Cory Mull
Brian Shea
estravisjohnsonNews broke Saturday that Hanover Post 14 American Legion manager Troy Wentz was going to be inducted into the Pennsylvania American Legion Sports Hall of Fame in July of 2010.
For Wentz, who has guided Post 14 for the past 18 years — 15 as a head coach — the honor came at a time when it seemed right.
“Just received it this week, on Thursday,” Wentz said. “It’s a nice honor.”
In the past four seasons, Wentz has put forth an extensive amount of time and effort into the team, the club and its facilities. In 2006, he was given a $13,000 grant from the state to improve Diller Field, which was done over the course of 2006. He was instrumental in bringing the Region 4 tournament to Hanover in 2007 and will continue to be a presence when it comes back in 2010.
There’s been no shortage of good work on the field, either, as Post 14 has been as a persistent playoff qualifier through this decade.
But perhaps his biggest accomplishment came as skipper of the club that won it all in 1999 — American Legion state champions.
When you approach Diller Field from Blettner Avenue, the sign has it right there, planted dead center. State champs. It’s an honor that will be associated with Hanover baseball forever.
I spoke with Wentz on Saturday and asked him what he remembered from that year, when he had a future first round MLB draft pick in Mark Phillips — a powerful left-hander that was about as dominant as Wes in the Real World/Road Rules Challenges.
“I remember the first game of Regionals,” Wentz said. “At that time we were playing Fayetteville and they were the three-time defending champions of Region 4. We got down 12-3 and ended up beating them 19-17 in 10 innings.”
“That was the first game of the tournament. You didn’t think a whole lot about it, but it gave the kids confidence.”
And it certainly was the precursor to the most exhilarating run Post 14 ever made in its history.
“The night before we won the state championship, we got beat by State College 24-0. We came back less than 24 hours later and played the same team.
“And we beat them 7-5 to win the state champioinship. That State College team was loaded with talent. But we had such a team concept. All the young men got along. We were probbaly the better team, if they weren’t more talented.”
Phillips was the gem of York County during his time in Hanover. A hard-throwing left-hander with a nasty curve. Wentz told me stories over the spring about how scouts would curl around the backstop waiting to see him pitch. Games would be like carnivals, with people streaming from left to right. Phillips was the show. And people were enamored by his ability.
He went on to get drafted by the San Diego Padres in 2000, where he was the ninth overall pick and was selected ahead of Chase Utley (15) and Adam Wainright (29).
York Daily Record columnist Frank Bodani wrote in a 2005 story about Phillips that “He looked like a big-money pitcher — 6-foot-3 and left-handed. He threw like one, too — mid-90s fastball and a hard-breaking curve”
But the story also was written at a point when Phillips was out of baseball and looking to get back in it. His MLB career never got on track, mainly because of overuse in the minors and the dissection of his mechanics by pitching coaches.
Wentz did remember how dominate he was during his time with Post 14, though. And in his years of coaching, Wentz has sent a number of players to college, where they’ve played Division I, II and III baseball.
Filed under: Hanover, Prep Baseball | Tagged: baseball, Hanover, Mark Phillips, Prep Baseball, Troy Wentz
I covered Phillips as a sophomore and watched him utterly dominate in one inning in the state Legion All-Star game. BY his senior year, I was working in York in news and only got to watch as a spectator. Take all the stories people tell about him and multiply them. He was that talented.
We went to a game his senior year just to see him in person. This is late in the season. He had already signed with LSU and was ticketed for the top of the first round, but there were still a good 15 scouts there, most of them who stayed to the end of the game.
He dominated Kennard-Dale, I think it was. A one or two-hitter and any contact was on check swings or just flailing at the ball and getting lucky. In the seventh, I went over to stand behind the backstop to see what he was throwing. He uncorks a fastball, and I look at one of the radar guns.
92.
It is such a shame he never fulfilled the promise.
Nice job!
Brings back a lot of memories!