Meet Steve Russo

aka Mr. Grand Slam

It’s time to meet the only player to hit a grand slam in an All-Star game at the Lincoln Hills Softball Field. It is the highlight of Steve Russo’s athletic career: and the fact that it occurred in the last game he will ever play makes it even sweeter. If you’ve lived in a cave for the last year he’ll be happy to tell you all the details; but most of us have heard it m…a…n…y times.

Steve was born in San Francisco in May of 1947. Interestingly enough his life long best friend whom he met in Jr. High was born at the same hospital a day later. Steve’s father was a fireman in San Francisco and his hero. He died in 2001 and Steve says he misses him everyday. He stays in close touch with his mother, younger brother, Jim, an electrician and younger sister, Laura, a writer who lives in Alameda.

After a move to San Bruno when he was 11 he participated in youth sports; especially baseball, a family favorite. He played both baseball and football at Crestmoor High graduating in the first class of this new school.

Upon graduation he went to work at a shipping company: Pacific Far East Lines where he was content until the day his draft notice arrived. After reading the contents he called a few friends and went out to drown his sorrows. When he arrived home he found a friend of his father’s waiting for him at the kitchen table. The friend asked what was he going to do about it. Steve replied, “There’s nothing I CAN do about it. I guess I’m going to Viet Nam.”

The friend said, “You do have one choice. You can spend the next four years sleeping in a muddy foxhole, eating out of can, dodging bullets or you can go with me in the morning and enlist in the Navy and spend the war on a nice warm ship with hot meals and big guns to shoot back with.” So the Navy it was. His first ship was the U.S.S. Topeka, a long-range missile cruiser based near Europe. Eventually it was decided to mothball this WWII vessel and they sailed into Boston where Steve met his first wife, Jean. He was transferred to the Joseph P Kennedy Jr., a destroyer where he continued his work with the supply department and his luck continued with deployment back to Europe. Steve says he hated every minute of his service time, but wouldn’t change it for the world. It made a man of him. His mother was surprised to find that she no longer had to tell him repeatedly to clean his room.

In 1970 after being discharged and having married Jean he returned to San Bruno. He worked for a couple of years driving a catering truck from business to business which he liked because he didn’t have a boss telling him what to do. He also was having a good time coaching Little League Baseball and Pop Warner Football in an almost constant rotation. His wife got fed up with his low paying job and his always being at some game or another and insisted he use his GI bill and get a teaching credential so he could get paid for doing what he loved. He got an AA degree at Skyline Junior College. While there he was a coach for the college team. It was a rule that at least one coach had to play in every game. One day the third base coach was unable to play so Steve picked up a bat and walked to the plate. The entire team shouted encouragement as he quickly struck out swinging. But he wasn’t upset. The pitcher had an outstanding fastball and Steve hadn’t held a bat in eight years. It was his only at bat on the college team, however it did lead to him playing rec ball. His first manager in rec ball was John Alvergue who coincidentally now plays in LHSSL.

Jean was hired to teach in Modesto so Steve switched his enrollment from San Francisco State to Cal-State Stanislaus; getting a degree in Physical Education along with a teaching credential.

He graduated with impeccable timing as California passed Proposition 13 and the nation slipped into a recession. There were no teaching jobs to be found. He was so desperate he even interviewed (along with 200 other applicants) for a home ec position. The students were probably lucky he didn’t get the job as he didn’t strike us as a sewing, cooking and cleaning kind of man.

A neighbor got him an interview to sell insurance for All State and he enjoyed a successful career with them. He continued to play both fast-pitch and slo-pitch softball in Modesto; remembering that when they opened Rainbow Park he was the first player to cross home plate at the new field.

He says he did time in Modesto for 23 years; however after his marriage ended he made it a point to escape to other locales to PARTY. In 1997 on one of these sorties he met Eva at a dance in Pleasanton. They hit it off and have been pretty much together ever since. Eva feels very lucky…both to have met Steve and for an even more dramatic life event. In 1989 she was riding home from her job at the Bank of America at the Embarcadero in a van pool when the van began to shake and she thought they had a flat tire. The driver said, “Don’t get excited. We don’t have a flat. We’re having an earthquake.” He floored it and the passengers watched the Bay Bridge collapse behind them.

As a realtor, Eva was given a freebie week-end to Sun City Roseville. While there they drove over to Lincoln where construction had just begun on Orchard Creek Club House. Steve said he would like to see it in about a year after they had a chance to finish some of the amenities. Sure enough several months later they were spending a week-end at one of the villas and falling in love with SCLH.

They moved here in September of 2001 and despite not having played for seven years Steve joined the softball program playing on First American Title; the eventual league champ that year He has been a mainstay of the league ever since: playing, managing and umpiring. He was Head Umpire for two years and served one term on the Board as President.

He tries not to let his Parkinson’s interfere with the things he loves; including softball. When he couldn’t run, he got a runner. When he could no longer bat, he underwent controversial surgery last February where they rewired his brain. The surgery went well and he had dramatic improvement in his symptoms: to the point where he was well enough to go on a cruise to Alaska. Unfortunately the metal detector scrambled the signals in the wiring in his brain and his symptoms have returned with a vengeance. So he’s limited to managing and when he coaches the bases the league insists he wear a helmet. (The whole board came in mass to tell him he had to wear the helmet because not one of them was brave enough to tell him alone.)

He also still loves writing poetry. A talent he discovered at an early age when friends would ask him to write something nice for their girlfriends. He says he often finds inspiration in the titles of songs. His last poem was in honor of Dot Connors and he is sad that she passed shortly after he gave it to her. But is gratified that he could put Hal’s thoughts into words and she had a chance to read them.

When he first moved here he wrote on the Compass staff, most memorably an interview with a rattlesnake. While he enjoyed it; he resigned when management insisted the readers wanted straight reporting, not creative features. Now he’s published from time to time in the Sun Senior News and the Lincoln Messenger and he is now working on a poem to immortalize his grand slam.

The next time you see him ask for details on his brush with fame as he appeared on Candid Camera. He tells the story much more colorfully than we can write it.

Steve and Eva were married in September 2002 and love it here with their 12 year old Cocker-King Charles mix dog, Polly. Steve said he wouldn’t want to live anywhere else, although he could use a little less heat. Steve has a son, Adam, in Fresno and Eva has 2 daughters, 5 grandchildren and 5 great-grandchildren. They enjoy their families and friends and Steve especially wanted to say: “I’m so grateful to Eva who has been so supportive of me and for all the players in the LHSSL who always ask how am I doing and spring to my aid when I fall. However, I am thinking of announcing that I need a liver transplant, just to see who steps up to the plate.”

When talking about his Parkinson’s he says his biggest problem is his hand shakes noticeably. Eva suggested that he keep it in his pocket. Steve laughed and said he could do that but people might get the wrong idea of what he was doing. Mary and I are stilling laughing at the visual this gave us.