Don Landolphi was the only choice for this award
He returned from England with a fifth-place medal, but please, don’t feel too badly for the USA coach – Don Landolphi.
He is set to be honored at the annual Italian American Baseball Foundation Gala, Dec. 5 at Marina Del Rey in the Bronx.
But coach, what happened in the tournament?
“We beat Hungary and China, and lost to Pakistan and Great Britain,” he told the Brooklyn Eagle upon his return to the states last week. “It was,” he said, “a very successful tournament.”
Cuba won, with Italy second and Pakistan third. “It was the first time Italy has lost the tournament,” Landolphi, the former Brooklyn College baseball coach said.
The coach’s last trip in the WBSC Blind International Cup was two years ago when his squad placed third with a bronze medal.
“We just weren’t as strong as we were the last time,” the 83-year-old coach admits. He lost several players this time around.
“One player did not have his citizenship; another never applied for one. That hurt us,” the grad of St. Michael’s Diocesan High School said.
Landolphi’s contributions to the game of baseball are being recognized as he has been named an Italian American Baseball Foundation Ambassador Award honoree.
He began his journey to Italy in 1973 as a coach selected to help coordinate baseball clinics. Later, he was asked to return to the Italian American National Teams, as an assistant.
The Blind International experience was certainly new for the kid who grew up at Avenue U and West 7th Street, right above the Sea Beach subway line.
“It was always baseball and basketball for me growing up,” he said. He was a three-year starter at St. Michael’s, located at Fourth Avenue and 43rd Street.
That school was replaced in 1957 by Xaverian High School.
The Blind Tournament had a roster of eight with two alternatives.
Each game is five to seven innings long, or an hour and a half, explained Landolphi, who began his coaching career in 1962 at Brooklyn College in baseball and basketball.
“Teams are made up of five blind players, one sighted player and an open sighted defensive assistant,” the coach said. “The ball,” he continued, “has chimes.”
The sighted defensive player and sighted assistant also serve as base coaches at second and third base when the team comes to bat. “The batter puts the ball in play by tossing it up in the air, and hitting it,” said Landolphi, who had winning records as coach at Brooklyn College and the U.S. Merchant Marine Academy; and finished his career as an assistant with Joe Russo at St. John’s University.
In order for the batted ball to be ruled fair, or in play, it must go beyond the string that starts at the left corner of the defensive second baseman and extends to the third base foul line, behind the base.
A challenge for sure. But perhaps not so much for the coach who has authored two books on baseball fundamentals.
As an assistant with Team Italy in 1975, the Azzurri won the European Baseball Championship for the first time beating Holland.
That should not have been too much of a surprise — Landolphi is a Brooklyn College Hall of Famer, as well as an inductee in the American Baseball Coaches Hall of Fame.
The Italian American Baseball Foundation established its Ambassador Award in 2022 and present the annual honor to people who make significant contributions to growing the game in Italy.
Coaching the visually impaired — a game initiated by Italian ball players in 1998 —came easy for Landolphi.
“I was watching a baseball team practice while I was in Italy around ’06 or ’07,” he recalled. “I realized it was a visually-impaired team.”
He said just watching those players perform, well, made him learn so much.
“Blind people can do so many things. They can play baseball — of course, with limitations — but they can play,” said Landolphi.
All they need is a skilled teacher.
The marriage was natural for both.
Andy Furman is a Fox Sports Radio national talk show host. Previously, he was a scholastic sports columnist for the Brooklyn Eagle. He may be reached at: [email protected] Twitter: @AndyFurmanFSR