Noah Syndergaard is a great pitcher with the NY Mets. The even better pitcher is his teammate, Jacob deGrom. He’s said of deGrom: “That’s an evolution thing, and he’s gotten better every single year. Great signs, and shows you how hard he works.”
Sportswriter Matt Ehalt once wrote:
“Syndergaard has has an up-close view of deGrom’s historic season, and is impressed with how deGrom’s demeanor never changes. Whether he’s dominating or having an off night, deGrom is the same. He epitomizes consistency.
DeGrom said after quite a few starts this year that he can only concern himself with the things he can influence. Run support and errors are out of his control.
“You can tell by the way he looks at the hitter and when he’s on top of the mound, he’s going to throw each pitch with 110 percent conviction and he’s convinced whatever pitch he’s going to throw, he’s going to get that hitter out,” Syndergaard said. “His demeanor on the mound is very calm, even-keeled. When things don’t go his way he can hunker down and focus more and prevent small, incremental things from happening.”
Focused, calm, and even-keeled are words that I have found that describe Kathryn Garcia, the former Sanitation Commissioner who is running for Mayor. That’s what made me think of a comparison with one of the world’s greatest baseball players.
As I wrote here last month, what initially impressed me was an answer she gave to my question in an online candidate debate last February.
Covering the Parks Department for this paper has been frustrating as they plod through the remediation of the Red Hook ballfields. I wanted to know how the next administration could do better. Her answer was right to the point.
“I’ve had to deal with the city bureaucracy myself. I will fix it, because I know how it works.”
That’s a 100 mph fastball resulting in a swinging strike.
As the mayoral race tightens up, the other, formerly polite candidates are starting to heap insults and abuse on their opponents.
Not Kathryn.
She sticks to her message, which is that she is best qualified, and a track record to prove it. What is unsaid is that she’s got the intelligence and personality to be a great leader. People who’ve worked under her have told me so.
Garcia told me that this is not tough stuff—she’s asked questions and simply answers them. This is not hard for her because she has done the work and has real answers.
As she quietly reminds voters, she’s been the Chief Operating Officer of the city’s Environmental Protection Agency, the Sanitation Commissioner, and has been called upon in emergencies to head NYCHA, run the COVID food program for the city, and after Sandy had to make sure that the city’s water supply stayed operational.
She doesn’t boast about any of these things, and I’m looking forward to having a mayor where it’s about the job, not the job holder.
I’ve heard her talk about the city’s new Commercial Waste Overhaul program, a plan developed under her watch which will reorganize garbage truck routes and reduce pollution. When the original report came back showing how many truck miles could be saved with the reorganization, she didn’t believe it and asked her people to double check their figures. They did, it was correct, and she went forward and got it done. That’s how government is supposed to work.
She’s not really politician, which is actually an asset. She will govern well as she has the skills to go the distance.
In the off-chance that she’s asked something she doesn’t know, she doesn’t try to wing it, she admits that’s something new to her and says she’ll check into it.
She’s got nothing to prove – like deGrom, she’s paid her dues and is quite ready for the major leagues.
Author
Founder and editor of the Red Hook Star-Revue. George is also a musician and one-time progressive rock disk jockey, in York, Pennsylvania, also birthplace of Mrs. Don Imus.
