By Andy Loigu

Former two-sport Warren Hills athlete Anthony Veneziano is back in Arizona, in spring training, seeking to move up the organizational ladder and get closer to a spot in “the show” as a lefty pitcher with the Kansas City Royals.

Arizona, by the way, is my pick to get through all the March Madness brackets and win the men’s hoops national championship, but, I digress.

Veneziano is the third recent Warren Hills baseball player to get drafted from a major college program by a team which holds spring training in Arizona. Veneziano pitched for Coastal Carolina. Greg Terhune (Seton Hall and the Angels) and Mike Nemeth (UConn and the Brewers) are the other two Blue Streaks to get a shot at the big leagues in this millennium.

Veneziano was the Royals’ 10th pick in June of 2019. That’s an earlier round than Hackettstown’s Cole Kimball, who was drafted 12th by the Nationals out of Centenary College in 2006 and made the big leagues after five years of toil moving up through all the minor-league levels.

Last season with Kansas City’s High-A level Quad Cities River Bandits, Veneziano had a 6-4 win-loss record, with a 3.75 earned run average, which was better than the 4.36 ERA he finished with following his previous season. Last year he improved on his earlier numbers by posting 93 innings pitched, 127 strikeouts and a WHIP (walks and hits per inning) of 1.21, which is quite good at any level.

This columnist is happy to see a two-sport athlete progressing in professional baseball. Too many baseball parents feel that the way for their son to gain a pro career is by making him specialize in baseball, starting at the tender age of five or six years old.

Natural athletes play whatever sport is in season and excel in all of them. Pitchers, in particular, need to rest the old “soup bone” for a few months each year to avoid excessive stress and strain.

Veneziano was the Blue Streaks’ leading rebounder when Warren Hills had a great run of wins which earned them a sectional title in basketball. Shooting a layup or free throw does not punish the arm nearly as much as breaking off a curveball or slider.

Being an oldies fan when it comes to music, I always think of Veneziano whenever the radio plays “going to Kansas City, Kansas City here I come.”

SPEAKING OF K.C.

Assistant Warren Hills wrestling coach K.C. Wanamaker, who works at BASF as a business controller, recently earned an MBA degree from Lehigh University. Just like Veneziano on the mound, Wanamaker said it is now “on to the next goal” for him.

One of these days I need to put together a column about all the Warren County wrestlers who went on to Ivy League caliber colleges. Some people (names withheld to protect the guilty) have told me they think high school athletes are “dummies” who never will amount to anything significant. I think those people are just jealous because the athletes got dates and went to the proms with the prettiest girls.

“The purpose of the corporation must be redefined as creating shared value, not just profit per se,” Wanamaker states on his LinkedIn profile. “This will drive the next wave of innovation and productivity growth in the global economy.”

When wrestlers have something to say, I pay attention.

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Ladies and gentlemen, Elvis has left the building.