Tony Balsamo

Anthony Alred Balsamo is a former Major League Baseball player. He was born November 21, 1937 in Brooklyn, New York. He went to Fordham University, where he pitched on the baseball team.

In 1959 he got his big break; the Chicago Cubs signed him as a free agent. He was called up by the Cubs on April 14, 1962. He pitched in 29.1 innings and recorded a 0-1 record with a 6.44 ERA. He only played in one big league season. One of his mentors that season was Buck O'Neil, a long time player and coach in the Negro leagues who was a rookie of his own sorts, breaking the color barrier as a coach in the Major Leagues.

In a 2010 interview with sportswriter Marino Amoruso, he spoke about the one game he played in the Polo grounds against the New York Mets.

We had come into New York to play the Mets. The Mets played at the old Polo Grounds that season. I hated the place. That’s where the Giants used to play, and being I was a diehard Dodger fan as a kid, the Polo Grounds was enemy territory.

Most of my family came to the ballpark that night, and alotta friends, hoping I’d get into the game. Sure enough, I got called in from the bullpen in the late innings. At that time Gil Hodges was playing for the Mets. He was far passed his prime back then, and the Dodgers had sold him to the Mets so he could finish out his career in New York. When I walked to the mound I suddenly realized that the second batter I was going to face in the inning was Gil Hodges. I couldn’t believe it. To this day I can’t remember what the first batter did. I think I struck him out or he grounded out. The reason I don’t remember is that the entire time I was pitching to the first guy, I kept glancing over at Gil Hodges in the on-deck circle. Then Gil walked to the plate Here I was pitching in the big leagues, in my hometown, my family is there watching, and my boyhood hero is at the plate.

I walked him on four pitches.I kept looking at the man and instead of seeing a batter, I was seeing this player who I had idolized my entire youth. One thing I always had as a pitcher was pretty good control, but on that day, at that moment, pitching to Gil, I couldn’t get the ball anywhere near the plate. I had no idea where I was throwing it. In all the years I played ball, in the minors and eventually in the big leagues, that was the only time I was ever nervous in a baseball uniform.

— Tony Balsamo