Manassy Media Attends Bobby V’s Stamford on the Sound

Posted by Erik Manassy on Jun 20th, 2011 | View Comments

I had the privilege to work on a website for the Japanese American Association of New York in conjunction with former MLB Mets Manager Bobby Valentine last month to support an event to help with the Japanese relief efforts.  This past weekend, Bobby held his Stamford on the Sound Wine Tasting and I attended the event with my wife.

Stamford on the Sound Took Place by the Harbor

…Valentine is dealing with the impact of the tsunami the best way he knows how — by giving and using his celebrity as a baseball manager to full effect. Valentine is spearheading a Stamford on the Sound charity event on Saturday, in which he will bring together former players, sports personalities and Hollywood celebrities, including former players David Cone, Darryl Strawberry and Lee Mazzilli.

BobbyV_ESPN Thanks to the 1100 people and the many celebrities and friends who came to Stamfordonthesound last night. Special thanks the Richard Gere 6/19/11 8:31 AM

As a HUGE Mets fan, I was looking for Darryl Strawberry and Lee Mazzilli but didn’t see either at the event.  I immediately recognized Bobby Valentine, who was very approachable and talking with just about everyone in the VIP tent.  Richard Gere showed up for the photo ops in the beginning, but then I saw David Cone and approached him.

Cone and I spoke about his rookie year, how his arm was holding up, and what he was doing these days.  I asked him if he keeps in touch with any of his past teammates and he said not really because they are scattered all over the country.  He did know that Darryl wasn’t coming and that he was still in St. Louis busy with his wife.  I tried not to show my disappointment, as Strawberry was my childhood baseball idol.  I wanted to be him.

David and I talking about Twitter

I then asked David if he was on Twitter and his reaction was priceless.  He kind of jumped and said NO WAY.  I”m not ready for that!  With all the controversy and headaches twitter has caused some celebrities recently, I could understand why he felt that way.  I told him it’s not the tool, it’s the person that would be exposed.  He agreed and then said that maybe he would consider it but no time in the near future.

I ended my conversation with David with him showing me his range of motion left in his pitching arm.  Let’s just say that baseball has wrecked his arm.  He clearly couldn’t throw anymore and when he tried to force his arm into the motion, you could hear this horrid clicking noise.  I made a face in wonderment and knew that he would not trade his MLB career  for anything as he was only one of few to ever throw a PERFECT GAME in the majors.  The clicking noise was just a small price to pay for the glory.

BobbyV_ESPN Also a big thank you to David Cone for being at the event and staying all night 6/19/11 8:32 AM

Bobby Valentine was the MC of the event, and with the silent auctions, the wine tastings and the samples of great food, the event was a great success.

Bobby V was a great MC

Valentine remains mum on how much he wants to raise from his charity event, but he has already secured several prominent sponsors and hopes to sell 1,000 tickets to the event, bringing together groups such as the Stamford Chamber of Commerce, The Japanese-American Association of New York, BLT Harbor Point and the Manassy Media Group.

“We want to do as well as we can, raise as much as we can,” Valentine said. “But in something like this, you don’t have to hit a home run. You can hit the warning track here and we’d be quite happy.”

From what I saw, it looked like the ball was hit out of the park into the upper deck.  I want to thank Kristian Dyer for the plug of Manassy Media in the quote and article.  Manassy Media appeared on MLB.com!!