Sea Dogs Monthly Luncheon

The Sea Dogs held their final monthly luncheon of the year (at least, I think it was the last one) Wednesday afternoon. After a meal of chicken wings and fried fish, topped off with some frozen lemonade, pitcher Greg Montalbano spoke for a few minutes and answered questions.

Montalbano was a very engaging and entertaining speaker, peppering his talk with some good natured ribbing and wry jokes. Montalbano was drafted out of Northeastern (where he is the all-time leader in wins) in the 5th round in 1999, but his status as a prospect was derailed by arm injuries and testicular cancer. After missing all of 2002 and only pitching 28 innings in 2003, Montalbano recently returned to the Sea Dogs and has pitched 4 1/3 scoreless innings thus far.

Montalbano answered questions about his post-game arm care (dumbell cooldown, ice therapy, playing catch the next day), how many pitches he throws (four-ish: Fastball, Curve, Change, and he's working on a cut fastball), and his plans for after this season (he hoped to pitch in the Arizona Fall League, but it looks like he'll play in one of the Latin American countries instead).

Asked about his post-baseball plans, Greg joked that he hoped to have earned enough money to spend his days golfing and fishing. On a more serious note, he mentioned that he is just a few credits shy of an engineering degree, but he also was considering working as a baseball radio or TV analyst, or even as a player agent, having learned a lot of the good and bad about agents over the years.

Montalbano also spoke at length about his bout with cancer (ten surgeries to remove 19 tumors!), and how it affects his approach to baseball. Montalbano doesn't seem to focus heavily on his bout with the disease, but noted that he gladly speaks to anybody about his experiences, and noted that he is keeping a lot of notes and plans to write a book once his career is over. With his genial manner and apparent ease with public speaking, I could see him working as a motivational speaker as well. I believe that he will be very successful wherever he lands (hopefully in the major leagues!), and wish him the best in his career.

I will reiterate what I wrote a couple of weeks ago - the monthly luncheons are a terrific program that gives the fans a chance to meet and talk to the players and other organizational personnel. At $8 for lunch and a speaker, it's a great deal. The event is usually listed at the Sea Dogs web site well in advance.