Catching Up With Former Met, Rico Brogna…

Jim Baumbach, has an article in today’s Newsday, “Rico Brogna still has sports in his blood,” about former Met Rico Brogna, portions of which are below…

http://www.newsday.com/sports/baseball/mets/ny-spjim062108,0,5768412.column

In 1994, the Mets acquired Brogna, from Detroit, for Alan Zinter. And that trade proved not only to be the turning point of Brogna's career, but also a lesson that he lives by in his current job.

Now a pro scout for the Arizona Diamondbacks, Brogna won't easily give up on players despite their statistics read. When he scouts minor-league games, his goal is perhaps to find the next Rico Brogna, the guy that might just need a chance at the next level."It's easy to see the guys who are going to be real superstars," Brogna, 38, said last week. "That's not that hard to recognize those type of talents. It's the ones that kind of all blend in, those are the guys you look for. Those are the type of guys who could turn out to be just another guy, just another player. Or, is there something there that will get him to take off if he gets a chance in the big leagues? That was my road."

Midway through the 1994 season the Mets gave Brogna a chance to play regularly and he responded by hitting .351 with seven home runs in 131 at-bats. He parlayed that into a respectable nine-year career in which he hit .269 with 106 home runs for five teams.Back and shoulder injuries ultimately derailed his career, forcing him to retire at 31, but Brogna’s kept busy, coaching football at the high school, prep and college levels. He's about to enter his first year as the head coach at Nonnewaug High School in his hometown of Woodbury, Conn.

That aspect of his retirement doesn't shock him. A star quarterback in high school who had signed a letter of intent to play at Clemens, Brogna always envisioned himself coaching football after he was done playing. It's his role as a scout that's been a bit of a surprise.

One year after he retired in 2001, Brogna became the hitting coach for the Double-A Reading Phillies. But he quit after the season. "Whether the timing was off or I just didn't enjoy it enough, I don't know," he said. "I just wanted to go home and get away a little bit from baseball, coach some football and spend more time at the house, family and all that stuff."He kept in touch with Jerry DiPoto, former Met reliever, who was rising through the Rockies' front office. They spoke often, and Brogna became intrigued by the work that DiPoto was doing, so much so that DiPoto hired him as a Rockies scout for the 2005 season. The next year DiPoto moved to the Diamondbacks, he's their scouting director, and he took Brogna with him.

Brogna has enjoyed the job because it keeps him in baseball and close to home, and his employers enjoy his work. The Diamondbacks deployed him as an advance scout during the playoffs last season."I really enjoy the evaluation part, breaking down players, studying a player's history and making an educated guess on their potential," Brogna said. "I enjoy the team building aspect, going to games, writing reports on players. To me, that's fun."

(Brogna was an enjoyable Met to watch, whose career ended too soon. I could see him as a really good scout, pulling hard emotionally, for that non-superstar player to get a chance, and prove himself.)