Greenwich Orthodontist Tries Out For Olympic Baseball Team.
I am here to make you a proposition… Your secret yearning all your life has been to be a baseball player yourself
-Damn Yankees
It was the Saturday morning after Labor Day. The summer was making an impressive come back. Temperatures soared well over the 90° mark. There were no signs that the baseball season was nearing an end.
Dr. Albert Repicci, a 43 year old. Greenwich orthodontist, woke up promptly at 6 AM. He had no patients scheduled that morning. Quietly, he unpacked his baseball gear, which had been put away for the winter following a relatively successful summer playing softball, on a team made up of Greenwich dentists.
The cleats, the glove, the socks, and the pants. Everything he needed. Then he informed his wife he would be home later. Without much fanfare, he was off to try out for the United States Olympic baseball team.
A couple of days before, Repicci‘s wife mentioned to him that there was an article in the paper about open tryouts for the Olympic baseball team. Repicci said he knew immediately he was going, but he filed the information away in his head and didn’t make a big deal out of it.
“I was reluctant to tell anyone” he said, it seemed a little bizarre, but in my own mind, it was a great opportunity.” He always loved baseball. He played shortstop in high school and college in briefly entertain thoughts are playing professionally. He never got a nibble from a professional team, though a scout came to one of his high school games.
On the way up to the tryout, all he thought about, he said, was not embarrassing himself.
Repicci was among about 100 hopefuls all of whom he believes were younger. Some had their eyes on Los Angeles in 1984, and others, like Repicci, just wanted to give it their best shot.
After all, Repicci figured, he will be 47 by the time the 1988 Olympics roll around and he figured, this may be last time baseball is an Olympic event since it is being introduced in a trial basis at the 84 games.
On that last Saturday after Labor Day, the best 44-year-old baseball hitter in the world, Carl Yastrzemski, had three hits in 5 trips the to the plate including his tenth home run of the year for the Boston Red Sox. In New Haven where the Olympic committee was holding one of 65 open tryouts around the country, 43 year old Repicci, who had not played hardball since 1959 was having one of the best days of his career and fulfilling a dream.
Repicci said he made “fair contact“ at the plate and made all his plays at second base without an error. The tryouts tested how hard you could throw. Every infielder was tested on his throw from shortstop to first base. He also got a chance to run against men half his age. He didn’t win any of the one on one 60 yard dashes but he didn’t lose by much either. In the one race where he was told his time he finished in 8.02 seconds. He was beat by 2/100 of a second by someone 19 years his Junior.
After the races, it was back to the field, where he was tested on his ability to go to his left, to his right, and up the middle. He handled all his plays without an error.
Repicci never finished his tryout. After three hours of hitting, fielding and running he experienced a “Field Of Dreams” moment. A scout for the Philadelphia Phillies, who was in the stands collapsed from the heat. Repicci, the only person with medical experience immediately available tended to the scout until an ambulance arrived. The baseball tryout then ended for Repicci.
Number 408– a three digit number that identified Repicci as a second baseman in the tryouts – retired. On Sunday morning the baseball gear was put away until next spring. On Monday Repicci was back treating patients. On Tuesday the temperature dipped below, 50°. Autumn will surely come, though it too, occasionally has its day in the sun.
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You gotta have hope
Mustn’t sit around and mope
Nothings half as bad as it may appear
Wait till next year and hope
When your luck is batting zero
Get your chin up off the floor;
Mister, you can be a hero
You can open any door, there’s nothing to it, but to do it, You’ve gotta have heart,
Miles in miles in miles of heart.
– Damn, Yankees
Daniel Jacobs is the editorial page editor of Greenwich Time.