News Archive
Friday, October 23, 2009 |15:06 |Age: 314 days
Savoring the 2009 Season
Savoring the 2009 Season, Living Like Kings in France
Lunch and an Interview with Robin Roy, Best Baseball Pitcher in French History
October 16, 2009, Les Quatre Saisons Restaurant, Rouen
Victory comes in many flavors, victory over an opponent, victory in face of an objective, victory over adversity and victory shared with friends. Robin Roy is described as the best baseball pitcher in French history. I’m celebrating today with Robin the end of the 2009 season at the Four Seasons restaurant in the Hotel de Dieppe in Rouen, one of the best restaurants in Normandy.
Champagne is in order. The season ended just last Sunday with Rouen taking the final series 3-1 against their traditional enemy, Savigny-sur-Orge. It’s a very personal victory for Robin. He was forced into retirement in 2007 by cancer. He made a spectacular comeback this season at age 40.
Striking French farmers kept Robin tied up in traffic and he was 45 minutes late for our lunch. I’m Tom, a baseball umpire and amateur journalist.
T: For starters: Cheers! And congratulations on a brilliant season!
R: Yes, we won the regular season national championships, the Challenge de France [French qualifier cup between the top eight teams, May 21-24], we dominated in the finals and placed third in the European A-Cup. We missed the European final four, but just barely the last day. The French Juniors did really well at the European Championships also.
T: Why the Four Seasons restaurant?
R: I come here at least once a year with François Colombier [Manager of the Rouen Huskies] to eat caneton [duckling]. Some people think this place is better than the Tour d’Argent in Paris [frequently rated the best restaurant in the world].
T: The chefs are both in the Ordre des Canardiers I believe?
R: That’s right. Gill is of course the top restaurant in Rouen. Les Capucines on the outskirts of Rouen is also extraordinary. In May, after our third place finish in Nettuno in the European Cup we went to Les Hêtres up the coast near Saint-Valéry-en-Caux.
T: Without any hors-d’oeuvres and directly into the main dish, what stands out for you personally about this season?
R: When I think about it, the difficult part was my health. I remember vividly the first exhibition game played against Belgium in early March. It was my first game in a couple of years [since 2007]. I had a lot of doubts. My age was an issue. I had doubts. Did I really want to play or was this only a juvenile, how do you say it, caprice. I practiced during the winter indoors with no batters, so the question right off the top was quite simply – am I capable of doing this? It was freezing cold, bad weather and there was not one spectator in the stands. It didn’t matter but in spite of all my hesitations and nerves, I remember striking out the first batter and from there on it was OK.
The European Cup early in the season especially against L&D Amsterdam was awesome. Their big hitter de Jong was in full form and I had been out for two years under therapy. [Sidney de Jong, top player at the 2006 World Baseball Classic, all-star catcher at the 2007 World Baseball Cup – he scored one of two runs to defeat Cuba, best Dutch hitter at the 2009 World Baseball Classic, he threw out six of nine runners attempting a steal at the 2009 World Port Tournament.]
We beat Amsterdam 8-5 in Nettuno. De Jong had scored one of the key runs in the Haarlem Baseball Week a few years back and his team went on to defeat the United States, a real upset. [July 29, 2006: The Netherlands vs USA 15-3, a historic victory for a European team.] We beat him and his team. I remember coming to the mound for the first time with a 5-0 lead and thinking “Can I hold them?” In the fourth inning with bases loaded and no outs, I managed three outs in a row; I think two were strikeouts, against the top of their lineup. [Connor, first batter in the Dutch lineup, struck out swinging (1-2 KSFBS), Benner struck out looking (0-2 KKK), Bleij grounded out to second base (1-1 BK) leaving three on base.] That was the highlight of the year. The rest was easy. Pressure and emotion, that was the best personal moment.
T: Training for a comeback, what are the ingredients?
