Magic baseball team had a 30- 29 record last season, which to Magic coach Tony Dattoli was a successful season, but to their standards was not good enough for them.
Joe Ray
– Multimedia Editor –
Magic baseball team had a 30- 29 record last season, which to Magic coach Tony Dattoli was a successful season, but to their standards was not good enough for them.
“Every year is different with the constant turnover with the junior college. We had some short coming last year and that’s on the coaching staff and myself,” Dattoli said. “We had a lot of distractions last year with cuts in the programs. That caused us to lose concentration. It was more of a focus on survival then playing baseball.” Many athletic programs were cut last year throughout the STLCC schools.
The Magic baseball team was the only STLCC baseball team that was not cut and they had to find a new team to challenge them at Busch Stadium. This would have been the seventh year in which the Magic would be playing Forest Park. Instead, the team is playing Lewis and Clark Community College, whom they have not played since 2008.
“I think it is a nice change. I honestly am going to miss the rivalry between Forest Park and us,” Dattoli said on the change for the Busch Stadium game. “At the end of the day you knew you had to beat one another and you wanted to walk around the district saying we beat Forest park. We loved having bragging rights.”
The expectations for the Magic have remained the same just like every season: compete for a national championship. Dattoli always reminds his players about the real reason they are here at Meramec. Their academics are going to follow them for the rest of their lives. Dattoli believes that academics reflect individuality. Therefore, how much work you put into your academics is going to show up in the work you put towards baseball.
The Magic have 16 players from last year’s team. Dattoli believes the incoming freshmen can challenge the veterans for starting spots on the roster.
“All these men at several positions can play for any program in this area,” Dattoli said.
Ben Smith, the starting catcher from last season, is also returning this year. Smith had a batting average of .291 with nine home runs and 47 runs batted in. Smith separated himself from the district as one of the best catchers, according to Dattoli, and he believes Smith can really improve to be even better than last year.
This past summer, Les Smith, a potential returning player was drafted by the Detroit Tigers. He has signed with Detroit and is currently playing for the Connecticut Tigers, a class Single A minor league affiliate. His first hit was a grand slam.
Based on the experiences the returning players had from last season, Dattoli believes that going back to the same basics that brought them national fame a couple of years ago, will help them become a competitive team again.
“I want to play exciting baseball. I think this team this year is going to be a team that will steal a lot of bases,” Dattoli said.
“We are going to try a lot of squeeze plays. We are going to do a lot of hit and runs. Defensively we are going to be real good. We are going to be exciting to watch.”
