RPI 2018 Off-Season Part II: In Memory of WaP

[Ralph Baer]

Re: RPI 2018 Off-Season Part II: In Memory of WaP

Shirley, let's talk about hockey

I like that, but I, for one, am leaning to not using her name in the title.

[Wicked Slappaahs]

Re: RPI 2018 Off-Season Part II: In Memory of WaP

Smitty was on 104.5 the Team today - reprising the weekly segment that Seth used to do with Ken Schott. Did anyone catch it??

This was another detail I forgot from the ticket event!

[FlagDUDE08]

Re: RPI 2018 Off-Season Part II: In Memory of WaP

Smitty was on 104.5 the Team today - reprising the weekly segment that Seth used to do with Ken Schott. Did anyone catch it??

This was another detail I forgot from the ticket event!

Ken Schmitt? Given I see Roger Wyland on WTMM's site, do you mean Ken Schott, now that he is once again covering college hockey, and his Slap Schotts show previously on WOFX?

[Ralph Baer]

Re: RPI 2018 Off-Season Part II: In Memory of WaP

Ken Schmitt? Given I see Roger Wyland on WTMM's site, do you mean Ken Schott, now that he is once again covering college hockey, and his Slap Schotts show previously on WOFX?

Huh?

[Ralph Baer]

Re: RPI 2018 Off-Season Part II: In Memory of WaP

NHL Central Scouting released its preliminary Players to Watch list. A lot of leagues and teams are tweeting and posting their players on the list, but the complete list does not appear to be on line yet. I don't expect any future or current RPI players to make the list, but I have been surprised before.

[FlagDUDE08]

Re: RPI 2018 Off-Season Part II: In Memory of WaP

Huh?

Couple of years ago, Roger Wyland was on WOFX Albany (the AM station, not to be confused with WOFX-FM Cincinnati) and had a Thursday segment called "Slap Schotts" where he co-hosted with Ken Schott from the Daily Gazette to talk college hockey. I guess Roger is now on another station, WTMM-FM Mechanicville ("104.5 The Team"), and I assume WS is saying that Roger's doing something similar on there, and happened to invite Coach Smith on the show.

[Ralph Baer]

Re: RPI 2018 Off-Season Part II: In Memory of WaP

Couple of years ago, Roger Wyland was on WOFX Albany (the AM station, not to be confused with WOFX-FM Cincinnati) and had a Thursday segment called "Slap Schotts" where he co-hosted with Ken Schott from the Daily Gazette to talk college hockey. I guess Roger is now on another station, WTMM-FM Mechanicville ("104.5 The Team"), and I assume WS is saying that Roger's doing something similar on there, and happened to invite Coach Smith on the show.

But who is Ken Schmitt?

[Ralph Baer]

Re: RPI 2018 Off-Season Part II: In Memory of WaP

NHL Central Scouting released its preliminary Players to Watch list. A lot of leagues and teams are tweeting and posting their players on the list, but the complete list does not appear to be on line yet. I don't expect any future or current RPI players to make the list, but I have been surprised before.

Here is the list. https://nhl.bamcontent.com/images/as...-file/file.pdf Indeed no current of future RPI players.

[FlagDUDE08]

Re: RPI 2018 Off-Season Part II: In Memory of WaP

But who is Ken Schmitt?

I think you'd have to ask Earl Weaver.

Still miss that guy.

[Noresmen]

Re: RPI 2018 Off-Season Part II: In Memory of WaP

Looking for some education on what's transpired over the years. I was looking at some team stats and was wondering what caused the spiral at RPI for the hockey program. From Powers to Fridgen the program was in good hands based on wins and losses. Fridgen is fired after 2 years of below 500 teams but yet he had 8 winning seasons and 5 of which were over 20 games per season. Enter Appert and he has 4 winning season in 12 with two losing seasons in a row and in his last 6 he had 3 winning seasons and 3 losing seasons. Now Shirley has been the President for 19 yrs?, and how many AD's during this tenure? If Fridgen was successful as his record indicates why was he fired? I still don't understand Appert's firing especially with the years he had left on his contract but that appears to be an AD who wasn't happy or is that the real reason? Did the Alums pressure the Appert move only to be kept out of the hiring process? From what I've read regarding Shirley I find it hard to believe she wanted him out with the money they owed him and presumably are still paying him. Looking forward to hearing everyone's take on this ....

[Waite21]

Re: RPI 2018 Off-Season Part II: In Memory of WaP

But who is Ken Schmitt?

I think you'd have to ask Earl Weaver.

Still miss that guy.

Sorry for getting away from hockey, but the reference to Earl Weaver made me think of umpires, so I looked to see if there was an umpire named Ken Schmitt with whom Weaver had a dispute.

If that was the case, it must have been in the minor leagues. The last man named Schmitt or Schmidt to umpire a major league game was Charles (Boss) Schmidt, who worked the bases for three games between the Detroit Tigers and St. Louis Browns in 1906 and 1907.

The thing that I thought was remarkable was that Schmidt was a Tigers catcher. Evidently in those days if one of the two umpires assigned to a game was unable to continue, a player could take his place.

