Contraction makes sense, Swift says

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Former major league pitcher Billy Swift, the University of Maine All-American, said the decision by the owners to eliminate two teams is a sound one.

And the two likeliest to lose their franchises are Montreal and Minnesota.

Good riddance, says Swift.

“I never liked going to either city. Going to Montreal was a waste of time. They’d only have around 5,000 at the games. I’m surprised Montreal has lasted this long,” said Swift, who retired two years ago after compiling a 94-78 record, 27 saves and a 3.95 earned run average over 403 appearances with Seattle, San Francisco and Colorado.

The Expos averaged a major-league low 7,648 per game.

“Baseball is making enough money so it can afford to let a couple of teams fold rather than re-locate,” said Swift.

He said pitching in Minnesota was a “nightmare” for him, a sinker ball specialist.

“The artificial turf was so spongy, the ball used to take these big bounces. Kirby Puckett used to get a lot of base hits that way,” said Swift.

He said it should be interesting to see how the players from the two franchises will be distributed.

“It’ll be amazing to see where they go. It’ll help the struggling teams. I would think they’d have a draft and the teams with the worst records would get to pick first,” speculated Swift.

But what would happen if those teams weren’t able to pay those elite players?

“They could trade them,” answered Swift.

The South Portland native lives in Arizona and attended the sixth and seventh games of the World Series in Phoenix.

“I wanted the Diamondbacks to win. I wanted to see [42-year-old pitcher] Mike Morgan win and, hopefully, retire. Bobby Witt was on the team and there are a lot of other guys I still know. [Yankee first baseman] Tino Martinez is a friend and I was glad to see him have a good series,” said Swift. “The seventh game was amazing. I stayed for the closing ceremonies and people were going nuts.”

Swift said the better team won.

“They outplayed the Yankees. It never should have been that close anyway,” said Swift, who was recently thrown a surprise 40th birthday party by wife Michelle in which he got to reminisce with former Bear teammates John Kowalski, Rick Lashua, Stu Lacognata and Rick Bernardo.

Swift doesn’t miss the game and continues to stay busy.

He coaches 9-year-old daughter MacKenzie’s 7-0 soccer team – the proud father pointed out that his daughter has scored 13 goals – and spends time transporting daughters Aubrey, 11, and Brynlie, 3, to activities like gymnastics.

He will make his debut as the varsity baseball coach at Scottsdale Christian Academy next spring after coaching the eighth grade team last year.

“I’m kind of nervous but we’ll see how it goes,” he Swift.

Hockey East parity in evidence

How about this for parity in Hockey East:

There have been 20 league games played so far and 16 have been decided by two goals or less.

There have been two ties, 10 one-goal games and four two-goal games.

“It’s going to like this all year,” predicted Boston University coach Jack Parker.

Maine interim head coach Tim Whitehead said, “There’s a fine line between ninth place and first place in Hockey East. All of the league’s coaches have seen this for several years now.”

Two of the primary reasons for the parity are the improved coaching and the defection of some of the league’s elite players to the pro ranks before they complete their four years.

Larry Mahoney’s column is published each Wednesday. He can be reached at 990-8231, 1-800-310-8600 or by e-mail at lmahoney@bangordarilynews.net.