Modesto Nuts hope strong finish to 1st half sets them up for big things in 2nd

Modesto Nuts manager Fred Ocasio arrives at John Thurman Field earlier than just about anybody else, beating everyone from players to peanut vendors to the yard.

“I try to get here before Jerry (Weinstein) but he gets here at about 9 o’clock,” Ocasio said of the former Nuts manager and the team’s current developmental supervisor. “I can’t beat him here.”

Weinstein aside, getting to the park early is a habit that started early for the Bronx, N.Y., native, who lived across the street from old Yankee Stadium before his family relocated to Puerto Rico (and then eventually returned to New York).

“When I was a kid, you could buy a bleacher ticket for a buck fifty,” Ocasio said. “A buck fifty! I was always the first in line … maybe second or third … but I’d get there early to watch batting practice and catch balls hit into the bleachers.”

One of the teams Ocasio remembers is the 1978 Bronx Bombers, who fell hopelessly behind the Red Sox and then dug themselves out of a 14-game deficit in the last two months of the season and went on to defend their world championship.

It’ll take that kind of effort from Modesto to catch Visalia for the first-half title in the California League’s North Division. The Rawhide held an eight-game cushion heading into Friday night’s slate of games.

“We’re just trying to finish strong,” said Ocasio, who guided the Colorado Rockies’ Low-A club, the Asheville (N.C.) Tourists, to the South Atlantic League championship last season. “We can’t worry about what Visalia is doing. We’ve got (16) games left this half and we’ve got to win a bunch.”

The Nuts are coming off their second series victory over Visalia in the past two weeks, taking three of four from the leaders in their own yard just eight days after doing the same thing at John Thurman Field.

Of Modesto’s remaining 16 games, 12 of them will be played at Thurman, while the Rawhide will only get seven of the final 16 at Recreation Park. But even if these Nuts don’t eventually have their Bucky Dent moment, Ocasio believes a strong finish will set the team up for big second half.

“Definitely,” Ocasio said. “I don’t like to talk about last year, but we had an up-and-down start in Asheville. Then, toward the end of the first half we got hot and it carried over. Hopefully, we can repeat that.”

And when Ocasio says “we,” he’s referring to both the Nuts and Tourists.

Of the 25 players on Modesto’s roster, 19 of them played at various time for Ocasio on the East Coat, including the entire starting nine in Thursday’s series opener against the Stockton Ports.

“There’s no doubt in my mind that it can carry over,” said pitcher Zach Jemiola, who was promoted this week from Asheville and pitched well in a 5-3 loss to Stockton on Thursday. “We’ve got a great team here.”

This story was originally published June 5, 2015 at 10:28 AM with the headline "Modesto Nuts hope strong finish to 1st half sets them up for big things in 2nd."