R: Nothing particular. During my chemotherapy from September through December of 2007, I lost 22 pounds. I started back to work in January 2008 and started eating normally again. In three or four months I gained back the lost pounds but not the strength. I thought this was too bad so I started working out again. I did a lot of cycling then went to the gym and did muscle building and cardio exercises. In October and November I started pitching with Keino Perez [French MVP 2009] every weekend, and there I felt my arm was back. By December I was doing two or three muscle building sessions a week. After an exam in January this year, my doctor gave me a green light for the season. I continued the workouts and pitching two or three times a week. The objective was to maintain, to loose the least stuff, no particular diet.
T: Did you mix in any mental training?
R: Like what?
T: Did you follow any particular chef’s method or are you a natural?
R: No, I never did that. On the other hand I practice “visualization”. Before a match, the night before, even two or three days before, I try to visualize the match. I try to feel the match. From time to time I even get an adrenaline rush trying to see the game. I read an article a while back about some tests on 30 basketball players over several months. Ten players practiced taking shots every day. Ten players never practiced, they only visualized the next match. And ten players visualized and practiced shooting every day before matches. The best group was the third group that did both. The group that practiced shooting and the group that only visualized showed the same results. That didn’t surprise me. It just reinforced something I had been doing more or less naturally for a long time. It’s something I really believe in. Like a batter in the box who is warming up and flexing his muscles, he visualizes the pitch. There are even batters who can feel the speed of the pitch, the time left to hit the ball. I think the best athletes can do this. We see this in the batter’s box and in lots of other sports, like automobile racing notably.
T: How did your stats taste this year?
R: This is the first time stats had no importance to me whatsoever. The important thing was to play and win this year. I wasn’t there to be the best but to be part of the team. Before I would have been disappointed playing second fiddle, but this year it was really important for me that the team win. I wanted to play any role necessary to help them win. Before I would have been disappointed winning 7-5. I would have preferred 7-0. But this year was different. Winning was everything, it’s the team that counts.
T: I remember you in previous years [when I umpired you] as a kind of control maniac. Do you have the same spice now?
R: You mean spotting? I am even better spotting now than before. I don’t know if you can call it control, but as I look at the number of strikeouts per match there are far less now, especially on fast balls. But when I look at my action pitches I’m still OK, but I have to watch out.
T: And speed? Still hot?
R: Well, it’s still in there. My last radar in Montpellier was clocked at 84 mph on the Stalker and 86 – 87 mph on the JUGS. For my age that is still acceptable.
T: Prime cut, you mean. Endurance?
R: Better as the season progressed. At the beginning of the season I was good for six innings. End of season I did five full games before my injury. At the same time, I made fewer strikeouts and I pitched fewer pitches. Four complete nine-inning games I pitched no more than 110 times each game, which isn’t much for nine innings. I’m still good for 100 good pitches.
T: Injuries?
R: None, the only one in the second to last game of the season when I pulled a muscle. It was disappointing. But at 40, if I had done that in the first game of the season it would have been a closer for me. Doing it near the end of the final [the only game Rouen lost] was disappointing but not terminal. I think I pitched more than anyone at Rouen this year. My arm is holding up. It was never sore.
T: That’s more than a lot of younger pitchers can say. Our main dish is here. Bon appétit! What did you order?
R: Porcelet au Miel Epicé, Piperade d’artichauts et poivrons doux [roast piglet in honey with spices, with mild artichoke and bell pepper piperade], it’s really not bad at all.
T: Mine is Risotto de Langoustines et noix de pétoncles aux herbes fraîches [risotto of baby lobster and scallops in fine herbs sauce]. It’s superb.
Is age really a disadvantage?
R: Physically, yes. But experience counts, it’s an advantage. Less stress, reading the game, fewer surprises, anticipation, situations where you know what to expect and how to react. Younger players have it harder trying to anticipate situations.
T: There are lots of older players in the French Elite division this year aging gracefully like fine wine.
