User talk:Tiffy333

Eddie "Pelly" Pellagrini
I remember being about five years old sitting on the floor in a living room with stacks of newspapers all around listening to this seventy-one year old man sitting on a sofa with more newspapers surrounding him. I was so lucky to be meeting my idol, Eddie Pellagrini, he introduced to me by my mother; she was a waitress when she met him and she told him how I loved him and the Boston Red Sox. He invited her to bring me to meet him at his house in Weymouth Massachusetts.

This man she had just met told her to bring my sister and myself over for a little chat; little did we realize we would spend hours there and go bad more than once; it was a dream come true for me. I got to meet a real legend and listen to him tell me all about his personal experiences in the baseball world. He talked for hours but it felt like five minutes; he was so interesting and he loved to talk about his buddy Carl "Yaz" Yastrzemski; I wished I could have stayed there forever; he was an amazing man.

Mr. Pellagrini, even though he insisted that I call him Eddie, was one of my idols, he was an amazing baseball player, coach, and person. He played for my favorite team, the Boston Red Sox, he played major league only for eleven years and was retired before I was even born but I knew all the stories about him from my dad and uncles. He was a coach at the college that I wanted to attend, Boston College and coached there for about thirty years from 1957 to 1988. He was hired in 1957 by the long-time Director of Athletics, Bill Flynn.

Eddie played for some other teams during his major league career, like the St. Louis Browns, today is known as the Baltimore Orioles, the Cincinnati Reds, and the Pittsburgh Pirates; but for me, he will always be a Boston Red Sox. Boston was his home and he always came back to us even if it was to coach or live; he couldn't get enough it was in his blood; so he told me anyways.

He was born in Boston on March 13, 1918, and he also passed away in Massachusetts but not in Boston in Weymouth, where he lived, on October 11, 2006. Eddie graduated from Roxbury Memorial High School in Roxbury Mass and he played as a utility infielder for the high school baseball team. Upon graduation when he was eighteen he signed a contract with the Boston Red Sox; he was able to rise to the top through the Red Sox farm organization and reached the club's Triple-A team, but World War II started and he spent the first five "prime" years serving in the United States Navy. On April 22, 1946, Eddie "Pelly" Pellagrini played his first major league game for the Boston Red Sox against the Washington Senators; he was already a hometown hero and now his fans were so excited to see him play. I couldn't even imagine how exciting it must have been for all of those fans to be sitting there waiting to see him play at Fenway Park on Opening Day; when he came up to bat for the first time he hit a home run and they beat Washington 5-4! He is one out of three players to hit a home run first time up to bat in the Red Sox History; the other two are Bill LeFebvre, on June 10, 1968, and Bob Tillman, on May 19, 1962.

Eddie mostly played shortstop and third base, he was an all around infielder. His first season, 1946, he played in twenty-two games for the AL champs and his second season, in 1947 he played in seventy-four games before Boston traded him to St Louis.

After he retired from the major league in 1957 he began to coach baseball at Boston College, he was the first coach hired by Mr. Flynn. Eddie led the BC Eagles to 359 victories, 17 winning seasons, seven postseason berths in the NCAA District I Playoffs, three District I championships, and three appearances in the College World Series - 1960, 1961 and 1967. He retired after the 1988 season at seventy years old. His career average was .226 with 20 home runs in 563 major league games with the Red Sox (1946-47), Browns (1948-49), Phillies (1951), the Reds (1952) and the Pirates (1953-54).

In 1994 Eddie Pellagrini was inducted into the Hall of Fame for America Baseball Coaches Association and is still to this day the only Boston College (BC) coach/representative in it.

On May 3, 1997 Boston College, named the diamond at Commander Shea Field in honor of Eddie Pellagrini and the plaque read: "A teacher, Coach, Folklorist and Friend To Anyone Who Shared His Undying Love For the Sport of Baseball, Eddie Pellagrini Is A `Major Leaguer' In Every Sense of the Term."

Mr. Eddie Pellagrini was a great shortstop and he truly believed that and he would say that it's all heart! He would tell me that if I really wanted to keep playing baseball I had to believe in myself and in the game; there was no other way. He told me that I was very talented and that he believed in me; I will always remember him as a friend, a role model, and an amazing player.

Eddie Pellagrini passed away on October 11, 2006, at the young age of 88, he died at South Shore Hospital in Weymouth. It was a sad day for everybody in Massachusetts; he touched and molded so many lives, I am so grateful that I was able to meet him and listen to him before his time ran out. He was survived by his wife Helen Pellagrini, who passed away in January 2013, and by three children and two grandchildren. His funeral mass was held at St Francis Xavier Church in Weymouth and was buried at the Massachusetts National Cemetery, in Bourne. The family asked for donations to be made to the Boston College Diamond Club, in the care of the Boston College Athletics Association instead of sending flowers.