I can just imagine what Weaver would have said if someone had asked him if it'd be OK for an opposing player to umpire a game involving his Orioles.

[Ralph Baer]

Re: RPI 2018 Off-Season Part II: In Memory of WaP

Sorry for getting away from hockey, but the reference to Earl Weaver made me think of umpires, so I looked to see if there was an umpire named Ken Schmitt with whom Weaver had a dispute.

If that was the case, it must have been in the minor leagues. The last man named Schmitt or Schmidt to umpire a major league game was Charles (Boss) Schmidt, who worked the bases for three games between the Detroit Tigers and St. Louis Browns in 1906 and 1907.

The thing that I thought was remarkable was that Schmidt was a Tigers catcher. Evidently in those days if one of the two umpires assigned to a game was unable to continue, a player could take his place.

I can just imagine what Weaver would have said if someone had asked him if it'd be OK for an opposing player to umpire a game involving his Orioles.

I suspect that FD08 on purpose wrote Earl Weaver instead of Ed Weaver. As to Ken Schmitt, he could have been another sports writer, but there was only so much time that I was willing to spend on deciphering FD08.

[Ralph Baer]

Re: RPI 2018 Off-Season Part II: In Memory of WaP

Looking for some education on what's transpired over the years. I was looking at some team stats and was wondering what caused the spiral at RPI for the hockey program. From Powers to Fridgen the program was in good hands based on wins and losses. Fridgen is fired after 2 years of below 500 teams but yet he had 8 winning seasons and 5 of which were over 20 games per season. Enter Appert and he has 4 winning season in 12 with two losing seasons in a row and in his last 6 he had 3 winning seasons and 3 losing seasons. Now Shirley has been the President for 19 yrs?, and how many AD's during this tenure? If Fridgen was successful as his record indicates why was he fired? I still don't understand Appert's firing especially with the years he had left on his contract but that appears to be an AD who wasn't happy or is that the real reason? Did the Alums pressure the Appert move only to be kept out of the hiring process? From what I've read regarding Shirley I find it hard to believe she wanted him out with the money they owed him and presumably are still paying him. Looking forward to hearing everyone's take on this ....

IMHO, the team was going downhill while Fridgen was coach and most of us were happy when he left. It wasn't as bad as it got under SA, but bad enough.
Do we still have to pay SA since he has another job in coaching?

[Ralph Baer]

Re: RPI 2018 Off-Season Part II: In Memory of WaP

In honor of Tommy Grant and Sam Nolan, today is 3 October 2018. There are 4 days until RPI's next game.


This is based upon 7 October 2018 for the start of next season.

[FlagDUDE08]

Re: RPI 2018 Off-Season Part II: In Memory of WaP

Looking for some education on what's transpired over the years. I was looking at some team stats and was wondering what caused the spiral at RPI for the hockey program. From Powers to Fridgen the program was in good hands based on wins and losses. Fridgen is fired after 2 years of below 500 teams but yet he had 8 winning seasons and 5 of which were over 20 games per season. Enter Appert and he has 4 winning season in 12 with two losing seasons in a row and in his last 6 he had 3 winning seasons and 3 losing seasons. Now Shirley has been the President for 19 yrs?, and how many AD's during this tenure? If Fridgen was successful as his record indicates why was he fired? I still don't understand Appert's firing especially with the years he had left on his contract but that appears to be an AD who wasn't happy or is that the real reason? Did the Alums pressure the Appert move only to be kept out of the hiring process? From what I've read regarding Shirley I find it hard to believe she wanted him out with the money they owed him and presumably are still paying him. Looking forward to hearing everyone's take on this ....

I don't know much about the Fridgen deal since I only came into knowledge in his last two years and didn't start following the team in any depth until Appert came on, although I can say he was sub 500 in 3 of his last 4, which may give some insight. The Appert dismissal seemed like a long time coming, but was hindered by mismanagement not on the case of Dr. Jackson, but rather Col. Knowlton. Let's consider why he wasn't canned after his first 3 years: Solid recruiting. The "People's Line" of 09-10 was something anyone would want, and coupled with the developing talents in addition, that was special for us. Given all of this, let's start looking at what happened with the contract. RPI ends up at or above 500 (even if it's just 1 game), and Appert gets a 4 year extension. Sure, there may have been an additional circumstance on the 3rd, but this was the long and short of it. That seems like an unreasonably short expectation to me, especially if the coach has higher aspirations. This also put us into that tough position where it was difficult to hold the coaching accountable without hosing ourselves. From what Ralph has posted year to year, recruiting didn't really suffer THAT much, even if it wasn't top of the country. We consistently had a couple draft picks and solid goaltending. So where's the issue? It seemed like Appert was exposed in his lack of abilities as a bench coach. And from my vantage point, that's why he was dismissed, and we happened to get in an AD that recognizes this. Sure, people look like genius coaches when they have the cream of the crop, hence all of the touting of the US team last year, but the key to finding a great coach is how to develop the overlooked "diamond in the rough" talent into a competitive team.

Just out of curiosity, how involved were the alumni in hiring Appert? As much as I touted earlier about loving our school and wanting the best for it, I do need to play devil's advocate when it comes to micromanagement.