Sam DePizzo puts sandlot hours into prime time

The 87-year-old continues to be a veteran presence coaching with Class B.

By JOHN BASSETTI

Vindicator sports staff

YOUNGSTOWN — Sam DePizzo says he never missed a sandlot game in 53 years, except for the time he tripped at the top of a dugout and fell, suffering a concussion.

By forsaking weddings, graduations, births and 99 percent discount sales, the 87-year-old former East Sider is as commonplace at a baseball game as the national anthem.

“He missed many a Father’s Day over the years,” said his youngest son, Ralph DePizzo.

“He sure is dedicated and doesn’t want to miss a game,” said Tony Gorvet, manager of Rondinelli Tuxedo, a Class B League team DePizzo has been with for the past several years.

“He puts everything on hold,” Gorvet said.

“He’s missed family affairs just to be at the games,” Gorvet said of the man who enjoys the sport and enjoys teens.

“He’s there for the kids and the kids get a kick out of him,” said Gorvet, noting that Sam especially dislikes profanity by players or coaches and acts as a peacemaker proficient at providing counsel.

“He brings a lot of wisdom to the game and he has a lot of stories,” said Gorvet, who picks up DePizzo before Rondinelli’s late games because he doesn’t drive at night. “I think he’ll finish out his days with us.”

In the summer, Gorvet said that DePizzo, now of Boardman, walks outside the Boardman Plaza and visits its Rondinelli Tuxedo store and owner Gino Rondinelli.

Gorvet noted that one of the dependable DePizzo’s trademarks is distributing hard candy.

“He always carries hard candy and gives me six pieces every game,” said Gorvet, who is league president emeritus and remains a “B” officer.

DePizzo, first-base coach for Rondinelli, says he’s been with 14 different sponsors at the 16-18-year-old level, including Sports Cage, Pineview and Vukovich for Mayor.

The highlight of DePizzo’s career was as manager of the national runner-up Mayor Vukovich All-Stars in the Babe Ruth Senior World Series in 1981.

“We would have won and gone undefeated if it wasn’t for a bases-loaded fly ball that bounced off the fence for an out,” DePizzo said of a very disappointing ending to the game in Lawrenceburg, Tenn.

DePizzo had a team of 16- to-18-year-olds such as Bob Tinkey, Tom Abbas, Scott Knox, Bob Miller, Rob Luklan, Scott Belding, Ron Jones, Ricky Jones and Willie Micco.

After beating Tennessee in the Babe Ruth opener, 20-0, Vukovich sailed the rest of the way until meeting a New Jersey team.

That’s when Micco hit a ball that was caught by the left fielder off the fence.

When Micco was called out, DePizzo argued in vain that the ball was still alive and therefore, the play should have been allowed to unfold.

“There’s no way that was an out,” DePizzo said. “It’s the same as if the ball hit the ground in the outfield. We would have won the game right then. We got robbed and other people said we got robbed.”

DePizzo ran into other difficulties during the team’s nine-day stay. One of his pitchers broke two fingers while playing catch with a football during some leisure time.

“Before we could allow him to pitch, we had to get approval from the parents, so we had to wire a telegram via Western-Union,” said DePizzo.

A DePizzo-managed Roth Brothers team won the Connie Mack state championship in 1992 and, then, his Sports Cage team won the Class B title in 1994.

Sam started coaching when Ralph played for Royal Oaks in the Uptown Kiwanis Little League, then for East Side Kiwanis in Pony League (13-14). All of the games were at Stambaugh Field.

Sam continued to coach in Colt league (15-16) that used Idora Park’s ball field.

Ralph, 57, played for his father with the Girard Zicard “B” League entry before leaving for Campbell A.C.

“He wanted a release because he was my son and wanted to show he could make a team on his own,” Sam said.

Campbell A.C. then won the NABF title in Cincinnati in 1971. Ralph played third and pitched.

DePizzo’s oldest son, Nick, who never played for his father, distinguished himself as a relief pitcher in Campanizzi’s Connie Mack state championship win over Cleveland Tal in 1966.

At the regional in Ft. Wayne, Ind., Campanizzi lost to Cleveland Tal.

Nick, 60, is now retired from R.L. Lipton Distributors.

Despite knee replacements, Sam is still feisty.

“He still thinks he’s 40,” said Nick. “He wants to grab a ladder and climb up on the roof at home.”

After Ralph finished sandlots in 1971, Sam continued to coach.

“I liked it so much that I went on. I like the game, I like the kids. Some fathers don’t.”

DePizzo said that one former player who reached the majors was Jeff Wallace of Minerva.

“He threw 97 mph,” DePizzo said of Wallace, who played for Sports Cage before joining the Pirates and Tampa Bay organizations.

Sam retired from the Youngstown Water Dept. in 1985.

bassetti@vindy.com