Tuesday, January 20, 2009

GLOBE SOUTH SPORTS

Lifelong Sox fan

from Canton now

works for team, but

in Virginia

Globe South Sports



John Katz, a Canton native and now general manager of the Salem (Va.) Red Sox, a Fenway Sports Group franchise, holds the World Series trophy.

John Katz, a Canton native and now general manager of the Salem (Va.) Red Sox, a Fenway Sports Group franchise, holds the World Series trophy. (Salem Red Sox)


By Justin A. Rice
Globe Correspondent / January 18, 2009

John Katz is not a household name in Red Sox Nation. Certainly not like another fellow New Englander, pitcher Manny Delcarmen, a Hyde Park native. Or Sox general manager Theo Epstein, the pride of Brookline.

But Katz, born and bred in Canton, is now working with the hometown team and thrilled with the opportunity.

A veteran minor league baseball administrator, the 38-year-old Katz is the general manager of Boston's new affiliate in Salem, Va., formerly property of the Houston Astros. Fenway Sports Group, a subsidiary of the Red Sox ownership group, purchased the Salem Avalanche franchise in 2007. This past November, Salem signed a player development contract with Boston, and this season, the team will replace the Lancaster (Calif.) JetHawks as the Sox' top Class A franchise.

"It's kind of come full circle for me," said Katz. "Working in this business for 16 years, I finally have the opportunity to work in the sister company of the Boston Red Sox, and being on the cusp of our first season as a Red Sox affiliate is unbelievable."

Katz said the key to success for his 11 full-time staff members will be to integrate the Boston baseball culture into their organization, which won't be hard considering more than 1,000 fans turned up at a local mall to have their picture taken with the World Series trophy when Salem unveiled its new logo. But Katz is not trying to drop Fenway Park into the Blue Ridge Mountains, which overlook Salem's 6,300-seat stadium.

Tim Zue, vice president of FSG ventures, said his group was happy to have Katz aboard based on his experience alone.

"The fact that he was local, someone who grew up a Red Sox fan was a cherry, someone who understands our culture and Red Sox history firsthand," Zue said, adding that the genuine enthusiasm Katz displayed during the logo unveiling can't be manufactured.

"He was taking pictures of his family with the trophy and that was his Christmas card. It was great to have someone so passionate about our brand and what we bring to the table."

But more than the power and prestige that accompanies that brand, Katz is most excited about having access to FSG's resources.

"We always confuse the word 'resource', " he said. "We think we're talking about money, but what I talk about when I talk about the Red Sox resources is human resources. Being able to create synergy with FSG makes me be a better GM and helps my staff be better at what we do. Great things are on the horizon for us, and a kid from Canton is getting to sit in the chair and do it, which is great."

As a Little Leaguer, Katz frequented Fenway Park with his father, Dick, who owned a Canton tuxedo shop called Richard Lewis and was friends with Haywood Sullivan, the only person to serve as an owner, general manager, and player for the Red Sox. One day, Sullivan escorted father and son into the clubhouse, where backup catcher Bob Montgomery swapped his helmet with Katz's cheap plastic one.

The young, left-handed catcher had a difficult time playing the position at Beaver Country Day School in Brookline after moving to Westwood at age 13.

"Once I got to varsity, I had a hard time throwing to third with right-handed batters up," Katz said of the demise of his ball-playing days.

After graduating from Hofstra University in 1993, Katz worked as a summer intern in the Arizona Fall League before accepting a position with the Carolina Mudcats. After three years he returned home burned out and took a marketing job in Norwood. Five months later, he received a call from an old colleague who asked him to help run a team in Modesto, Calif.

"I went down and talked to my dad and said, 'Look, this is my last chance to do what I want to do. If it doesn't work this time, it wasn't meant to be,' " Katz said.

He spent nine seasons with the Modesto A's (1997-2001) and Stockton Ports (2002-2005) of the California League. He was named Executive of the Year in the California League in 2000, an honor he also earned a year after he took the Salem job in 2005.

