Catty can be proud of Anthony Recker and its sports heritage

FROM KEITH GROLLER

It was fun to be at Yankee Stadium on Tuesday night for Anthony Recker's first night in the big leagues.

Amazingly, with all of the buzz the earthquake created, there were no traffic issues getting in or out of the Bronx.

No, Recker didn't play, but he was there, and in uniform, and it was kind of neat to document this first night for him.

I have a feeling he'll play in a game here before the Athletics move on to Boston. Maybe Thursday afternoon's series closer. Maybe more Catty people will be here by then. This one was kind of short notice. I know his former baseball coach, Tim Hurd, will be at Wednesday night's game.

I am hoping he gets a chance to show what he can do and makes the most of his opportunity. Quality catchers continue to be in short supply in the big leagues.

I was also at Yankee Stadium --- well at the ballpark bearing the same name that used to be across the street -- back on May 27, 1991 (Memorial Day, if I remember it) when Pat Kelly made his home debut for the Yankees. Can't believe that was 20 years ago.

What I remember about that day was interviewing Don Mattingly about Kelly and also that the garage my car was parked in got locked up before I got to it and I had to go back to the stadium and get security to open it up for me.

Let's just say the Mattingly interview (a humble guy considering he was the biggest thing in pinstripes at the time) along with my interview with then Yankee interview Stump Merrill, were more pleasant than getting my car out of that closed-up garage.

I won't get into my feelings about Kelly, who actually didn't want to talk to me that day (he did, however). Instead, he wanted one of his personal friends to handle all of The Morning Call's stories on him, and wasn't thrilled that I was the one there to document his Yankee Stadium debut.

Let's just say that I really think Anthony Recker is a good kid, who appreciates where he came from and went out of his way to say how proud he is to represent Catasasuqua and the Lehigh Valley. He's already talking about wanting to be a good role-model for the kids back home.

And Catty, for being such a small community, can be proud of having another kid go on to play in professional sports joining Kelly, Jonathan Linton, and of course, the great Larry Miller. Mike Bundra was before my time but he obviously made his mark at USC and in the NFL.

There's something in the water up there that makes kids shine. Catty's tradition in sports can hold its own with any other local community, even much larger communities like Allentown.

And, once you're a Catty kid, you're always a Catty kid, so it seems. Recker acknowleged all of the support he was feeling back home.

Within minutes of learning about his callup on Monday, I heard from at least five people who wanted to share the good news. And once they found out I was going on Tuesday, those same people were in constant touch wondering how Anthony was doing.

I even e-mailed a few photos of Anthony back for them (like this one below) Anthony Recker 001

Recker has the right demeanor to make it in the big leagues. He respects the game, but is not in awe of it.

That's the blue-collar approach that Catty instills in people.

This was my first time in the Yankee Stadium press box since the night the Yankees beat the Phillies in Game 6 of the 2009 World Series. Despite New York's loss to Recker's Athletics tonight, I think we could possibly see the same matchup again in about seven weeks.

Another NY-Philly World Series would be fun, but even if it happens, I might remember this night just as long.

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