R: Yes, Senart especially. Savigny also, they aren’t really old, they’re mature. They play well and even better than a few years ago – more dangerous than ever. They control their emotions better. Rouen, on the other hand, has an average age of 23 this year. That was really a shock at the beginning of the season for me. I had to struggle a bit to find a place in the group.
T: Fresh and local, that’s promising.
R: If the hard core stays, and they are all from Rouen, we have a real local group now. Kenji Hagiwara, David Gautier, Luc Piquet, Flavian Peron, Boris Marche, Jordan and Joris Bert, Quentin Becquey, Giovanni Ouin, even Keino Perez is now a Rouannais after five years in town. A few years back we had a lot of mercenaries, guys who lived in Paris or even farther. But now we have a lot of young local players.
T: It’s relatively rare for a French club to have five or six vintage pitchers in the same crop, isn’t it?
R: Yes, even if ours didn’t all pitch in the finals. We have lead-offs and relievers. Even Giovanni Ouin [aged 21] did a really outstanding job in the second match. Mathieu Crescent [aged 25] relieved me in game three after my pulled muscle. We have a good group.
T: Your choice catcher of the year?
R: David Gautier [aged 22] caught for me all year. We have two great catchers, David and Boris Marche. I didn’t know David before this year and I asked François what he thought at the beginning of the season. He just told me to make up my own mind. And David and I spent the whole year together.
T: With a club of this four-star quality, what can we expect next year in the European championships?
R: Do better. The club will be even better next year. The young guys will have more experience. The pitching will be even better. When you think we finished second and third and now we will have an even better team. It’s hard to say we will be first, but if we don’t dare it we’ll never make it. When we look at the different national teams, the only team in Europe that has beaten the Dutch is Rouen. When I talk to François about it, we ask the question, “Who really goes to European championships to win?” The answer is: nobody. Everyone makes short-term strategies – beat the Belgians, knock out the weaker teams – and when we get to the important games we have no pitching strength left. And then everyone says we can never beat the top teams. For me, we have to go there to win, even if we finish second, fifth or eighth. There is a risk, if you don’t win the big games you will go home sixth or eighth. But up to now, we have always gone out to win third place. Not me. In my opinion nobody tries to beat Holland. But if we set that as our objective, we can do it.
T: I think that will stick in their throats when they try to digest this interview. They will choke on it.
R: It’s true, they are better, but nobody goes out to beat them. Usually they put out their third- or fourth-string pitcher hoping to luck out. And they save their best for the games that absolutely cannot be lost. We finished third in 1999.
T: That was the only time in living memory that France brought home the bacon and qualified for the World Cup?
R: That was also the worst result we could have had in my opinion. We played to finish third. We could have done better. It was frustrating for me to try to not finish worse than third place. Sports isn’t just calculations and strategy. You have to play to win.
T: You were voted the best pitcher in Europe after that tournament, and you are still disappointed?
R: We could have won it.
T: This herb sauce is incredible! Objectives 2010?
R: None. Get through the winter, enjoy the kids, work. Yesterday I was with the family and I told my wife I was tired and probably wouldn’t go back next season. My oldest boy said, “You say that every year. But as soon as the weather breaks you’re back on the field.” So I’m enjoying my family and time will tell. The team will set the objectives. Who do we need to bring up? We’ll sit down with François? Xavier [Xavier Rolland, Club President] the whole team and decide. It will be a group effort and everyone will have the same objective. It takes a couple of months.
T: What’s the hardest part of a comeback?
R: The season all went so well, there were no hard parts. But I guess the worst was overcoming the doubt. And as time went by at the beginning of the season a few matches against weaker teams helped me from getting discouraged. In fact the hardest is to come back after a setback, or continue after a bad situation, and I was capable of that this year.
T: How do you feel when you see your number, number 21, out there enshrined in center field in the stadium in Rouen?
R: Well, it’s been there for a few years now so I’m getting used to it [laughing]. When the club retired my number I was really moved. I remember the ceremony just before the big game at the championships. I didn’t expect it but I really felt proud of that and grateful to the team.
