, was always there, and was a great, great kid,” Heaton laughed with Boomer.
Of course, towards the end of his high school career, Gio got hurt and had to do the book, which he was “outstanding” at. Also outstanding? Mrs. Giannotti, who was the bench coach/team mom for the Little League team featuring Gregg and Neal Heaton Jr.
“His mother was outstanding, she would come in and stretch all the guys out,” Heaton said, before adding a zinger: “And a lot of people don’t know this, but his dad would fly over the field in his plane and make sure all our outfielders were in the right position!”
Of course, Gio had to give it right back to Neal, bringing up how, on the first day Heaton stepped onto the field as their coach, he still had a bruise on his leg from a dust-up with Albert Belle in 1992, the penultimate year of his 12-year MLB career.
“I was with the Royals, we were playing the Indians in Cleveland, and George Brett got drilled by the first pitch,” Heaton remembered. “I was coming in the next inning and you know what my job was – and of course, the first guy I had to face couldn’t be a little second baseman, it had to be Albert Belle! I had to throw a fastball at his ribs, and I knew it wasn’t gonna be good…so I drill him, he comes out, and before I know it, I have 70 guys on top of me!”
All jokes aside, Gio loved learning from Heaton, a 1979 grad of Sachem North in Lake Ronkonkoma who was originally drafted by the Mets in ’79 (he chose to go to the University of Miami instead) and finished his career in ’93 with 18 appearances for the Yankees.
One of the best things he learned was how to throw a “poor man’s changeup.”
“It was basically like a four-seam fastball but I’d leave space between my hand and the ball, and the bottom would drop out of it,” Gio remembered. “I struck out like 50 guys, and everyone was so mad!”
Heaton revealed that was basically a circle changeup of sorts, something that Heaton himself was teaching kids despite not learning himself until he was in the minor leagues.
“That’s the difference today: the instruction kids are getting,” Heaton said. “I didn’t learn how to throw a changeup until I was in Triple-A. I learned a lot of stuff at Miami, but these kids are learning things at 11 or 12 that I didn’t learn until I was in my 20s.”
Now, as for Gio’s days at first base, either in high school or on Boomer’s team?
“It was like watching a monkey f’ing a football…if the ball wasn’t thrown right at your chest, we were in trouble,” Heaton laughed.
Check out Heaton’s entire segment with Boomer & Gio below!
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