Dom Amore’s Sunday Read: Yard Goats master of deception; Jim Calhoun remains master storyteller, UConn men deserve better and more

Great pitching, at its essence, is great acting. A pitcher must look like he is throwing one pitch when he is delivering another, must look like he is not tired or sore when he is, must love his fastball, even if its velocity is unworthy of affection.There are names for this, such as “pitchability.” With Yard Goats lefty Carson Palmquist, one of the top pitching prospects in the Rockies’ organization, it’s called …“Perceived velocity is big in my book,” Palmquist said. “Just because I’m only in the low 90s, where it makes it look like a mid-90s fastball, is huge. … My funky delivery has a big play in it, along with being able to pitch in and out, off speed plays a huge role.”Palmquist, 6 feet 3, a third-round pick in 2020 from the University of Miami, turns his back on a hitter, hides the ball behind his hip, then slings it from a low angle, a little like MLB star Chris Sale. He has been struggling with some injuries, spent seven days on the injured list, but at his best, as he was on May 19 vs. New Hampshire at Dunkin’ Park, he blows hitters away with 92-93 MPH fastball, considered pedestrian in 2024. Palmquist (4-2, 2.96) struck out 12 in six scoreless innings that day, and is considered a prime candidate to be called up to Triple A, maybe reach the majors by September.Dom Amore’s Sunday Read: CT man in the thick of Negro League research; Conard grad’s lacrosse title and more“He definitely has some deception,” pitching coach Dan Meyer said. “Something he has, they call it ‘outside vertical approach angle.’ He throws it from a low angle and it looks like its coming up, so at the top of the zone, hitters have a hard time getting to it.”Of course, when I was a kid, they’d just say “he throws sidearm,” but it’s 2024, so let’s talk the talk.“I’ve never been over-the-top, I’ve always been three-quarters growing up,” Palmquist said. “Then my arm kept dropping and dropping until it’s where it is now and I’m comfortable with it.”Palmquist, 23, is from Buckingham, Fla., just outside Fort Myers. Even as a high school star, his older brother pitching in the Rangers’ organization, it took him a little time to build his confidence when he got to Miami.“Going into college, I was from a small town, like 3,500, and going to the University of Miami in a big city, I was shell-shocked,” Carson said. “I didn’t know what was going on, so many kids. I didn’t know if I was going to be good enough, then after the first fall, I was like, ‘Wow, I can compete out here.’ Everyone has the prove-it-to-yourself aspect of it, especially out here.”Palmquist pitched to a 2.63 ERA in three seasons at the highest level of college ball. He reached Double A a little more than a year after being drafted. Now the Rockies, who have long struggled to develop pitchers, are counting on him, as are the contending Goats for as long as he’s here.Delivering from off angles gives Carlson Palmquist of the Yard Goats an edge. (Hartford Yard Goats)“It’s been fun watching Carson pitch,” manager Bobby Meacham said. “He’s not only getting better each time out, but he’s got the confidence in what he is doing, knowing what’s making him successful, that’s increasing. It’s really important for a young pitcher to go after hitters the way he has, he’s confident he can get hitters out in the strike zone.”Palmquist has walked 24, struck out 69 in 48 2/3 innings in Hartford. Aside from the fastball, he has a cutter and slider, similar pitches with different breaks, and he is trying to develop a changeup, a necessary fourth pitch to get through a major-league lineup more than twice. He can keep a hitter guessing what’s coming, while trying to figure out where it’s coming from.“Man, he’s been great to work with,” Meyer said. “Fierce competitor, I think it sets him apart from a lot of guys. Hates to lose, but being able to execute his fastball, 90-93, but where it comes from, a little funky, but he really does a good job of executing it around the zone. His bigger slider, little cutter he has, he doesn’t let hitters zone in on one pitch.”Dom Amore: Whalers Days Still Matter As Paul Maurice, Veteran Coach, Chases The CupMore for your Sunday Read:The Hartford CupThe Stanley Cup Final, between former Wolf Pack coach Kris Knoblauch’s Edmonton Oilers and former Whalers coach Paul Maurice’s Florida Panthers got underway Saturday night.They’ve crossed paths before. In 2015, Knoblauch applied for a job on Maurice’s staff in Winnipeg. Maurice didn’t hire him, but continued to mentor Knoblauch and later encouraged him to take the gig in Hartford.