Some Words From Jon Niese

In the today’s Crescent-Journal - Jon Niese: A baseball season of reaching goals in the Mets' organization , Jon Neiese took a little time to reflect upon his express ride from AA to AAA to Flushing this past season.

Among some of his thoughts, he has stated:

About his meteoric rise through the Mets system in 2008:

"When the year began, I had all these goals in front of me and I pretty much

reached them all except for the ending of the year. The season could have

ended better for me and for the Mets, but otherwise it was a pretty special

year."

"In spring training I think I opened up some eyes, so after that it was up to

me to be consistent and prove that I needed to move up through the

organization. Out of spring training, the organization told me that if I

pitched that way throughout the year, I'd have a chance to make it to New

York and as the year went on, that's what happened."

On how he progressed throughout the year:

"I came to the ballpark every day ready to work to get better and get into my

routine. Early on everything really fell into place and I have to give credit to

my pitching coach Ricky Bones in Binghamton. He was amazing, whenever I

had trouble he always put me on the right track."

"It was the same thing for me in New Orleans, Rick Waits really helped me

stay on track. All along the way, the Mets have the same philosophy about

pitching and all the pitching coaches I had this season did a great job of

keeping me on track. Whenever something was off, they knew and they knew

how to help me get back on track and to being the consistent pitcher I

wanted to be."

Niese on his first professional start:

"That was probably the best day of my life, it was really just unbelievable. I

don't know if I can really describe what it's like having 50,000 fans chant

my name in New York City at Shea Stadium. I wish that everyone could

understand what that moment is like just once in their life, it was just really

unbelievable."

And on what he has learned:

"I learned a lot from each of my outings in New York," said Niese. "What I

learned is that it's the same game, and yeah the pressure is there, but it's

still baseball. I'm glad I had the opportunity to pitch at the end of the year,

because I got a taste of pitching in pressure situations and that can only

help me as my career moves forward."

For more on John Niese, as posted here, please read A Lot Of Defiance In This Kid.