 |
|
|
|
|
Picture from the Past
World Series winner was once a humble local baseball player
By John S. Baggerly
Today's photograph appears on the inside cover of John M. Rosenberg's The Story of Baseball. Because the New York Yankee shortstop is not identified, we mailed a copy of the photograph to former Yankee shortstop Frank Crosetti at his Stockton home. Then, by phone, he identified the player as Phil Rizzuto, who succeeded Crosetti at that position.
A few Los Gatos old-timers recall Crosetti was a ball shagger for the Los Gatos Town Team that played on a dirt diamond behind what today is the Los Gatos High School girls' gym and swimming pool area. Locals Bill Wyant and future postmaster Eddie Briggs also played there.
While talking about Rizzuto, Crosetti recalled one Ollie Nino, who threw a "shine" ball. Crosetti said the lanky Nino would rub the leather-covered ball to increase the luster but did not know what action this doctored horsehide might take when thrown.
The Nino name is familiar. The Nino orchard was the largest in town and today Nino Avenue constitutes the south boundary of Fisher Middle School and flanks the north side of Van Meter Elementary School, facing Los Gatos Boulevard. The Nino home overlooked what today is Highway 17.
Crosetti, enjoying retirement in Stockton with his wife Mary, says that he no longer hunts and fishes the nearby Sierras but that he does attend Oakland A's games, when driven by friends.
As a Yankee, Crosetti and Joe DiMaggio, also a San Francisco Seals product, along with Tony Lazzari, popularized baseball with New York's great Italian population. A day devoted to the threesome produced a turn-away crowd at Yankee Stadium.
Baseball inspiration overcame young Crosetti and "Dede" Vodden became his hero. As a small boy, Crosetti recalled playing baseball at University Avenue School.
After graduation from the old wooden grammar school, young Crosetti commuted for a year to Bellarmine College Preparatory, which at the time was located on the campus of Santa Clara University.
His father, Dominic Crosetti, owned property on the north end of University Avenue--Oak Meadow Park today--and there he combined his scavenger business and the raising of produce. After the family moved back to San Francisco, Crosetti attended Lowell High School, where he sometimes cut school to play ball. In post-Yankee days, Crosetti admitted to his truant ways of spending his time on the "sand lots" of San Francisco.
When he signed as a minor with the San Francisco Seals, his mother Rochele invested his money in San Francisco real estate and sound stocks. In her widowed years, Rochele Crosetti was seen daily walking from her N. Santa Cruz Avenue home to St. Mary's Catholic Church on Bean Avenue. Few if any of her nodding acquaintances knew that she was the mother of a Yankee shortstop and longtime third-base coach who had won 23 World Series rings.
|
|
|
|
Los Gatos, California Since 1881
Yankee shortstop Phil Rizzuto, above, succeeded his talented teammate Frank Crosetti, a former Los Gatan who got his start playing on the town team.
