Page 14 THE MALDEN ADVOCATE–Friday, October 6, 2023 THE SPORTS WIRE: Taking a Look Around Our Region in Sports; Closeups and Views from the Spyglass When you have been around long enough, sometimes you feel like you’re in a “Forrest Gump” movie How’s this? Malden’s longest-playing professional baseball player Carmine Cappuccio’s first manager was Terry Francona... I met him! By Steve Freker W hen you have been around long enough, you have gone to some places, seen some things and met a whole bunch of people. With all the places I have been – especially chasing games all over the country, at all different levels of baseball – I have had so many experiences that sometimes I feel like I was in the “Forrest Gump” movie. I got another taste of that the other day when I started reading the stories about former Red Sox and present Cleveland Guardians manager Terry Francona and this being his last go-round season. Francona, of course, is expected to be a sure shot Cooperstown Baseball Hall of Fame inductee as soon as he is eligible, after leading the Red Sox to Carmine Cappuccio, a 1988 Malden High School grad and a three-time NCAA Division 2 First Team All-American, was drafted in the 9th Round of the 1992 Major League Baseball amateur draft by the Chicago White Sox, the highest draftee in Malden history to that point. He was assigned to the South Bend (Ind.) White Sox in Low Single A. (Courtesy Photo) were masquerading as hardworking major leaguers. As Cleveland’s manager from 2012 to this season, Francona led the Guardians to division titles in 2016, 2017, 2018 and 2022, the AL pennant in 2016 and wild card appearances in 2013 and 2020. Anyways, does anyone realTerry “Tito” Francona’s firstever professional baseball manager’s post was skippering the South Bend White Sox in South Bend, Indiana. One of his first players was Malden High School legend Carmine Cappuccio. (Courtesy Photo) a pair of World Series Championships (2004, 2007 and almost a third!) and then 10 winning record seasons with the Cleveland Guardians. Through it all, Francona has battled personal problems (some of which unfairly were made public), lots of health issues and a shocking dismissal by the Sox after a 90-win 2011 season, when it was floated that he had supposedly “lost the clubhouse” due to some tough to deal with, high-paid louts who ize that Francona first coached in the Chicago White Sox minor league farm system for four seasons from 1992-1995 before he got his first Major League Baseball (MLB) manager’s post with the Philadelphia Phillies in 1997? That’s right. His very first manager’s post in the Minor Leagues was with the South Bend (Ind.) White Sox, Chicago’s Low Single A franchise. One of Terry “Tito” Francona’s top players on the first team he ever managed? Well, it was none other than Malden High School’s longest-playing professional baseball player in city history and perhaps the best overall athlete to wear a Malden uniform, Carmine Cappuccio. Cappuccio is the second-highest pro baseball draftee in Malden High history, one of five MLB picks in the Malden glory days of the 1990s. He was selected 260th overall in the 1992 MLB entry draft, the 24th pick in the 9th round by the Chicago White Sox. Cappuccio, a 1988 Malden High graduate and a threetime NCAA Division 2 First Team All-America selectee out of Rollins College in Winter Park, Fla., signed for a $15,000 bonus and jumped on a plane to Chicago two days after to meet his coaching staff and join his team. I decided I, too, would fly to Chicago and try and see Carmine play in his first professional game, since he was the first pro guy I had ever coached, having been a varsity coach alongside Shawn Brickman at Malden High in the Salem Street Slugger’s three wildly successful years with Malden High baseball (1986-1988). Carmine did not get into the season opener, a home game for South Bend, who were listed as the “South Bend White Sox,” but actually went by the “South Bend Silver Sox.” But there he was in Game 2, starting in right field in his first-ever professional baseball game, and I was sitting there about 20 rows from the field in South Bend, Indiana, also home of that little Catholic school next door to the baseball park. What was that name? Oh yeah, Notre Dame! What a thrill it was to see this 22-year-old kid from Malden getting his first professional swings! Carmine grounded out his first at bat, pulling the ball sharply between the first and second baseman. Second baseman made a pretty good play on the ball. Second at bat? Bingo! Carmine hammered a ball in the gap in right center and it looked like a sure double, but the centerfielder tracked it down and held him to a single. Carmine did take a wide turn, but he did not take the bait as the outfielder fired a seed to second base. He got lifted for a pinch hitter in the later innings as they used a ton of guys in the game. That’s all right, I got to see his first professional game and his very first professional base hit! Awesome! I waited for him after the game and who knew? It happened. FRANCONA TODAY: Terry Francona is expected to announce his retirement after 10 seasons with the Cleveland Guardians. (Courtesy Photo) Carmine actually took a fairly long time to come out afterward and, wouldn’t you know, he was walking out and chatting with his manager at the door, none other than Terry Francona! Carmine saw me standing there and waved me over. “Hey Skip,” Carmine says to the future Hall of Famer, “This is Frek, my high school coach; he came out to see me play this weekend.” “Nice to meet you, Frek!” Carmine’s soon to be very famous manager said. “We got us a gone one here, he’s got a good eye and great bat. We’re lucky to have him!” Of course, Carmine was beaming – and so was I – two Malden guys who had no idea we were in the presence of astounding, future greatness: a man who would transform two franchises into bona fide “super”-winners, with two World Series titles in Boston, no less. I knew right away Carmine was in good hands, and I had a great flight back to Logan two days after that. Carmine would go on to play professional baseball at various levels and in two different countries for the next 11 years, longer than anyone – ever – in Malden High history. Francona, well, he went on and did Hall of Fame level deeds. Good luck in anything you do, and anyplace you go, Tito Francona! That one night in South Bend 1992, you made Malden High’s best-ever hitter and his high school coach feel like a million bucks! Jake Willcox, a senior captain and quarterback of the Brown University football team, was named Ivy League Offensive Player of the Week by the Ivy League and the Gold Helmet Award Winner by the New England College Football Writers for his efforts in a 29-25 win over Bryant on September 16. He threw for 357 yards and 3 touchdowns on 36-for-49 passing. He is a former Everett High and Milton Academy standout quarterback. (Courtesy/Brown Sports Information)
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