Marino Pieretti

Marino Paul Pieretti (September 23, 1920 – January 30, 1981) was an Italian-born American professional baseball player. Born in Lucca, in Tuscany, he grew up in San Francisco's North Beach district. He was a right-handed pitcher who appeared in 194 games, 68 as a starter, in the Major Leagues from 1945 through 1950 for the Washington Senators, Chicago White Sox, and Cleveland Indians.

Pieretti stood 5 ft tall and weighed 153 lb. A stalwart in the Pacific Coast League of the era (he won 122 games and lost 112 for various PCL teams between 1943 and 1956), he came to the big leagues after winning 26 games for the 1944 Portland Beavers. He was known as "Submariner" in his stint with the Beavers because of his sidewinder delivery.

His rookie season was his finest. Pitching for the second-place Senators, he won 14 of 27 decisions and completed 14 of his 27 starting assignments, hurling three shutouts. For his MLB career, he compiled a 30–38 record with an earned run average of 4.53 in 673⅔ innings pitched, allowing 713 hits and 321 bases on balls. He notched 188 career strikeouts, eight saves and 21 complete games.

Pieretti, who worked in a slaughterhouse in the offseason, lived in San Francisco after his playing days. When he was stricken with cancer in the mid-1970s, his friends — many of them former baseball players from the Bay Area — organized "The Friends of Marino Pieretti" to buoy his spirits. Pieretti's health improved for a time, and he was able to attend regular meetings until his death at age 60 early in 1981. However, The Friends of Marino Pieretti were still meeting in his honor every month as of January 2011.