By Dylan Butler
“Some people make things happen, some people watch what happens and some people wonder what happened,” Cuseta said. “We try to surround ourselves with people who can achieve the former.”There is no questioning the Bayside Yankees' unprecedented success. Since its inception 23 years ago, the Yankees program has won 16 national championships, including its latest a few weeks ago when Joe Kessler's Junior Americans won the National Amateur Baseball Federation title.But at what cost?In last week's edition of the TimesLedger, Midville Dodgers President Bob Holden accused the Yankees organizations, specifically the Junior Nationals, of taking three of its players without permission, without so much as a phone call to ask for those players.When Holden brought the matter to Cuseta's attention via e-mail, the Yankees president blasted Holden and his club, saying “when you win your first (national championship), you get an opinion. Until then, crawl back under the rock you came from and shut up!” according to copies of the e-mail obtained by the TimesLedger.He was defiant in telling Holden that “we don't need your permission to do anything! Get a grip on yourself and your Ôlittle league,' local, yokel program,” the e-mail said.Is this the example a president sets?If this were an isolated incident, then I would dismiss it as someone who responded in anger without first thinking about what he was attempting to say. But it's far from the first time Cuseta lashed out at someone in amateur baseball.Former Archbishop Molloy standout Nick Derba has been a part of the Yankees organization for the past four years and played for the Cuseta-coached Senior Americans this year. He was a starting catcher and batted third for the team, until he left to play in the prestigious Cape Cod league two days before the Yankees postseason started.Cuseta claims if Derba had left for the Cape earlier, and he had been able to find another catcher, then he would have fully endorsed the move. “I would have driven him up myself,” he said.But instead Cuseta has decided to sever ties with Manhattan College completely, since it was Jaspers coach Steve Trimper who helped Derba join the Chatham A's. He also sent a profanity-laced e-mail to Trimper threatening to get him fired, a copy of which he faxed to this newspaper.Since going to the Cape, Derba has played in six games Ñ without starting one behind the plate.”It's not a rumor. It's a fact,” Cuseta said when reached on his cellphone Tuesday afternoon. “I sent a memo and told the entire coaching staff not to give anyone from Manhattan a schedule or a roster. There will never be another Bayside Yankee going to Manhattan College.”And it doesn't stop there.”I got rid of Joe Russo and Mike Roberts,” Cuseta said, referring to the former head coaches at St. John's and North Carolina. “(Trimper) will be a piece of cake because he doesn't have half the resume of those guys. … I don't take crap from a little peon coach from Manhattan.”And there's more.”When I want players, I call Tim Corbin from Vanderbilt, Jim Morris from Miami and Augie Garrido from Texas,” Cuseta said. “Not Manhattan College.”In the fall, Cuseta went with higher-profile players than his own to send to the Perfect Games tournament in Juniper, Fla., according to former players Matt Acevedo and Brian Mason, who along with Keith Fier left Bayside after several years to join the Team NY Cardinals.”He left a bunch of kids who played for him and dealt with his crap the entire fall and he told them they couldn't come,” Acevedo said. “If he treated kids the way they're supposed to be treated and not like a bunch of farm animals, he would have the No. 1 organization in the country.””We combined with the Virginia Barnstormers, which is true. They weren't promised anything,” Cuseta said. “We played our best nine.”As a result of the three players going to the Cardinals Ñ especially Fier, whose scholarship at George Washington Cuseta takes full credit for Ñ Cuseta didn't invite the team back to play in the Liberty Tournament after winning it last year.”Am I annoyed? Sure,” Cuseta said. “(Fier) didn't have a problem signing his letter of intent with George Washington in November after playing with the Bayside Yankees. … Acevedo didn't make the club. He wasn't very good.”What exactly are we talking about here? This is not the New York Yankees or even the Staten Island Yankees. This is local amateur baseball. Maybe Cuseta should follow the advice he gave Holden and the Midville Dodgers.Get a grip.Reach Sports Editor Dylan Butler by e-mail at TimesLedger@aol.com or call 718-229-0300, Ext. 143.
