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During the late 1960’s and early 1970’s, the Connellsville American Legion baseball team was a powerhouse. They had a run of three successive County and District championships and produced some top notch players.
Bob Galasso was one of the players produced by American Legion baseball and the Fayette County League. That was his training ground because Connellsville didn’t have high school baseball during that period.
“A lot of us look back on that and think that we kind of missed out a little bit,” Galasso lamented. “It would have been nice to have a high school baseball team. The only problem or real issue was that people tend to forget that we had a couple of great players on our legion team that would have been Geibel students. So we all wouldn’t have played on the same high school team.”
“Bob Bailor might have gone to Connellsville if they had a baseball team, and I don’t doubt that. He had told me that and he was a great basketball player. They had tried to get him to play at Connellsville and that would have improved our basketball team greatly.”
In later years, Connellsville developed a great high school baseball program under Coach
Tom Sankovich.
“I practiced with them a few times,” Galasso offered. “I would spring train with them in the gym before I would go to our spring training. I always told Sankovich that I never got to play a sport for him because he was a football coach and then he became the baseball coach after I had signed and went away to play minor league ball; I always told him that he was one of the finest baseball coaches on a amateur level that I had ever been around. He turned out to be a tremendous high school baseball coach.”
Galasso honed his skills playing legion baseball on a star studded roster.
“I actually didn’t play when I was 16,” Galasso revealed. “I played legion ball when I was 15 and I was just a total bench warmer. I hardly ever played because that was a great American Legion program and only the better and older players played. Three of us came from Pony League with no league in between and we had to learn and I was
outgunned physically.”
After sitting out a season, Galasso came back and played when he was 17 and a senior.
“That was a great team with Bailor, Fred Norton, Ron Marciante, Les Hart, Ron Connors and all those guys,” Galasso recalled. “They were like an established nucleus of the team from the year before. I just went up there to kind of make the team because I didn’t play baseball at all when I was 16 – I played golf all that summer. I did well and one thing after another came about and I suddenly realized how good I really was. I had a nice season playing right field and doing a little pitching.”
Galasso compiled an overall batting average of .325 and batted .360 against legion pitching. He pounded out 12 extra base hits in 75 plate appearances including a team high five home runs. In 17 Fay-West games, he batted .262 with 11 hits in 42 times at bat, including two triples and three home runs.
Galasso was also called on seven times as a pitcher during the season, and had a 3-0 record in the Fay-West. He appeared in four Fay-West games and three relief appearances in Legion play. He pitched 18 innings in the Fay-West, including a route-going job against playoff champion Mill Run — Ohiopyle, whom he set down on seven hits. His other wins came at the expense of Trotter and Dunbar. In those four games he gave up 11 runs, 17 hits, walked 17, and struck out 10.
His Legion pitching calls came against Republic, for 1 1/3 innings in the opening game of the two-game sweep for the county championship, plus his brief appearances against Washington in the Section 12 title series and against Franklin in the first loss of the regional finals at Freeport. His total record was no hits allowed, four runs given up, four walks and three strikeouts.
The brain trust for the Connellsville Legion team was the duo of Fred “Buzz” Barnhart and Herman Welsh.
“Those guys were two men who loved baseball and loved coaching,” Galasso explained. “They were extremely interested in the welfare of these young guys that played on their American Legion team. They didn’t act like fathers or parents, but they guided us in baseball and would get on us a little bit about how you conducted your life off the field and behaving. They knew their stuff where baseball was concerned. Buzz was close to being an old salty minor league coach and Herman was like the front office guy or coordinator, but they were a perfect team.”
Galasso graduated from Connellsville High School in 1969 and was a member of the golf team.
“When I was in high school I was very soft,” Galasso reported. “I didn’t work out and I was a 17 year old senior and I told Sankovich that I wished I had played football for him and that would have toughened me up. I got toughened up when I went off to the
minor leagues.”
“In golf, I had to play number one man because we had lost all of our players and I really liked golf.”
Art Ruff was the golf coach at Connellsville and Galasso has a soft spot for him.
“We had a nickname for him we called him the “King”,” Galasso stated. “He really was a regal gentleman and just a great guy. He was a
wonderful man.”
Galasso and American Legion teammate Bob Bailor signed with the Baltimore Orioles.
“Playing in the legion games were where the scouts came around,” Galasso said. “I went to a tryout camp with Fred Norton and Bailor up at Freeport and I understood that was a pretty big deal and I started going to tryout camps. We played in All Star games and then the three of us all went to the state All Star game in Harrisburg and that was unprecedented and people were taking our pictures because no team had ever had three kids in that All Star game.
