Yankees minor league notebook: Tony Franklin honored, Anthony Volpe heating up
TRENTON – Tony Franklin is the gold standard.
Well before the Somerset Patriots took over as the Double-A affiliate of the New York Yankees, it was the Trenton Thunder which held that position, and between 2007-14, it was there where Franklin showed what it truly meant to hold the manager’s role in that spot.
Now an MLB Draft League franchise, the Thunder recognized the iconic 72-year-old skipper by retiring his No. 18 on Friday night, putting his jersey alongside legends like Tony Clark, Nomar Garciaparra, David Eckstein and Jackie Robinson, whose No. 42 is universally retired in baseball.
It’s easy to look up the beloved Franklin’s accomplishments on the field; he delivered three of Trenton’s four Eastern League championships and was named the circuit’s Manager of the Year in 2012, the same year he secured his 1,000th career victory.
But, for everything he did between the lines during an extraordinary and unprecedented eight-year run, it’s what he meant off the field, both to his players and to his community, that cemented his legacy in the capital city.
“What I hope I’ve done in the eight years that I was here, was set an example of leadership for the players that were entrusted to me,” Franklin said. “They were up-and-coming stars. I didn’t know coming into this what it was all about, but when I got here, the last thing it got down to was the baseball, and that’s what I tried to do every day. Do the baseball things, which they were more familiar with and what I’m more familiar with.
“All the other things that come, the press clippings and things outside the lines, they’re secondary. But lead by example. Daily. I hope I did that for eight years. And I hope that they appreciated what I did. A lot of them have gone on to have some very fine careers, and that’s the thing that’s most important to me. If I impacted their life in a small way, in a small matter – if they took something from me when I was in there yelling at them all the time, and it helped to make them better – then I’m very happy about that.”
Somerset Patriots return home as league's best team
Dan Fiorito, who played under Franklin in Trenton in both 2013 and 2014, has led the Patriots to the Eastern League’s current best record of 41-22 after winning six of the seven games they played on their most recent road trip to New Hampshire.
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Somerset holds a one-game lead over the Hartford Yard Goats for the Northeast Division lead and will host Hartford for a six-game series during this upcoming homestand, set to start Tuesday night, that could go a long way toward determining if the Patriots are able to secure their second consecutive division title, a feat they first accomplished under Fiorito’s predecessor, Julio Mosquera, last season.
Anthony Volpe keeps trending up
Under the leadership of the extremely well-respected Fiorito, prized Yankees infield prospect Anthony Volpe continues to turn his season around. The 21-year-old Delbarton grad racked up three multi-hit games on the road trip to up his season average to .231, and also smacked his seventh home run of the season. He’s now hitting .294 for the month of June and is as hot as he’s been all year long with the team headed back to TD Bank Ballpark.
Renewed Luis Medina takes ball twice this series
Ranked the Yankees No. 11 prospect by MLB Pipeline, hard-throwing righty Luis Medina is set to take the ball both in the opener and the finale of the series against Hartford this week. He’s also shown plenty of evidence of getting his year back on track lately as well; he’s allowed two or fewer runs in each of his last five starts, recording 35 strikeouts compared to just nine walks over his last 24 2/3 innings of work.
This article originally appeared on MyCentralJersey.com: New York Yankees: Trenton Thunder former manager Tony Franklin honored
