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THE REVERE ADVOCATE – FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 23, 2024 Page 9 of this outlandish revelation regarding the hands-down most well-known athlete in the world. Scratch that – the most famous person in the world. Then spring training started and Jordan was settling into his new role, and toward the end of the month-long session, it was made known that Jordan, who had been toiling as an outfi elder, was going to be assigned to start the season with the Birmingham Barons, the White Sox Double-A affi liate in Alabama. What? Double-A? Unheard of! No player with such a dearth of experience as Jordan, despite his expected appeal for ticket sales and every other dollar that could be squeezed out of his choice, would start their career as high as Double-A. But he did. We talked about seismic occurrences earlier. Well, the tremors from this announcement traveled nearly 2,000 miles north of the White Sox spring training site in Sarasota, Fla. – all the way to Malden, Mass. Cappuccio a three-sport star at Malden High A 1988 MHS graduate and the city of Malden’s only threesport All-Scholastic (baseball, basketball, football) ever for Malden High, The Boston Globe named him Massachusetts’ top student-athlete of the year. The lanky, 6-4 Cappuccio is known and considered as the best and most successful athletes in Malden High School history. He is one of only two student-athletes in the annals of Malden HS sports history to have his number (Baseball #17) retired by the Malden School Committee. The other is basketball great Willie Barron. Cappuccio’s football team was considered one of the best ever seen at Pearl Street Stadium in the 1986-1988 seasons, where he established new receiving and scoring records for a season and a career, still holding them to this day. As a 6-4 shooting guard, he bombed away for 40 three-pointers in 1987-88, a school record that still stands. In baseball, he graduated as the top Golden Tornado in pitching Between the Sarasota White Sox and South Bend White Sox, Malden’s Carmine Cappuccio had a big year in 1993. (Courtesy Photo) wins – by far (19) – and owning every single-season and career hitting record conceivable. His senior year, shortly after registering 50 hits and knocking in 51 runs in just 23 games, he had an outrageous.551 career batting average as Malden High’s best-ever baseball star. Cappuccio was awarded the Boston Globe’s inaugural award as the top male athlete in the state of Massachusetts. A stellar collegiate career followed. Baseball paid for his college education at national power Rollins College in Winter Park, Fla., where he set every hitting record there was and was a three-time NCAA Division II All-American selectee and a First Team selectee in 1989 (as just a freshman), 1990 and 1992. A freak knee injury running down to fi rst base, legging out a single, in the fi rst inning of the fi rst game of his junior year, in the spring of 1991, sidelined him for the entire season after he underwent ACL repair surgery. Still, despite the injury and missing the entire season, Cappuccio was drafted in the 30th round of the Major League Baseball selection by the Chicago White Sox. Heading into his junior season, before the injury, he was a twotime NCAA All-American pick, rarely seen at any level or time in college baseball, and projected as a top three rounds pick in June 1991. The White Sox still wanted him, but did have much to offer fi nancially for the 30th round so Cappuccio continued his rehabilitation and went to earn an economics degree and play and graduate his senior year. A ninth-round draft choice by ChiSox in 1992 F ully recovered, another banner year for Cappuccio came his senior year at Rollins in 1992, with a virtually unprecedented third NCAA All-American selection and another shot at the draft. The White Sox came knocking again, selecting him in the ninth round, with the 251st overall pick. It was the highest a Malden resident had ever been drafted by a Major League Baseball franchise and the fi rst MLB draftee from Malden – in any round– in decades. A professional baseball career awaited and Cappuccio hit the ground running, and being a In his second season of professional baseball, Malden native Carmine Cappuccio played for the Sarasota White Sox in Single-A ball to start the season. (Courtesy Photo) polished college star at the age of 22, was assigned to the Short Season Single-A South Bend (Ind.) White Sox, in the Midwest League, in the shadow of “Touchdown Jesus,” the home of Notre Dame. There were not one, but two angles to the team Cappuccio grew up rooting for, the Boston Red Sox, that season. First, his fi rst-ever pro baseball manager was none other than Terry “Tito” Francona, who was in his fi rst coaching gig to boot. The other Sox angle was when Hall of Famer Carlton Fisk, then with the White Sox, showed up one day during that 1992 season in South Bend on a rehab stint. Fisk proceeded to hit a home run in the fi rst of three games he played, his fi rst minor league round-tripper since 1971. Cappuccio was doing fi ne in his pro debut season. He was leading the South Bend Sox in hitting as the season was winding down, at a.291 clip in a platooning role in the outfi eld and at designated hitter. In early August, he was shipped farther east to the Utica (N.Y.) Blue Sox, along with teammate and future 17-year major leaguer Mike Cameron, to bolster their bench for a playoff run. After an offseason working out in the Malden area with renowned hitting instructor Walt Hriniak, Cappuccio went off to his fi rst spring training with Chicago in February 1993 in Sarasota. He showed enough to be placed on the High Single-A roster of the Sarasota White Sox, but after a slow start, which saw him slip under.200, he was placed back in South Bend with the newly named Silver Hawks and a new manager, Tony Franklin. Big season in 1993 at South Bend for Malden slugger C appuccio thrived that 1993 season, establishing himself as an up-and-coming White Sox hitting prospect – helping lead South Bend to a Midwest League Championship. He hit.305 with four homers and 52 RBIs in 101 games. He was among the team leaders in extra base hits (26 doubles, 6 triples) and led all everyday players in OPS (.813). Cappuccio was a key man in a strong outfield contingent, which included the likes of Cameron and another future major leaguer, Jimmy Hurst, who hit 20 home runs that season. The next season, in spring of 1994, looked like it could be a big one as to moving up the Chicago White Sox baseball ladder... for all three prospects. —Coming next week, Part Two: How Michael Jordan’s foray into professional baseball 25 years ago in 1994 had a ripple eff ect locally. Tips for purchasing furniture online • Only shop with reputable retailers. Research a retailer’s page before deciding to do business with them. Reputable sellers provide information about their company and always have valid contact information. Look for company reviews online; for example, on BBB.org, shoppers can fi nd out if an online retailer is BBB Accredited, read consumer complaints and reviews. • Understand the store’s return and refund policy. Return shipping for heavy items, such as furniture, can get costly. Some retailers may have unique restrictions for delivery and returns because of the coronavirus pandemic. Before placing an order, read carefully or call the retailer directly to fi nd out upfront if a retailer has a return policy, if refunds are available, how refunds are issued, what the return process is, who pays for return shipping, and whether or not a restocking fee is charged. This information will often help decide whether or not you will complete the order. • Get to know the delivery options. Typically, furniture retailers off er three kinds of shipping, and each one may have a diff erent cost. — Front door delivery: the packaged product will be shipped to your front door and no further. — Inside delivery: the delivery person will take the packaged furniture into your home, sometimes into the room of your choice. — White glove delivery: the delivery person will take the packaged box to the room of your choice, unbox it and assemble it if necessary. They will also clean up any mess from the packaging and take it with them. — Ask before placing the order if these delivery options are available, as some retailers have changed to curbside or simply front door delivery service to avoid contact delivery. • Measure your space - will it fi t through the door? Be extra conscientious when measuring the space where the new furniture will go. A small mistake when taking measurements can mean the diff erence between the new sofa fi tting comfortably in the living room or not fi tting through the doorway and down the hall! Make sure to measure doorways, ceiling heights, and any hallway space (including banisters) the furniture must get through to reach its fi nal destination. • Choose the color carefully. As they appear on a computer screen, furniture colors can be signifi cantly diff erent from how they look in real life. Look at furniture images on diff erent deFURNITURE | SEE Page 19

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