T: How sweet it is, and just in time for dessert.
R: I ordered the Croustille de sorbets et glaces sur coulis de saison [Crust of sherberts and icecreams on a seasonal sauce].
T: Three scoops to celebrate your French triple crown? the Challenge, the regular season and the playoffs. I’m having the Soufflé du Président au Grand Marnier et Calvados [President’s Soufflé in Grand Marnier and Applejack]. As a sweetener, who are the best pitchers in France right now?
R: Unfortunately there are not enough. There are some really good pitchers. I’m thinking about Pierrick Lemestre [Savigny] who had an excellent season. He really improved a lot this year. It was enormous. Especially his control. He doesn’t have a lot of pitches, but the two he has are enough to strikeout a lot of batters. I’m thinking about Antony Piquet of La-Guerche-de-Bretagne who is still young (aged 29). Of course Sam Meurant [Senart] is still there. Those are the three best. I was surprised during the Rouen Open to see several under-19 pitchers who had really good arms. I can’t remember all the names. At Rouen we have Quentin Becquey [aged 19] who is coming up. Joris Navarros [aged 18] of Toulouse is pitching 85 – 86 mph. These guys are on their way up.
T: Do you still play golf? [Before his bout with cancer Robin had a 2 handicap.]
R: Unfortunately I don’t have enough time.
T: You could go to the Olympics with golf.
R: No [laughing], not with baseball either.
T: Could we have hosted the World Cup in Rouen? [When Russia withdrew from the World Cup, France was asked to organize the first round games. The games were later held in Croatia instead.]
R: I don’t have all the details. I spoke to the mayor who was positive. I wasn’t part of the discussions with the Federation so I only know the rumors. All my info is second hand. But from what I understood we could have, but we didn’t and it’s too bad. It amazes me a little that it we can’t organize only six baseball games in three days.
T: That incident left a bad taste in everyone’s mouth. In Barcelona there were only 500 spectators [to see Cuba, Puerto Rico, South Africa and Spain qualify for the next round].
R: Yeah. It’s not like we were mobilizing the whole country or something. I just don’t know why we couldn’t.
T: Chapman? Did you ever play against him? [Aroldis Chapman defected from the Cuban team in August in Rotterdam. There have been rumors of offers as high as $80 million for him to sign with a major league team.]
R: No, I only saw photos and heard people talk about him. Sounds awesome.
T: Your kids?
R: I’ve got three boys. Alexandre, the 14 year old, is studying and playing at the pole [the sports high school sponsored by the Federation]. He plays away games already. Quentin, our second, pitches and plays first base. He’s left handed like his older brother. He’s got good legs, plays tennis – good prospect. And the youngest, Antoine, is right-handed, but he’s only two and a half.
T: Any catchers?
R: Maybe Antoine. We’ll see.
T: Do you follow the finals in the USA?
R: No, I’ve been disconnected even with ESPN on cable at home. Our season just finished, and three weeks ago I changed jobs, so I’m really busy with training and all. And three kids …
T: Thanks for a great and inspiring season Robin, and I’m speaking for all of your French fans. We’re really looking forward to seeing you out there again next year. You are an inspiration.
Robin Roy was born June 26, 1969, in Montréal, Québec. He was selected for the Canadian National Baseball Institute in Vancouver. Recruited to Rouen by Xavier Rolland in 1991, he was elected the best pitcher in Europe in 1999. He was MVP in the French finals in 2001 (second division), 2003 and 2006 (in first division). He was also voted best pitcher of the season in 2003. He managed Rouen in 2005 and led them to one of their six team victories in the French finals. He is regional sales manager for a supermarket chain. His teammates call him “The King”.
Tom Nagel was born October 30, 1948, in Stockton, Illinois (Cubs country). He has lived in Paris since 1973. He is a baseball umpire, computer consultant, former member of the board of the French Federation, member of the PR and Media Commission of the Confederation of European Baseball, and founder and President of the French Beep Baseball Association – baseball for the blind.
