Major leaguer, coaches talk baseball at Falk College

On Monday night, Falk’s Grant Auditorium hosted a panel of local baseball players, coaches and scouts to discuss the state of baseball in 2020.

Arizona Diamondbacks outfielder Tim Locastro was joined by his Auburn High coach, TJ Gamba, who is currently the coach at Cayuga Community College. Locastro’s college coach, George Valesente recently retired from the job after 41 years as the head coach at Ithaca College. Valesente, along with his son David, who is taking over for his father spoke at the event. Former minor-leaguer and Yankees scout Marc Delpiano rounded out the lineup.

The group discussed a wide variety of baseball topics and trends forming in the game. Health and wellness was the opening topic and how players are playing longer and having longer careers. The panel said, regarding analytics, although the statistics are useful, people focus too much on analytics in baseball.

All of the members said the pace of play in the sport should speed up. Locastro said all agents should always be on the side of the player, not themselves nor their company. Locastro talked about his light media presence and how he thinks that social media causes nothing but trouble for pro athletes.

They mentioned the idea of “tanking” and how they thought it won’t continue because people are not going to go to the games. The new “robo ump” was mentioned and the group believed that it will not be a good thing for the game at all.

Overall, it was a night talking baseball with big names. Many students were in attendance and they might have done something they will never do again: ask a question to a big-league baseball player.