The esteemed professor, author, and historian devoted his life to preserving the stories of a game and heritage he loved.

By Chris R. Vaccaro

Of all the writers and storytellers whose work I have encountered, Larry Baldassaro has made a lasting impact on my life. Larry was a professor, historian, and gifted author. Most importantly to me, he was the foremost storyteller on the history of Italian Americans in baseball.

When his close friend Gael Garbarino Culle wrote to inform me that Larry had passed away on September 8 at the age of 83, I felt an immediate and profound sadness. But I also knew that his passing offered me an opportunity, and perhaps even a responsibility, to share my appreciation for Larry as a writer, historian, devoted wordsmith, friend and colleague.

There are only a handful of people who have dedicated as much time, energy and creativity to chronicling the Italian American experience in baseball. I am proud and grateful to be part of that unique circle with Larry. I am even prouder that I could call him a friend, connected through our shared heritage and the game we both love.

Larry’s journey into this important area of baseball history was as natural as it was personal.

“Here I am, all four grandparents and my mother were born in Italy, so they were immigrants. I’m a professor of Italian, and I’m writing about baseball,” Larry once told the National Baseball Hall of Fame. “Why not write about Italians in baseball?”

That simple question became the foundation of a remarkable body of work.

Larry’s exploration began with a 1993 interview with Phil Rizzuto at Milwaukee County Stadium. By then, Larry was a frequent presence around the ballpark as a writer for the Milwaukee Brewers’ Game Day Magazine. He was well known throughout the Brewers organization and could often be found in the press room at County Stadium and later Miller Park, exchanging stories with other baseball writers.

That interview with Rizzuto helped launch a decades-long effort to document a part of baseball history that had never received the comprehensive attention it deserved.

Larry wrote three essential books specifically focused on the contributions of Italian Americans to baseball. His most recent was an outstanding biography of the great Tony Lazzeri. His research was exhaustive, and the care he placed into every page was masterful. It was exactly the type of book that should have been written about an extraordinary but too often overlooked figure in New York Yankees history.

He also wrote Baseball Italian Style, an oral history that allowed Italian American players to tell their stories in their own words. I know firsthand how much that work meant to the players featured in the book. I once spoke with Mike Piazza about it, and he expressed both gratitude for and respect toward Larry’s work.

Then there was Beyond DiMaggio, an important social history that explored the Italian American experience in baseball beyond its most recognizable names. Larry understood that the story was never limited to one player, one family, or one generation. It was a much broader American story about immigration, identity, assimilation, perseverance and pride.

His books examined the human side of baseball and the role the sport played in helping generations of Italian Americans find acceptance and opportunity in the United States.

Larry understood that these stories mattered. He also understood that if no one took the time to record them, they could disappear.

In 2006, he combined his love of Italians in baseball with his mastery of the Italian language and served as the official Team Italy interpreter during the inaugural World Baseball Classic.

Thanks to Larry’s donation to the National Baseball Hall of Fame, the interviews he conducted for Baseball Italian Style are now preserved in the Hall of Fame’s Recorded Media Archives and can be accessed through the Giamatti Research Center in Cooperstown. The interviews, conducted between 1993 and 2017, include conversations with dozens of former major leaguers, including Larry Bowa, Dom DiMaggio, Tony La Russa and Rizzuto.

Because Larry spoke with players from several generations, the collection offers more than baseball history. It provides a window into the evolution of the game, the Italian American experience and the many ways life as a major leaguer changed over time. That archive is an enduring gift to baseball.

The grandson of Italian immigrants, Lawrence A. Baldassaro was born on June 25, 1943, in Holyoke, Massachusetts, and raised in neighboring Chicopee. His life changed after his junior year of college when he visited the farm in Italy where his mother was born. The relatives who still lived there welcomed him as if he were a long-lost son. That experience ignited a lifelong devotion to his heritage.

After earning a bachelor’s degree in English from Union College, receiving a Fulbright Fellowship and completing a doctorate in Italian at Indiana University, Larry joined the faculty of the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee in 1972.

He remained there for his entire academic career, teaching Italian language and literature until his retirement in 2009. A Dante scholar and recipient of UWM’s Distinguished Teaching Award, Larry wanted his students to feel the same passion he brought to every subject, whether he was teaching introductory Italian or leading an Honors seminar.

Larry also served as a department chair, participated in numerous faculty committees and helped elevate UWM’s Honors Program into a full Honors College. Following his retirement, a scholarship for first-generation Honors College students was established in his name. In 2019, he received the Ernest Spaights Plaza Award in recognition of his significant and lasting contributions to the university. That portion of his legacy is especially fitting. Larry’s life was shaped by the ambition and sacrifice of his immigrant family, and his name will continue to help first-generation students pursue their own dreams.

He remained deeply involved in Milwaukee’s Italian American community, building relationships with cultural institutions, businesses and events throughout the region. He brought people together to celebrate Italian language, culture and history. He also directed an oral history project documenting Italians’ experiences in Milwaukee.

He was smart and passionate. He was specific and intentional. He was driven by the same ambition that many of our immigrant ancestors carried. Larry loved baseball. He loved the written word. He loved Italian education and culture.

He also used baseball as a tool for service. Late in his life, he organized a small group of volunteers who visited assisted living facilities and spoke with senior baseball fans experiencing dementia. Their goal was to use the game to unlock positive memories and enhance their quality of life. That work says so much about Larry.

For him, baseball history was about creating connections in the present. A familiar player, team or moment could bring someone back to a treasured time in their life. Larry recognized the power in those memories and found a way to put it to use. He never sought the limelight. He did not need attention or praise. He simply believed in the value of education, culture, service and For those of us who continue chronicling the history of Italian Americans in baseball, Larry leaves both a foundation and a challenge.

He showed us how this work should be done: with patience, precision, intellectual curiosity and a genuine love for the people behind the history.

The books will remain. The interviews will be preserved in Cooperstown. The students he influenced will carry his lessons forward. The stories he rescued from obscurity will continue to educate readers for generations. And those of us fortunate enough to have called him a friend will continue speaking his name.

I will carry Larry’s legacy with me through my own work chronicling Italian Americans in baseball. I will remember his scholarship, his passion and the care he placed into every story.

Larry Baldassaro spent his life ensuring that our history would not be forgotten. Now it is our responsibility to ensure that he is not forgotten either.

Chris R. Vaccaro is Vice President of the Italian American Baseball Foundation.