New Mets GG, a softball fan?

Billy Eppler, the new general manager of the MetsHe has done many things during his years in the world of baseball. He was a scout for the Rockies in the early 2000s, an assistant general manager for the Yankees from 2012 to 2014, and most recently a general manager for the Angels from 2015 to 2019.

While they are very important positions at the MLB level, there is evidence that Eppler is the same as any of us: He loves to play softball. Yes, one of those guys who goes around the neighborhood, bat and glove in hand, looking for a game to get into at any hour of the night. At least, that’s what happened once, in 2013, at McCarren Park in Williamsburg, in Brooklyn County, NY

“It was 11pm, at least, and the lights usually go out at 11:15, something like that,” Dave Martin, founder of the recreational softball league Tuesday Night Lights, told me recently during a phone call. “I was literally walking to the mound to pick up the pitching rubber, because I had already looked for the bases and the cones, all that stuff. So this man comes out of nowhere and asks me, ‘Can I get down to hitting hits out there in the outfield?’

It wasn’t unusual for someone to ask if he could play, but then the sudden visitor – saying his team was the Yankees – started asking Martin about his Red Sox hat and jersey.

“I had my Red Sox jacket, my Big Papi shirt and my Boston cap,” Martin recalled. “And this man starts asking me about the Red Sox. And he congratulated me ”. (Boston had won the division a couple of days earlier, 12 games ahead of the Yankees.)

Then the man started talking about the Yankees signatures and how the team had fared that year, but in terms like “we did this” or “we did that.” That caught Martin’s attention.

“You know how fans sometimes say ‘we’ like they’re part of the team, but they’re not, and they sound pretty stupid?” Martin continued. But the way he said it sounded different. And he was mentioning details… Eventually I said, ‘Who are you? It looks like you work for the Yankees or something like that. ‘

“And he said, ‘Oh yeah, you know, I’m the assistant general manager for the Yankees.’

“I was like, ‘Really?'” Martin recalled. “He was congratulating me like I was the Red Sox’s assistant GG! He was super nice about the whole thing that Boston had won the division. “

Being a league where you play during the nights on weekdays, full of players with jobs as artists, writers or workers (Martin is a DJ known as White Lightning, for example), it was definitely surprising to see someone who worked alongside Brian. Cashman showing up to practice. A man who was at the command console of one of the most famous sports franchises in the world was there, as down-to-earth as anyone.

Eppler told Martin that he lived in the area and was trying to find a place to play, you know, in his spare moments while signing Bartolo Colón, Andruw Jones or Freddy Garcia of Venezuela. Martín told him that there were games every Tuesday as long as the weather cooperated, but that they couldn’t play anymore that night because they were going to turn off the lights.

Eppler, who played baseball at the University of Connecticut, definitely looked like someone who could get the job done on a softball diamond. At least according to Martin’s scout report:

“Yeah, he looked like someone who knew how to play,” summarized Martin. “Someone tall, normal, athletic.”

Eppler did not return to play that fall, or during the winter, but Martin said the then Yankees manager may have mentioned to him that he played in Central Park. He’s not really sure. Either way, it was a good story cool for Martin and the other players in the league.

“Oh, it was fun, it would have been tremendous if he had played,” Martin said. “I was disappointed that he didn’t come back, and then I was hoping that maybe he would come back in the spring or later.”

Who knows? With Eppler back in the area for the next four years, perhaps Brooklyn’s little league softball will get a visit from a general manager this time. You just have to make sure you arrive before 11pm