Got MiLB? & Nelson Figueroa & Part III of My Promoting Our Big Monday Interview

Okie dokie (is that how you spell "dokie?"), this is the final installment of my (our, since you're in this with me, like it or not) promoting the big Monday Morning Interview on Jimmy Scott's High & Tight.  The big interview?  It's with Mets pitcher Nelson Figueroa and his wonderfully wonderful wife Alisa.  They were both on the phone with me, chatting about loads of things.  It was cool.

"But, Jimmy," you say abruptly, "did you just talk about Lifetime movies and pan-searing chicken breasts?"

"Nope," I retort wisely with half of my intelligence thinking about how I rarely retort but here I was doing it.  "We don't talk about Lifetime TV.  Not once.  We talk a lot about baseball; about their combined life in The Game.  We talk about (it's actually "talked," past tense, since it already happened but I don't want to play with tenses on a Saturday morning when my nose is running from this lousy cold) money (see HERE what I wrote about that yesterday) and we talk about one thing I hadn't mentioned before."

"Do tell us, Jaime," you say.  "Be forthright now, boy."

My forthrighteousness shines through as I state clearly for the record thusly: "We talked, at length, about the media and the Washington Nationals."

Huh?  (You thought that but didn't say it, hence no quotations around the first H and only ?)

Last year, Nelson was pitching agaist your 2008 Washington Nationals when they started razzing him while he was on the mound.  Not your typical razzing, with bad words about somebody's mother.  "Little League" razzing.  That's how Nelson described it.  "Little League" razzing.   They were basically doing the old "we want a pitcher not a belly itcher" thing to him.  Unfortunately, he referred to the team as a "bunch of softball girls."  I say unfortunately because the media took him for a ride after that.

Now, Nelson's been around for a while.  He's played everywhere.  EVERYWHERE.  This had never happened to him.

After the game, some players commented to him about it and some reporters asked him about it.  He just said it wasn't cool.  BUT... One reporter took that as Nelson was complaining, like he was being a crybaby about it.  A mini-firestorm erupted, engulfing Nelson in flames.  He got caught in it as it took on a life of its own.  Team management, Mets team management, wasn't necessarily happy with it.  He was designated for assignment.

Where...

After clearing waivers and finding himself back in the minor leagues, It happened again.  The team he was pitching against (he was pitching for the New Orleans Zephyrs, the Mets AAA team in 2008) starting doing the Little League razzing.  Nelson couldn't believe it.  He was being followed by grade-school behavior.

What happened then?

I will stop telling the story.  It does have an ending.  And it has some input from Alisa (Remember her, Nelson's wonderfully wonderful wife?).  He tells the story better than me, which he should since he was there.  But I hopefully gave you a little something to quench your Saturday baseball thirst with (my apologies if you read this on any other day of the week).

With everything I ever wrote to you in mind, it's not time for me to link you to Lisa Winston's superior profile of Nelson Figueuroa.  You can find it at her great Got MiLB? blog  I'm going to re-post a portion of Part III of her thing.  Then, to read the rest, you'll have to go HERE.  Of course, you can just go HERE now and not read my tease below.  But are you really willing to leave so soon?  Huh?  Really? 

Oh.  Okay.  Just come back on Monday, early morning (or anytime after forever), to listen to the rest of Nelson's Media vs. Nelson vs. The Washington Nationals story and more.

THE FULL NELSON, PART III

And we're back ...

  When we left off yesterday, right-hander Nelson Figueroa Jr. had just been taken off of the New York Mets' 40-man roster but assured by the organization that he was in their plans for 2009.

  Knowing that he was going to be fighting for a job come spring, despite 13 years as a pro and the minor league crown in wins and strikeouts, Figueroa came home, spent some quality time with his bride of eight years, Alisa, and his young daughter, Renee, and then it was time to pack his bags again and set off, this time for the Dominican Republic.

  Back with Aguilas Cibaenas, the team with whom he'd caught the Mets' eye with a playoff-record 13-strikeout performance the previous January, he posted a 3.13 ERA in five games, striking out 24 while walking four in 31 2/3 innings.

  His next stop on his world tour was Venezuela, where he joined the Lara Cardinales for the playoffs. And on Jan. 18, almost a year to the day after he had wrapped up his Mets invite, Figueroa pitched arguably the best game in his 13-year career.

  Facing Zulia, Figueroa tossed nine innings of no-hit ball in a game still tied 0-0 after that nine innings. The team came back to win, 1-0, in 10. Overall, with Lara in the post-season, Figueroa was 2-0 with a 3.66 ERA in 19 2.3 innings, striking out 20.

  Pretty nice numbers to come home with and to leave the Mets to ponder as they make their potential plans for their 2009 staff. .

  So now, if you've been keeping track, Figueroa has pitched in Mexico, in Taiwan, in Venezuela, in the Dominican Republic. He's pitched in Japan and Australia. He would also appear to be pretty much a lock for the Puerto Rican team's staff in the upcoming World Baseball Classic.

  So what is the best part of being able to be such a world traveler as part of his job?

  The money.

  No, not the salary or the income. But, rather, the actual coinage, the souvenirs Renee collects from his - and, sometimes, their - travels.

  "She loves the money from each place because it's so different," he explained. "She has a little cash register filled with coins, a collection of 'play money.'"

  Figueroa first met Alisa back when the two were at Brandeis and she was a student-trainer for the athletic teams, but they didn't start dating until years later. She had received her graduate degree from Syracuse University and was living in that area when Figueroa was assigned to Double-A Binghamton, an hour south.

  "I had my old student directory so I looked her up and called her and invited her to come to a game," he recalled.

  The two dated for a few years before he decided to pop the question in 2000, and did it in memorable style.

  Knowing that Alisa was a huge Winnie-the-Pooh fan, the set-up came at a 4th birthday party for the son of one of Figueroa's Tucson teammates, Ken Huckaby. During the festivities, who should show up but Winnie the Pooh, holding his ever-present "hunny jar."

  But when he pulled his hand out of the jar, it wasn't covered with honey but rather holding a ring. Which Winnie then presented to Alisa, as he took off the head and revealed ... well, you figure it out.

  The two wed that following off-season and have lived as happily ever after as they can when they are separated for so long during the year. The times they are together as a family are cherished down to every last minute.

  Most recently, before Figueroa left on Thursday for Port St. Lucie, they were spent painting the walls of Renee's new "big girl room," a color that Figueroa described in true "father of a 5-year-old" style as "a cross between Cinderella ballgown blue and Heffalump purple."

  Before that, the three went on a long-awaited Disney Cruise to celebrate the big girl's 5th birthday. And Figueroa was able to bring her to her dance and gymnastics classes (she is an outstanding athlete like her dad) and watch her perform there.

  "The hardest part of the baseball life that people don't see is the family you leave behind," Figueroa said. "I've gotten to play dad maybe four months in the last three years."

To read the rest, go to Lisa Winston's Got MiLB? right HERE.