A number of the Jets rookies who are sticking around the North Jersey area had a chance Monday to do a little cross-training. They participated in some minor-league baseball.
Well, more accurately they made a field trip to Bridgewater, N.J., to take in the Somerset Patriots’ Atlantic League game against the Long Island Ducks.
Jets third-round linebacker Demario Davis even got to throw out the game’s first pitch. He was ready to do more.
“I always wondered why they didn’t draft me out of high school or wanted to draft me,” Davis kidded with Eric Allen of newyorkjets.com about organized baseball’s lack of interest in him before he fired that first pitch homeward. “I think tonight I can try to show a little bit of what I’ve got. I don’t know if I can get it up to 90 miles an hour but I’m going to try. We’ll have to figure out if the catcher gives me a curveball or a fastball, but whatever he gives me, I’m going to be ready.”
Davis is ready for a lot of different endeavors this summer. He talked about his wedding to “the love of my life,” Tamela Gill, on July 7 back home in Walnut Grove, Miss.
“We have a week once I get home from the NFL’s rookie symposium and we’re going to be joined together in front of the church and the family — I can’t wait for that,” Davis said. “Then we’ll be off to the Bahamas for the honeymoon.
“There’s a lot going on. I’m definitely excited. It’s going to be good to go home and get that rest and relaxation, and then come back fresh and get ready for training camp.”
Oh, yeah, Jets training camp in Cortland, N.Y., which begins in late July. Davis is prepared for that as well.
“It’s going to be fun just putting on the pads and being able to hit again,” he said. “I definitely can’t wait to get to Cortland, be back with all the team and get to work.”
Davis was with part of his team Monday afternoon and evening. Making the trip with him to the Patriots’ TD Bank Ballpark, were RB Terrance Ganaway, WR Jordan White, G Terrence Campbell, DT Matt Hardison, OL Fred Koloto and WR Royce Pollard, along with Montelle Sanders, the Jets’ manager of player development.
Laura Clemente was there as well representing the Jets’ social media wing. She took the fine photo of Davis loading up the high cheese. And she’ll have coverage of that first pitch and interviews with the Jets on their day at the ballpark available today on the Jets’ Facebook page.
For all of you who didn’t get enough of the Yanks’ Subway Series beatdown of the Mets in their two three-game weekend series, in Monday’s game Somerset manager Sparky Lyle, the former Yankee, and his Patriots put away the Ducks and co-owner and former Met Bud Harrelson, 3-2, on Freddy Bynum’s RBI double in the 13th inning.
But enough about the national pastime. As a sage friend of mine once said, “Every day of baseball … is a day closer to training camp.” And as of today for Davis, Pollard, Koloto and the rest of the Jets, the countdown clock reads 30 days until the Jets report to Cortland and 32 days until their first practice open to the public on Saturday, July 28.
