Frankford head coach Juan Namnun enters his eighth season in charge of the Pioneers’ program. Namnun is seeking his fifth Public League championship since taking over in 2008.
When George Washington dispatched Franklin Towne Charter in last year’s Public League baseball championship game, there was something that seemed intrinsically … missing.
These were the two best teams from start to finish, so it really was no surprise to see the Eagles and Coyotes duke it out for league supremacy. But at the same time, beneath the surface, a question remained:
Where’s Frankford?
There aren’t many automatics in life, but after winning three straight league crowns from 2011–13, four since 2008 and nine since the start of the century, it was only natural to anticipate the Pioneers playing for a championship. However, Frankford graduated its entire starting nine from the 2013 three-peat run, starting from scratch with a group of talented but inexperienced freshmen and sophomores. The team made the playoffs, but was unceremoniously bounced in the first-round by Edison. Quite simply, this version of the Pioneers wasn’t ready to go where so many past teams had.
“We weren’t missing athleticism or baseball awareness,” head coach Juan Namnun said during Monday’s practice. “It was game experience, which is something you can’t duplicate. It was a magical run winning three in a row, but all nine that finished that third championship weren’t back. We were left with a group of guys who hadn’t experienced baseball at this level. I knew we had talent, but I also knew going in we’d take our lumps.”
Frankford finished a respectable 8–4 in a talented Division A, but as Namnun said, the team was “missing an identity.” Now, with everybody back from that team with a year of Public League competition under its collective belts, the Pioneers feel like they are ready for another championship run.
Namnun pointed out five players who will likely make or break the team’s chances. At the top of the list is junior first baseman Edgardo Bernard, a 6-foot-1 lefty who bashed the ball at a better than .550 clip in 2014, a player Namnun believes can be “that next great Frankford baseball player.” To his right at second is Manny Ramirez, a rare senior and the last remaining holdover with championship experience. The left side of the infield features junior Xavier Sanchez at short and sophomore Giovanni Burgos at third, both of whom will take turns as the team’s top pitcher. And in centerfield there’s junior Weslly Delgado, the team’s cleanup hitter and quarterback of the outfield defense.
“This offseason reminded me of five years ago, when I look at the roster and I see 13 kids coming back … how do you not get excited about that?” Namnun said. “Now I have a group of kids who knows what it takes. We’ve already set our goals higher than they were a year ago. Our captains (Bernard, Delgado, Ramirez) are returning, and we decided our goal is to win a championship. Last year, I was very open that that wasn’t the goal, because we weren’t there yet. But this year, they’ve taken it upon themselves to get ready for the next step.”
Bernard, perhaps the team’s most talented player, agreed with his head coach’s assessment.
“We’ve matured a lot, and we’re a better team now that we have some experience,” he said. “I’m extremely confident in this team. The loss last year left a bad taste in our mouths. I think we thought, because we’re Frankford and we’ve won a lot of championships, maybe it would come easy. It’s definitely not easy, and it taught us that we have to work hard for everything that we want. Since that loss, we’re so much hungrier. We want that game again. We want the playoffs, but we’re taking it game by game, because that’s how you do things right.”
That’s a smart mentality, because Division A is shaping up to be good. Very good. Washington lost some key players from its championship team, but should be in the thick of things again; Franklin Towne brings back almost everybody and is poised to win after falling in each of the last two title games; Lincoln, Central, Olney, Edison and Esperanza, among others, should be very solid. There are very few cupcakes on the schedule, a fact that excites Namnun.
“I haven’t been this excited about Public League baseball in a few years,” Namnun said. “It’s a real fun division to play in. Almost every team has quality baseball players. There have been years where there’s been three or four tough teams and the rest struggle. Not so much this year. Every game will be a struggle and I’m totally excited about it, because I’ve missed that. Will we be there in the end? I hope so, and I think we have the ingredients, but it’s a tough division to compete against, no question.”
Namnun has been part of nine of Frankford’s 18 baseball titles — five as an assistant, four as head coach — so he knows how to mold young men into champions. The big question that remains is, can he do it with this particular group? A 2015 title would be the program’s 10th since 2000, but a misfire would represent the first time Frankford has gone two straight seasons without winning a championship since Central went back-to-back in 2009–10.
“Last year, we started playing well in the middle of the year where it felt close, but not quite there,” Namnun said. “In hindsight looking back then to where we are now, it’s just light years ahead. Now that the pressure of playoff baseball is out of the way, we have a better idea of how to get there and what we need to do. I love our pitching and we have plenty of offense, so it’s just a matter of continuing to develop. But the right makeup to have a successful run is certainly there.”
Bernard, whose older brother, Esteban Meletiche, starred at Frankford, was a collegiate All-American and had a brief taste of professional baseball in the minors, has just as good a chance to follow in his sibling’s footsteps. Last year, he said, was about each player learning his role, as well as learning how to play together as a unit.
“We all had to learn our roles,” Bernard said. “Last year, I thought I was some big power hitter. I had to learn how to play baseball the way I can play, and that will help me. It will help all of us. I’m extremely confident in this team, because we’ve put in a ton of work. We have a lot of talent, and I think we have a shot to make 2015 one of those special seasons for Frankford baseball.”
Before practice wrapped, Namnun was asked to complete the following sentence: We will reach our ultimate goals if…
“If we stay hungry,” he said. “We have to understand that this is a marathon, and we want to be playing our best baseball in May. If you get complacent … like, say we win our next seven games, after that seventh game are we the best team on the planet? If they ever believe that, we’re in trouble. I want to keep them level-headed, no highs, no lows. We want to work hard and understand we’re only as good as our play dictates. We just have to keep getting better.” ••
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Manny Ramirez is one of the team’s rare seniors, and Frankford’s only player with championship experience.
Third baseman and pitcher Giovanni Burgos is one of the Pioneers’ top players.
Bernard and the Pioneers are now armed with more experience and confidence, and the team believes it has the talent to return to Public League glory, although a stacked Division A stands in its way.
Time to shine: Frankford junior first baseman and co-captain Edgardo Bernard hit around .550 as a sophomore. Following 2013’s third straight league title, the Pioneers graduated their entire starting nine, leading to a young team and a first-round playoff exit last year. MARIA POUCHNIKOVA / TIMES PHOTOS