“I was young. I don’t think I was what he was looking for,” Knoblauch told reporters this week. “But I remember Paul being very kind and offered to be a mentor for me if I needed to reach out and talk to him, which I did. A couple of years later when I went to Philadelphia, I reached out about my possibilities of becoming an American League head coach or going to the NHL as an assistant, and I remember him giving me advice.”Maurice, at age 28, had first became a head coach with your Hartford Whalers in 1995.“I sat down with Kris, who was then a young guy. I was very high on him,” Maurice told reporters in Florida. “But I said ‘This guy is going to be a head coach.’ I thought the best thing for Kris was to stay a head coach somewhere. That’s why I didn’t hire him (for the Jets).“My advice to Kris was, (an NHL head coaching job) is coming for you. Looking back, in my case, I wasn’t ready to be a head coach (in Hartford). I had just two years, I would have liked to have had five more years as a head coach in junior hockey.”The Oilers were 3-9-1 when Knoblauch left Hartford for Edmonton in November, and he has led them to the finals while giving the Rangers, who passed over him without an interview and let him get out of their organization, something to ponder.Master storytellerJim Calhoun, 82, is still one of the best storytellers and effective public speakers you could ask for. Saw him crush it twice last week. At the Connecticut/American Heart Association 100th anniversary celebration, he spoke to a small group compellingly of the day he lost his father and later his mother to heart disease that modern heart surgeries could have prevented.“I don’t want another 15-year old to hear, ‘Your father is dead,’” he concluded.At the Franciscan Life Center Banquet, he commanded a room of more than 1,0000, telling of the day he was speeding to see a recruit. “(UConn AD) John Toner called and said, ‘Jim, the state police reported you were going 70 MPH,’” Calhoun said. “I said, ‘Well, the kid was 7 feet.’”Maybe the coach should write another book.Sunday short takes*Gerrit Cole is making another start against the Yard Goats at Somerset on Sunday. Who’d have thought Brian Cashman was so determined that Hartford not win the first half title in the Eastern League?*It has been a while since I’ve seen Geno Auriemma as giddy as he was this week after the coaches road shows. A new contract, healthy or nearly healthy players, a couple of big-time recruiting wins and maybe a little wine will do that, apparently.Why Geno Auriemma already believes UConn women’s basketball ‘got it right’ with 2024-25 team*Want to wish the best to Pat Eaton-Robb, who has been covering news and sports across Connecticut for the AP for 30 years. He’s beginning a one-year sabbatical and could retire after that. His professionalism, diligence and integrity across all those years was a shining example to journalist’s young and old who have been around him.*The mini golf tournament benefitting the Kelly Rodman Baseball Foundation brought 150 participants to Berlin on June 1 and raised about $8,000. Next year’s event is May 31. Kelly, from Wallingford, was the beloved and pioneering Yankees scout lost to cancer in 2020.*The NCAA did UConn baseball no favors, giving the Huskies a noon game on Friday, the earliest Super Regional slot, after playing the last regional game Monday night. “I’m not complaining, I’m thrilled to be here,” coach Jim Penders said. “I just don’t understand.”*With all the back and forth on Caitlin Clark and the way she is being treated, the WNBA must answer one question: So many are watching for the first time, what does The W want them to see? Clark is back in Connecticut to play the Sun on Monday night.*UConn AD David Benedict has two sons, Jake (.278 average, .376 on-base) and Sam (.260, .383) at Christopher Newport in Virginia, which reached the Division III Super Regional.Dom Amore: UConn or Lakers? Dan Hurley has an excruciating choice, the greater of two blessingsLast wordIf Dan Hurley leaves, or has left by the time you read this, can’t fault him. It’s the Lakers and, tumultuous as that organization is, it’s insane money. But the timing and unfolding of this process was bizarre and unnecessarily egregious for UConn. If Hurley was LA’s No.1 target all along, this should have been resolved more than a month ago. Doesn’t matter who’s fault that is, UConn, and its current players, deserve better than to be left high and dry in June.

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