“Jocko Collins signed me to a contract. I followed in my dad’s footsteps. ‘Big Bob’ once signed with the Pittsburgh Pirates and played in their farm system”
Galasso embarked on a rather lengthy baseball career. He pitched 13 seasons in the minor leagues and compiled a record of 83-99 with a ERA of 4.13. His best minor league season was 1976 at Rochester when he went 13-5 with 3.45 ERA. He pitched three seasons in the Major Leagues with Seattle in 1977, Milwaukee in 1979 and Seattle again in 1981. His big league totals are a 4-8 won-loss mark with a 5.87 ERA and four saves.
“I played with some tremendous people in the minor leagues,” Galasso said. “I was on two loaded Triple A teams at Rochester. We had players like Dennis Martinez, Mike Flanagan, Rich Dauer, Dave Skaggs, Jim Fuller, Larry Harlow, Kiko Garcia – a pretty impressive list. I played on a team there where the next year 16 guys were in the Major Leagues.”
Galasso was selected in the 1976 expansion draft
by Seattle.
“I would have never played in Baltimore for a couple of reasons, but mainly talent,” Galasso opined. “In Triple A we had a five man rotation of me, Dennis Martinez, Scott McGregor, Mike Flanagan and a guy by the name of Mike Willis. Of the five guys, I was the banana of the group. So going to Seattle was a good break and going to Milwaukee was also a good break. I filled a spot in the bullpen on a very good team with the Brewers – Cecil Cooper, Paul Molitor, Robin Yount, Sal Bando, Sixto Lezcano and Gorman Thomas – George Bamberger was the manager – we had a great team.”
Galasso walked away from the game in 1982, but not for long. He worked in Connellsville until he moved to Atlanta in the spring of 1983. He pitched in a Stan Musial League. The former Brewer and Mariner landed a bank job. His comeback began with a tryout for a pitcher’s role in a film called Slugger’s Wife; a technical adviser, who also had ties with the Braves recommended that Galasso call them. He pitched a season for the Triple A Richmond in 1984. Galasso’s ability to pitch never left him and he actually pitched until he was 42 years old in Italy.
He pitched in the Senior Professional Baseball League for two years and pitched three seasons in Italy and was still throwing 91 MPH.
Galasso went into sales and came back to Pennsylvania and got a job with Robbins Hardwood Flooring. He stayed with them for four years and then went to work for five years as a product manager for Universal Forest Products. Now 67 years old, he is retired and living in Georgia and teaching baseball part time. He is single and has no children.
Galasso’s parents are deceased, but he still gets back to Connellsville and has great memories of
his hometown.
“I have been all over the world and I have been in every major city in the United States and I’m very proud of the fact that I grew up in Connellsville, which was a nice town to grow up in. It was a great place to grow up.”
During the late 1960’s and early 1970’s, the Connellsville American Legion baseball team was a powerhouse. They had a run of three successive County and District championships and produced some top notch players.
Bob Galasso was one of the players produced by American Legion baseball and the Fayette County League. That was his training ground because Connellsville didn’t have high school baseball during that period.
“A lot of us look back on that and think that we kind of missed out a little bit,” Galasso lamented. “It would have been nice to have a high school baseball team. The only problem or real issue was that people tend to forget that we had a couple of great players on our legion team that would have been Geibel students. So we all wouldn’t have played on the same high school team.”
“Bob Bailor might have gone to Connellsville if they had a baseball team, and I don’t doubt that. He had told me that and he was a great basketball player. They had tried to get him to play at Connellsville and that would have improved our basketball team greatly.”
In later years, Connellsville developed a great high school baseball program under Coach
Tom Sankovich.
“I practiced with them a few times,” Galasso offered. “I would spring train with them in the gym before I would go to our spring training. I always told Sankovich that I never got to play a sport for him because he was a football coach and then he became the baseball coach after I had signed and went away to play minor league ball; I always told him that he was one of the finest baseball coaches on a amateur level that I had ever been around. He turned out to be a tremendous high school baseball coach.”
Galasso honed his skills playing legion baseball on a star studded roster.
“I actually didn’t play when I was 16,” Galasso revealed. “I played legion ball when I was 15 and I was just a total bench warmer. I hardly ever played because that was a great American Legion program and only the better and older players played. Three of us came from Pony League with no league in between and we had to learn and I was
outgunned physically.”
After sitting out a season, Galasso came back and played when he was 17 and a senior.
“That was a great team with Bailor, Fred Norton, Ron Marciante, Les Hart, Ron Connors and all those guys,” Galasso recalled. “They were like an established nucleus of the team from the year before. I just went up there to kind of make the team because I didn’t play baseball at all when I was 16 – I played golf all that summer. I did well and one thing after another came about and I suddenly realized how good I really was. I had a nice season playing right field and doing a little pitching.”
Galasso compiled an overall batting average of .325 and batted .360 against legion pitching. He pounded out 12 extra base hits in 75 plate appearances including a team high five home runs. In 17 Fay-West games, he batted .262 with 11 hits in 42 times at bat, including two triples and three home runs.
