Meet Tony Piazza

Tony may not have appeared as an All-Star as many times as Mike Piazza, but he certainly enjoys playing ball as much. He has been in our league since 2001 and is a third time manager, leading the First Bank team this year.

Tony was born in Manor, Pennsylvania and moved with his two sisters to the San Jose area when he was in 5^th grade. He reports that he was thrilled to be in California when he learned schools here have recess: an unheard of concept in his old school.

He graduated from Lincoln High playing a lot of sports: basketball being his favorite. Despite being the shortest man on the court he made the team every year. After high school he joined the Navy and spent 3 years on a destroyer off the coast of Korea giving the Marines covering fire. His ship was hit once by artillery fire losing a smokestack and knocking out the emergency radio system. But fortunately no one was injured. He found the Navy service very rewarding and was impressed with the fine work done by kids just 18-19 years old; although the immaturity of one caused a little furor aboard ship. The young man attempting to impress his girlfriend wrote a letter saying the destroyer had shot down three MIGs that day. She proudly told all of her friends. The story appeared in the local paper and the Associated Press picked up the story spreading it nationally. The ship’s captain was soon hearing from a confused and angry command in San Diego.

After leaving the service Tony enrolled at San Jose State to earn a teaching credential working at Safeway to support himself. They kept trying to send him to Hollister for management training. He kept lying about only a couple of more classes to get a business degree; then he would be happy to join management. He felt badly when he finally got his teaching degree and told Safeway he would not be joining the company. But they kept him on during the summers as a fill in for vacationing managers. (This paid more money than his first teaching job paid for a year’s work.)

Upon graduation he began a 30+ year career with the Alum Rock School District mostly teaching Middle School. He loved teaching and his most enjoyable assignment was teaching a class of 14 gifted fourth graders. They were always coming up with interesting ideas. In fact he recalls one time when he took them on a field trip to Lockheed where they observed submarine production and sat in a meeting where the supervisor was reporting a recurring problem with a leaking valve. A fourth grade boy quietly raised his hand. When the supervisor turned to him and asked what he needed, he replied with a solution to the valve problem. The supervisor gave it some thought, turned to his staff and said, “Why didn’t any of you think of that?”

While teaching Tony enjoyed bowling in the district league and one year as he was at the team-forming meeting he noticed a lovely young kindergarten teacher. He walked up to the league president and said, “If she’s not on my team, I’m not playing!” So Jan was put on his team and they began dating. A year later they were married and will soon celebrate their 36^th anniversary. Jan has continued to work in education with tutoring at a learning center; and now working for the state evaluating essays of teaching hopefuls taking the CBEST.

Their son, David, is an engineering student at Texas A & M, where he will soon lie inside a submarine his team built. His job is to pedal like mad as another team member steers in the annual submarine races being held this year in Maryland. Tony is looking forward to being in San Diego next year to see his son compete.

Tony has a son and daughter from a previous marriage. John is a painting contractor in San Jose while Suzanne is an accountant living in Orangevale. There are no grandchildren at this point although son, David, is promising to come through for them.

After retirement Tony discovered senior softball, pitching for the Santa Clara Vintage traveling team. He played a lot of softball and did some substitute teaching for three years after retirement. Then they decided to move to Texas to be closer to Jan’s elderly parents who were living in a nursing home in Oklahoma. Jan and Tony found a golf view home about 30 miles outside of Austin, Texas and settled in. Jan got a job teaching kindergarten in the tiny town of Florence, which had one main street and very few businesses: the store and the laundry known by no other name. There was also a hardware store and a small restaurant. Jan and Tony were having a cup of coffee on their first visit when the other customers soon discovered she was the new school “marm” and asked if they had rented the trailer at the edge of town. They were very surprised to hear that she was not moving to town.

While in Texas, Tony continued to play softball both locally and with the Houston Golden Eagles traveling team. He vividly recalls one game during the National Championships held in Colorado. He was pitching against the Florida Ospreys (the eventual winners of the championship) and leading 6 to 5 through 6 innings. The manager decided to take him out for the bottom of the seventh in favor of a teammate who had pitched for the St. Louis Cardinals. Tony told him he thought it was a mistake; slo-pitch softball is a whole different game. The manager replied that Tony had given up a couple of hits. Tony quickly pointed out that the manager had dropped a fly ball. Perhaps not surprisingly the manager responded by benching Tony. The new pitcher promptly gave up two runs to lose the game.

After five years in Texas realizing that the eight hour trip to her folks in Oklahoma was not any more convenient than flying in from California, they decided to return. Priced out of the market in San Jose, friends suggested they check out Del Webb in Roseville and Lincoln. On their first visit they drove in the back way, drove thru a few villages and left unimpressed. Their friends kept telling them they were hearing good things about the development and hounded them to go look again. This time they drove in from Sterling Parkway. Seeing the softball field, Tony pulled in and said, “My, this is really nice!” Jan said, “Uh, oh!” And the rest is history.

Tony joined the league that first year (2001) and has played winter and summer ever since. He plays with the Classics in a Friday league and has pitched for the Sun Eagles 65s traveling team. He and Jan enjoy their open space view home and playing bocce ball with their neighbors. He says his hobby is eating out: with two favorite places being The Olive Garden and the buffet at the casino.

When we left this interview it was apparent to us that Tony has three great loves, Jan, teaching and softball, but not necessarily in that order.