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Former Dade North Falcons baseball coach Demie “Doc” Mainieri, who died on March 13 at age 90, always figured his life had been spared for a good reason, and he made the most of his time. The youngest of 11 children, Mainieri played baseball at West Virginia University. He earned master’s and doctorate degrees from Columbia, which is how he got his...

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“My head was messed up.” In a rare moment of clarity, these once were the words of former Houston Astros pitcher, Mark Lemongello, known for his frequent outbursts of self-assault, sometimes slapping himself after ineffective pitches or outings. Lemongello wore Astro orange from 1976 through 1978. Bizarre events and an encounter with the law haunte...

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In the first of three afternoon exhibition games against a group of Oakland Athletics prospects, Team Italy tied the A’s minor league squad 5-5 at the Arizona spring training facility in Mesa on March 20, 2019. Azzurri manager Gilberto “Gibo” Gerali’s squad played well in the desert and nearly beat the prized Athletics. Team Italy showed strength a...

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The Azzurri baseball squad arrived safely at Phoenix International Airport without bench coachAugusto Medina and infielder Erick Epifano for 2019 Spring Training at the Oakland AthleticsArizona complex in nearby Mesa. Team Italy manager Gilberto "Gibo" Gerali replaced Augusto Medina, who was stranded in Venezuela due to flight cancellations to and...

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The Capital Region lost a legendary baseball player and coach with a fierce competitive spirit when longtime SUNY Schenectady head coach Tim Andi passed away Sunday. Andi, who guided the Royals for 25 years and helped to put the program on the map, died at the age of 64 from a rare auto immune disease. A pitching guru who starred on the mound at se...

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Art Angotti, who was known in Indianapolis as the "ultimate entrepreneur" and worked to bring a Major League Baseball team to the city in 1985, has died after a 10-month battle with cancer. He was 74. Angotti for years led Artistic Media Partners, which at one time owned as many as 20 radio stations. But he was, perhaps, best known as the man who r...

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The New York Mets have named Al Leiter as a baseball operations adviser for the club and will rejoin the Mets after a near 15 year absence. The team also announced that current Mets’ ambassador John Franco will have expanded duties as also serving as a baseball operations adviser as reported by Tim Britton of The Athletic. Met general manager Brodi...

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The Italian-American Sports Hall of Fame has closed its museum at 1431 W. Taylor St., with George Randazzo, Hall of Fame founder and president, promising a “premier” new location that will include the Joe DiMaggio statue that has stood across the street since 1999. The Hall of Fame organization took the $150,000 Joe DiMaggio statue with it when it...

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Lefty-pitching specialist Tommy Layne will always be remembered as a hero when he played for Team Italy the 2017 World Baseball Classic (WBC). After pitching a scoreless eighth inning against Mexico,Tommy Layne kept Team Italy in the game as the Azzurri scored five runs in the top of the ninth to win the contest 10-9 on March 9, 2017. He later kept...

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Nick Cafardo worked in a profession peppered with competitive souls, jealousy, and millionaire athletes accustomed to being praised unconditionally. One of the best baseball writers of his generation, Nick managed to cover the sport without generating any hard feelings. Everybody liked Nick. The man had no enemies. For a baseball writer in 2019, th...

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