University of Michigan – By Jon Schwartz

Ten Years After

(This story originally appeared in the 2017 New Era Pinstripe Bowl Program.)

There’s a catch from Super Bowl XLVII that everyone remembers, and it’s not the one that won the game. David Tyree’s helmet catch is iconic, the type of thing you never forget once you see it.

But it wasn’t until a few plays later, when Plaxico Burress reeled in a perfectly placed toss from Eli Manning, that the Giants actually scored the go-ahead touchdown that would vanquish the up-until-then undefeated Patriots. Time stopped as Burress sat under the ball, one of the truly great frozen sports memories of my life. I’m a lifelong Giants fan, a bit too young to have fully appreciated Super Bowls XXI and XXV. And that Patriots team was so good; had they won, there’s no doubt that they would have gone down as the greatest team in NFL history. About two weeks later, my sister-in-law gave birth to a baby girl; had it been a boy, I think she and my brother would have had a real fight as to whether the newborn Jewish baby could be named Plaxico.

I’m a Michigan grad, with a not-small soft spot for Tom Brady. My freshman year, we were undefeated heading into East Lansing, where Burress put on a show that I still remember nearly two decades later. One highlight was when Michigan coach Lloyd Carr, out of ideas, sent out his top receiver, David Terrell, to see if he could somehow stop the Spartans’ superstar wideout. Not quite. Burress barreled over Terrell. Even as a Michigan fan, I had to laugh.

Obviously, after the touchdown catch, things turned quickly for Burress, whose stupid mistake in a nightclub took him from Super Bowl hero to cautionary tale. But for the 2017 New Era Pinstripe Bowl Program, I chatted with the receiver during a ceremony at Yankee Stadium honoring that Giants team. He was perfectly open about his mistakes, willing to revel in his successes, and generally incredibly pleasant. I hate when Spartans prove to be decent guy (kidding).

98-102 BURRESS FEATURE

Confidence Man

(Story originally appeared in the Derek Jeter Commemorative Edition of Yankees Magazine)

When Derek Jeter announced his retirement before the 2014 season, we knew that we needed to do something extra special to celebrate his career, so we put together a special edition of the magazine, looking back on the Captain’s entire career. It was an awesome project, with so much awesome material that we were able to unearth. We reran a bunch of old Yankees Magazine content and supplemented it with some great original pieces.

Obviously, there are only so many different ways to talk about Jeter on the field, particularly when you’re a house organ like Yankees Magazine. So it was really important to me that I find something a bit off-beat. I had always been intrigued by the story of Dick Groch, the scout who signed Jeter. The main is famous — trying to alleviate the concern in the Yankees’ war room that they were going to use the 6th pick in the Draft on a player who would spurn them to go play college ball at Michigan, Groch, the legend has it, insisted:

“He’s not going to the University of Michigan. The only place Derek Jeter is going is Cooperstown.”

That’s a lot of confidence, and as Groch says in the article, if he had been wrong, he probably wouldn’t have lasted much longer in the industry. But the belief paid off. Jeter became a generational player, a certain Hall of Famer and one of the most beloved Yankees of all time. Not a bad scouting job.

Here’s my attempt at putting Groch’s whole story together. Hope you’ll enjoy.

http://m.mlb.com/news/article/229038088/dick-groch-scouted-jeter-for-cooperstown-in-92/

The Ties That Bind

Originally published in the July 2016 issue of Yankees Magazine

This was a story that I wanted to write for a long time. When I arrived at the University of Michigan as a freshman in 1999, I was at most a passing college football fan. It just wasn’t something that I grew up with in New Jersey. So for my first game, against Notre Dame, I wasn’t entirely sure what I was walking into. It was the best kind of shock — I loved every second of that game, and I’ve been hooked ever since.

I also walked into a QB controversy that has remained somewhat legendary among football fans. On one side was Tom Brady, a workmanlike QB who could get the job done, but who wasn’t ever going to set the world on fire. The guy holding the clipboard (and therefore, the guy the fans wanted to see) was the hotshot sophomore Drew Henson.

The two split time — Brady would play the first quarter, Henson the second, then, supposedly, coach Lloyd Carr would choose the QB who had done better to play the second half. It was almost always Brady. And obviously, everyone knows what happened later for that guy. Seems he did OK for himself.

The next year, despite an early season injury, Henson was remarkable. He came back against Illinois and saved that game, and then was terrific the rest of the way, as the Wolverines went 9-3 and won the Citrus Bowl. The next year was setting up to be something truly special, but then — after saying he was going to stick around — Henson left to play baseball, taking Yankees owner George Steinbrenner’s money, and breaking every Michigan fan’s heart. It was unforgivable, and most people never forgave him.

Nothing at all came of his baseball career, and when I caught up with him, he was scouting for the Yankees, going around the country to see size up players who were doing considerably better than he ever did.

I pitched him the story — could I join him for a trip, being a fly on the wall as he went about his work. He seemed hesitant, but he agreed, and off I went to St. Louis, where I met up with him, then rode with him to Kansas City the next day. It was an amazing trip — I learned so much about the game, about how every single thing that happens on the field means something, about how many moving parts there are. I watch a lot of baseball, and I think I have a generally good handle on the sport, but I couldn’t believe the way that someone in Henson’s position saw things unfold.

For the story, I tried to combine the two pieces of my history with Drew — the college story and the professional experience. I hope it worked; I was really trying to paint my own obsessions as being pathetic, not in any way to judge him.

I hope you enjoy it.

http://m.mlb.com/news/article/189248494/former-yankees-prospect-drew-henson-now-scout/