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Baltimore Orioles first baseman and Italian American Trey Mancini has been an inspiration. After battling cancer, he returned to the field in 2021 and picked up where he left off. His appearance in the Major League Baseball Home Run Derby and winning of the American League Comeback Player of the Year Award made it a season to remember.  Mancini has...

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Paul Pasqualoni walked away, but he couldn’t stay away. His retirement from coaching football, following his resignation as the Detroit Lions defensive coordinator in January 2020, lasted less than a year. When University of Florida head coach Dan Mullen asked him to join his staff this season as a special assistant, Pasqualoni couldn’t get to the...

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Jerry Kramer, the Pro Football Hall of Fame guard, wrote a personal note and diagramed two famous Green Bay Packer plays on a cheese gold helmet, and gave it to him. The late cornerback Herb Adderley, another Packer Pro Football Hall of Famer, penned a note that began “To my friend Coach G” on an oversized photo that showed him at his locker-- stil...

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It’s a full circle “homecoming” of sorts. Gary Perone, who previously served as assistant general manager for the New York Mets’ Minor League affiliated Brooklyn Cyclones, was born in Brooklyn -- but the Tottenville resident has called Staten Island his home for a quarter-century, and now it’ll be his base of operations as well. Staten Island’s Atl...

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When Chicago Wolves assistant coach Bob Nardella was growing up in Melrose Park, the National Italian American Sports Hall of Fame was located next door in Elmwood Park. His father, Robert, relished taking his son to the institution’s conventions hosted in Rosemont. “It was a big thing for my father,” Nardella said. “He took me all the time. There...

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Don Landolphi is facing his biggest challenge as a coach. At the youthful age of, gulp, 80. “I’m teaching and coaching baseball to the blind,” he told the Eagle. And if he has the same success as he had while coaching at Brooklyn College, well – we’ll see. Maybe, we’ll all see. Baseball has been part of Don Landolphi’s life for over 50 years as a p...

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The Southern Illinois Miners have played their last game in Marion. The team's owners, John and Jayne Simmons, announced they will retire from league ownership. Mike Pinto has been the manager of the team since its inception in 2007. He has lead the team to a league championship and numerous division titles.  "I've long said I had the best job in b...

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Young players and their parents may know Dom Scala for the instructional camps he has hosted for years to help hone skills and minds for baseball. Yankees fans from the 1970s and ’80s may remember his headshot in the team yearbook and the praise heaped on him by broadcaster Phil Rizzuto for his hard work as a bullpen catcher and coach. “Phil Rizzut...

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For the first time in its history, the Italian American Baseball Foundation (IABF) has awarded college scholarships to deserving student-athletes. Three scholarships have been awarded in the fall 2021 semester.  Scholarship honorees include Francesco Bonvini, Franco Logozzo and Shannon Russo. Bonvni, who is from Parma in Northern Italy, is playing...

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The Italian American Baseball Foundation and National Italian American Sports Hall of Fame have formed a partnership based on their collective interests in promoting and building Italian American heritage through sports. Both organizations have agreed to a partnership founded in education and community. The immediate goal will be to host youth base...

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