Stump Merrill still enjoying managing at AA level

PORTLAND – It’s hard to imagine anyone who can match the baseball resume that Maine native Carl “Stump” Merrill has built up over the last three decades.

The current manager of the Trenton Thunder, the New York Yankees’ double A minor league affiliate in New Jersey, has been all the way up and down the professional baseball ladder as both a player and manager.

So what’s a former major league manager doing toiling in the mid-minors?

“This is where they wanted me and where they thought I’d be able to do the most good,” said Merrill during a brief stay in Portland last week for a three-game series against the Sea Dogs.

“They” are the Yankees, who Merrill has been a loyal, trusted employee of for the last 28 years. You’d think a guy who managed the Yankees for two seasons would have soured on the rigors of minor league managing by now, but not Merrill.

“Time away from home at this stage in the game is the worst thing, but I’ve done it all my whole life and I don’t look at any of it as a bad thing. I really don’t. It’s a fun experience,” said the 60-year-old Merrill. “I don’t mind the travel, I don’t mind the hotels. There are days that are long in the course of the season, but you have that in a regular job as well.”

It was good to be home for the Brunswick native, but his stay was too short.

“Seeing the people and getting back here is great,” Merrill said. “It’s nice to be able to get home and see the family during the season. It’s fun to come up here. It really is, but it goes by real quick because you’re here for such a short period and you’ve got so much you want to try to get done.”

The former Philadelphia Phillies player is now in his second season as the Thunder’s head man and is being counted on to develop some of New York’s top young talent. His pro managerial record coming into this season is 1504-1223. That includes a two-year stint as Yankees manager when he went 120-155 (1990-91). He has been a manager in the majors, triple A, double A, full season A and short season A. His Yankees experience even rated a mention in an episode of Seinfeld.

The UMaine Hall of Fame member’s best season was 1980, when he managed double A Nashville to a 97-47 record. His teams have finished first eight times and second six times.

So what keeps the University of Maine alumnus in the game – and with the same organization for almost 30 years?

“I think the thing you enjoy the most is seeing the players get better and go to the major leagues. That’s the reward you get is to be a small part in their development,” said Merrill. “When they get here, they’re close. You know? You’ve got a chance to play in the big leagues.”

Rogers creating buzz

Mark Rogers, a senior at Mount Ararat High School in Topsham, is generating quite a bit of attention and buzz for himself – and the high school baseball season has barely started.

Rogers is featured prominently in two articles in a recent issue of Baseball America. The standard for minor league baseball publications recently published its annual “top 100 prospects” list and although Rogers isn’t one of them, it’s a good bet he soon will be.

The 6-foot-2 right-handed pitcher has been selected as a member of Baseball America’s 2004 preseason high school all-America team and is highlighted in the accompanying article. The Orrs Island native, who has committed to play college ball for the University of Miami, is called an “outstanding athlete and hard-nosed competitor” who could be the first-ever Maine high schooler drafted in the first round of Major League Baseball’s amateur draft.

Rogers was a relative unknown before he attended the East Coast Professional Showcase in Wilmington, N.C., last August. He impressed scouts by hitting 97 miles per hour on a radar gun. According to a separate Baseball America article touting a hot Northeast pitching trio – Rogers, Jay Rainville of Warwick, R.I., and Andy Gale of Durham, N.H. – Rogers has helped “put Maine on baseball’s map.”

The comments of one unnamed scout were interesting and provocative.

“He is from Maine. You can tell,” the scout was quoted as saying. “You drool over his potential, but you can’t get excited about his stage in development. Or, you can get excited … since the player development guys are going to want to get their hands on him believing that his ceiling is higher than the same arm in Florida, Texas, or California.”

Andrew Neff can be reached at 990-8205, 1-800-310-8600 or aneff@bangordailynews.net