Galasso was also called on seven times as a pitcher during the season, and had a 3-0 record in the Fay-West. He appeared in four Fay-West games and three relief appearances in Legion play. He pitched 18 innings in the Fay-West, including a route-going job against playoff champion Mill Run — Ohiopyle, whom he set down on seven hits. His other wins came at the expense of Trotter and Dunbar. In those four games he gave up 11 runs, 17 hits, walked 17, and struck out 10.
His Legion pitching calls came against Republic, for 1 1/3 innings in the opening game of the two-game sweep for the county championship, plus his brief appearances against Washington in the Section 12 title series and against Franklin in the first loss of the regional finals at Freeport. His total record was no hits allowed, four runs given up, four walks and three strikeouts.
The brain trust for the Connellsville Legion team was the duo of Fred “Buzz” Barnhart and Herman Welsh.
“Those guys were two men who loved baseball and loved coaching,” Galasso explained. “They were extremely interested in the welfare of these young guys that played on their American Legion team. They didn’t act like fathers or parents, but they guided us in baseball and would get on us a little bit about how you conducted your life off the field and behaving. They knew their stuff where baseball was concerned. Buzz was close to being an old salty minor league coach and Herman was like the front office guy or coordinator, but they were a perfect team.”
Galasso graduated from Connellsville High School in 1969 and was a member of the golf team.
“When I was in high school I was very soft,” Galasso reported. “I didn’t work out and I was a 17 year old senior and I told Sankovich that I wished I had played football for him and that would have toughened me up. I got toughened up when I went off to the
minor leagues.”
“In golf, I had to play number one man because we had lost all of our players and I really liked golf.”
Art Ruff was the golf coach at Connellsville and Galasso has a soft spot for him.
“We had a nickname for him we called him the “King”,” Galasso stated. “He really was a regal gentleman and just a great guy. He was a
wonderful man.”
Galasso and American Legion teammate Bob Bailor signed with the Baltimore Orioles.
“Playing in the legion games were where the scouts came around,” Galasso said. “I went to a tryout camp with Fred Norton and Bailor up at Freeport and I understood that was a pretty big deal and I started going to tryout camps. We played in All Star games and then the three of us all went to the state All Star game in Harrisburg and that was unprecedented and people were taking our pictures because no team had ever had three kids in that All Star game.
“Jocko Collins signed me to a contract. I followed in my dad’s footsteps. ‘Big Bob’ once signed with the Pittsburgh Pirates and played in their farm system”
Galasso embarked on a rather lengthy baseball career. He pitched 13 seasons in the minor leagues and compiled a record of 83-99 with a ERA of 4.13. His best minor league season was 1976 at Rochester when he went 13-5 with 3.45 ERA. He pitched three seasons in the Major Leagues with Seattle in 1977, Milwaukee in 1979 and Seattle again in 1981. His big league totals are a 4-8 won-loss mark with a 5.87 ERA and four saves.
“I played with some tremendous people in the minor leagues,” Galasso said. “I was on two loaded Triple A teams at Rochester. We had players like Dennis Martinez, Mike Flanagan, Rich Dauer, Dave Skaggs, Jim Fuller, Larry Harlow, Kiko Garcia – a pretty impressive list. I played on a team there where the next year 16 guys were in the Major Leagues.”
Galasso was selected in the 1976 expansion draft
by Seattle.
“I would have never played in Baltimore for a couple of reasons, but mainly talent,” Galasso opined. “In Triple A we had a five man rotation of me, Dennis Martinez, Scott McGregor, Mike Flanagan and a guy by the name of Mike Willis. Of the five guys, I was the banana of the group. So going to Seattle was a good break and going to Milwaukee was also a good break. I filled a spot in the bullpen on a very good team with the Brewers – Cecil Cooper, Paul Molitor, Robin Yount, Sal Bando, Sixto Lezcano and Gorman Thomas – George Bamberger was the manager – we had a great team.”
Galasso walked away from the game in 1982, but not for long. He worked in Connellsville until he moved to Atlanta in the spring of 1983. He pitched in a Stan Musial League. The former Brewer and Mariner landed a bank job. His comeback began with a tryout for a pitcher’s role in a film called Slugger’s Wife; a technical adviser, who also had ties with the Braves recommended that Galasso call them. He pitched a season for the Triple A Richmond in 1984. Galasso’s ability to pitch never left him and he actually pitched until he was 42 years old in Italy.
He pitched in the Senior Professional Baseball League for two years and pitched three seasons in Italy and was still throwing 91 MPH.
Galasso went into sales and came back to Pennsylvania and got a job with Robbins Hardwood Flooring. He stayed with them for four years and then went to work for five years as a product manager for Universal Forest Products. Now 67 years old, he is retired and living in Georgia and teaching baseball part time. He is single and has no children.
Galasso’s parents are deceased, but he still gets back to Connellsville and has great memories of
his hometown.
“I have been all over the world and I have been in every major city in the United States and I’m very proud of the fact that I grew up in Connellsville, which was a nice town to grow up in. It was a great place to grow up.”
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