Long before moving back East, Katz indoctrinated his wife and children into the Red Sox diaspora. His father lived to see the 2004 World Series, but died just after FSG purchased the Salem Avalanche. Katz's childhood friend John Gunning said Dick Katz would be thrilled to see his son working under the Red Sox flag.

"Johnny would trade baseball cards with his dad right up to the end," said Gunning, who still lives in Canton.

"It was a big topic for both of them. With every card, they would have some story to talk about baseball.

"He probably got his good business sense from his dad; he's a huge asset for [Red Sox owner] John Henry."

His assistant GM, Allen Lawrence, said Katz wraps hot dogs when the concessions back up, collects tickets when the sales windows clog, and helps pull the tarp over the field for rain delays.

"He never sits back and says 'I'm too good to do that job,' " Lawrence said.

Katz predicted he "could finish out my career in Salem and spend the next 20 years here.

"This is a wonderful place to raise a family. I got the best job in the world. I wouldn't trade it for anything."

Saturday, January 17, 2009

Duxbury’s Brust

tops point plateau

Mark Brust reaches

milestone, helps Duxbury

stay unbeaten


GARY HIGGINS/The Patriot Ledger
Duxbury sharpshooter Mark Brust joins the 1,000-point club with this first-quarter 3-pointer.




For The Patriot Ledger
Posted Jan 16, 2009 @ 11:18 PM
Last update Jan 16, 2009 @ 11:21 PM

PEMBROKE -- Seven female students stood in the front row of a jammed student section at Pembroke High’s gymnasium last night in their brown Uggs and T-shirts spelling “B-R-U-S-T-3-5.” Only 4 minutes and 46 seconds remained in the opening quarter when they spun and revealed the writing on their backs: “1-0-0-0-!-!-!”

To be exact, however, Duxbury senior guard Mark Brust had 1,002 career points when play stopped to acknowledge an accomplishment only 10 previous Duxbury players have achieved. Brust, who hit a 3-pointer from the left corner to seal the deal, nearly reached the milestone by scoring the game’s first seven points.

“My teammates just found me in open spots and it looked like it worked out,” he said after scoring a game-high 27 in the 71-54 victory. “(Getting me the ball) wasn’t the plan ... it was just whatever was open, the best shot for our team and that’s just what happened.”

Brust wore a modest expression while coaches and players from both teams hugged and congratulated him.

Pembroke coach Paul Wholey, who has instructed Brust at his summer camp, wished Brust didn’t reach 1,000 so early in the contest.

“I’m looking forward to seeing if we can keep him to about eight points,” Wholey said before his senior center, Matt Devine, led the Titans (5-4) with 26. “(Brust) deserves the acknowledgement and I’ll enjoy it for him and his family and then we’ll get right back to business.”

Summer camp was also where Duxbury coach Gordon Cushing first saw Brust play as a fifth grader. Cushing said the boy played so hard one day he almost hyperventilated.

“I had to get paper bag for him to breathe into and call an ambulance,” Cushing said. “He was fine and he wanted to go back in and play instead of take the rest of the day off.

Brust just assumed play went on last night too.

Cushing said Brust’s modesty and team play has always been his M.O.

“I just always did what the team needed me to do when I was younger,” said Brust. “That was definitely to get the ball to some good players I was playing with. As time came on I started shooting more and my teammates helped me out by making good passes and it made it easier to score. I don’t think I had (a scoring touch) when I was an underclassmen. I think I definitely picked it up from people I was playing with.”

But while Brust is averaging 25 points per game this season, scoring wasn’t his M.O. four years ago as the sixth man on the Dragon’s Division 2 state championship team — although he did hit a late free throw to help ice the title game.

“To ask a freshman to step up and hit rim is pretty tough and he was able to knock one down,” Cushing said.

But Duxbury (11-0) hasn’t advanced past the first round of the tournament since, a fate the Bates College-bound guard will try to change this spring.