This Milford Legion star defeated Fidrych, played with Mantle Jr.
Tim Dumas
The Milford Daily News USA TODAY NETWORK
Editor’s note: The Milford Post 59 American Legion team is honoring the 1970 and 1972 state champions on “Alumni Recognition Night” prior to the team’s July 10 game (7 p.m.) against Shrewsbury at Fino Field. The Daily News is recounting those seasons this week, including a look here at eventual minor leaguer Craig Allegrezza.
He remembers, with awe, the allure of Fino Field.
The Granite Street gem tucked in beside the Charles River — and named for Milford’s first World War II fatality — has for decades been home to hundreds of boys of summer. Craig Allegrezza, at age 14 and playing at the Babe Ruth level in 1969, recalls watching the local American Legion baseball team at Fino. The field had lights — a rarity at the time — and housed the area’s top players.
“It was like the big leagues,” said Allegrezza, 68, recalling his three seasons playing for Post 59 in the early ‘70s.
The right-hander grew to 6-foot-5, won two state Legion championships — posting a combined 21-0 record during those title-winning seasons — pitched against future Major Leaguers and played Minor League baseball with Mickey Mantle Jr. His teammates at UMass Amherst included future Cy Young Award winner Mike Flanagan and Jeff Reardon, 12th on MLB’s career saves list.
But Fino Field was the Big Leagues in Allegrezza’s young teenage mind.
“Back in those days, Milford Legion baseball was so huge,” the current Denver resident said. “I was thinking, ‘Will I ever make the Legion?’ When I did, I was just happy to be there, playing with all these older players who were kind of my heroes.”
Vic Mantoni, Joe Small and Neil Hourihan were among them. The trio attended Hopedale High. Ken Brewer hailed from Holliston. Other players attended St. Mary’s in Milford, while Allegrezza was among the many who attended Milford High.
“We were all rivals and when we got together, we just melded and we just made it work,” he said. “Back then, we practiced and played every day of the summer, and had no time off. It was total, total dedication. You couldn’t do anything else during the summer. It was 100% baseball for two, two and a half months. And it paid off.”
Allegrezza teamed with Jeff Reardon, Mike Flanagan; outpitched Fidrych
Post 59 won state championships in 1970 and ‘72, rarely losing to in-state competition. Allegrezza was also a productive hitter. “He was a coach’s dream player, the combination of size, ability and attitude,” said Tony Chinappi, Post 59’s assistant coach when Allegrezza played. “He could do it all: pitch, field and hit. Needless to say, his pitching record over high school, Legion and beyond speaks for itself, but he actually contributed much more. His teammates had a tremendous amount of confidence in him whenever he pitched that they actually played better and raised their level of play even higher.”
In addition to playing with Flanagan and Reardon, Allegrezza’s Milford teams faced St. Louis Cardinals draft pick Arthur “Ace” Adams of Wellesley during the state tournament in ‘70; Holden’s Bruce Taylor, who pitched three seasons with the Detroit Tigers; and Northborough’s Mark Fidrych, who won the American League Rookie of the Year award in 1976, winning 19 games and posing with Big Bird on the cover of Sports Illustrated.
Allegrezza struck out 14 Northborough hitters on July 4, 1972, and allowed just three hits in a 2-0 win at Fino Field. Fidrych fanned four and allowed seven hits.
“Fidrych was good. He filled up stadiums with 50,000 people when he was pitching. It was crazy,” Allegrezza said last week. “When I found out what he ended up doing – not just making it, but the success he had – you just look back and say, ‘Wow. We played against that guy like five years ago.’
“He got a chance to play, and what he did, if you told me was going to make it to the Major Leagues, I would’ve said, ‘Yeah, he’s good. That’s a possibility.’ But you couldn’t have ever dreamed that. It just goes to show you, when someone gets a chance and they really run with it and they can handle it mentally, you never know what can happen.”
Teaming with Mickey Mantle Jr.
After pitching at UMass for four seasons, Allegrezza was drafted by the Baltimore Orioles in 1976. (He was originally drafted by the Pirates, but did not sign with them). The ‘76 draft yielded Bruce Hurst, Rickey Henderson, Jack Morris, Wade Boggs and Ozzie Smith.
Allegrezza played minor league ball in Bluefield, West Virginia, and in Miami. In 1978, he was cut in spring training, and while on his way back to Milford, he stopped to see friends in Washington, D.C. There, he was told about a new team, the independent Alexandria Dukes, debuting in the Carolina League.
The Dukes went 58-75, but Allegrezza was second on the team in wins (8) and strikeouts (79). One of his teammates was a 25-year-old Mantle Jr., who in his only season of professional baseball, batted just .070 in 17 games. The Seattle Mariners bought the Dukes in ‘79, but Allegrezza was again cut during spring training. He played that summer in Mexico before retiring.
Allegrezza moved to Denver in 1986, and still works as an independent insurance agent there. Milford’s Legion team went nearly 30 years before winning another state title, in 2001, when Post 59 advanced to the World Series.
“That just reinforced how big a state championship was back then. It was not easy,” Allegrezza said. “It was a huge accomplishment.”
“We had great coaching,” he added. “I appreciated it more after it was said and done. We just ate, drank and slept baseball.”
Tim Dumas is a multimedia journalist for the Daily News. He can be reached at [email protected]. Follow him on Twitter @TimDumas.
