Former MLB players coach Canterbury School baseball team

Two former major leaguers are volunteering their time to help the players on the Canterbury baseball team reach their big league dreams. 

Adam Piatt and Johan Santana started volunteer coaching with the Cougars when their sons made the team.

Along with developing their sons and the next generation of baseball players something more simple keeps them coming back.

“I’m having fun right now and whatever I can do to help them you know a little tip or something, it’ll be great for them,” Santana said.

“It’s fun to be a part of not only my son’s baseball experiences, but it’s really important to give back,” Piatt said. “I feel like I’m the lucky one. It’s nice to get out here. It’s my favorite part of the day.

Piatt, a Fort Myers native, played with the Oakland A’s and the Tampa Bay Devil Rays.

His son Ashby is a left-handed pitcher just like the legendary Santana, who won two Cy Young Awards during his eight year stint with the Minnesota Twins. 

“Very fortunate for me as a father to have my son around a guy like that every day to hopefully help instill some knowledge and wisdom into my son too,” Piatt said.

That’s exactly what Santana wants to do, set these young pitchers up for success.

“As they go up higher, it’s going to be tougher so we try to help them understand what it takes now so when they move forward and go up, it will be a lot easier,” Santana said. They will be able to understand what it takes.”

With success comes failure. Piatt says some of life’s greatest lessons are learned on the diamond.

“Once they get done playing baseball and whatever field, whatever facet of life they go into they’ll just be able to deal with failure, just on average better than the average person because of what baseball teaches,” Piatt said.

Both Piatt’s and Santana’s sons are only freshmen so the Cougars could be getting big league guidance for years to come.

If all that pro level leadership wasn’t enough, the Cougars are led by Head Coach Frank Turco.

He spent time in the minor leagues and is now one of the longest tenured coaches of any sport in Lee County.