I know people have and will back the Simone family but he kept professional baseball alive in Syracuse.
I sat next to Tex and John during Strasburg's first game at PNC. Half way through the game John brought Tex back to the box and came back down with Mike Rizzo. It was amazing hearing all of their stories and letting me be apart of their conversations especially with it being such a big game. Tex wasn't in the best of health back then but he still was fairly sharp. The conversations spanned from Luis Sojo (my boyhood idol), Butch Alberts, Jason Grilli, and my baseball aspirations. I told them I had a well paying job and I was right out of school but wanted to get back into coaching or scouting. I also mentioned that I was an umpire for two years during summer college years. They both looked at me as if I was crazy and said to be an umpire if you want to keep that girlfriend (she was sitting next to me).
One of the bigger unmentioned contributions to the baseball community was their promotion of Syracuse Junior (Sky)Chiefs. That program began the rise of Syracuse's Babe Ruth (classic leagues) that are run more like an AAU program. It helped Syracuse players get national attention and opportunities to compete against teams across the nation.
