Resurrecting A Miraculous Little League Dream
- Updated: August 2, 2018
(Howard J. Lamade Stadium in South Williamsport, PA, which hosts the Little League World Series. Photo courtesy of Sporting News.)
In The Bronx, NY, neighborhood of Riverdale sits a Roman Catholic school named Manhattan College whose NCAA Division I baseball team bears a green and white logo strikingly reminiscent to that of Southern California Champion Park View Little League of Chula Vista.
(Artwork courtesy of Manhattan College and Park View Little League in Chula Vista.)
The Manhattan Jaspers have inducted several of their baseball team’s players over the years into their athletic department’s hall of fame. One of those enshrined players is Joseph J. Coppo Jr., who was inducted into the Jaspers’ hall of fame in 2004. Coppo, a full-blooded Italian-American, had captained the Jaspers during his senior season in 1975, and according to the Jaspers’ web site, led Manhattan in earned runs average, innings pitched, and slugging percentage.
Coppo, whom the Cincinnati Reds had reportedly drafted straight out of high school, had opted to attend Manhattan rather than immediately pursuing a professional baseball career. Despite being a standout in the high school and college levels, Coppo never reached the major leagues.
Speaking of Little League, after graduating from Manhattan, Coppo soon got married, had four children, reportedly shared his love of baseball with them, and sure enough, Joseph became a coach in his local Little League, where he shared his passion for the game with other parents’ kids. Coppo was reportedly very well liked and respected by other Little League parents, and by his players.
Late in the year 2000, Coppo became an executive for the financial firm Cantor Fitzgerald, and shortly thereafter, he moved into its corporate headquarters and New York City office on the 104th floor of 1 World Trade Center, one of the Twin Towers in Lower Manhattan. On Sept. 11, 2001, at 8:46 am, the baseball dad and coach was murdered along with 657 of his fellow New York employees, 68% of Cantor Fitgerald’s overall workforce, when unspeakable ruthless hijackers intentionally crashed a passenger jet into that tower, only a handful of floors below Coppo’s office.
In the wake of that horrific event, in Coppo’s honor, Waveny Park Little League in his town of New Canaan, CT, where the former Jasper captain had coached Waveny’s all-stars in hopes of reaching the Little League World Series, renamed its baseball field as Joe Coppo Field.
Coppo’s coaching career was cut short at age 47, and we will never know, if had he remained alive, if the Manhattan hall-of-famer would have ever guided a Waveny team to South Williamsport, PA. That opportunity was taken away from Coppo forever.
However, Coppo’s Little League World Series dream has almost miraculously returned to life this summer, and has nothing to do with Waveny. Check this out. Coppo left behind a sister, Mary Coppo, who had gotten married to Harold Anderson, and had given birth to Joseph Coppo’s nephew, a boy whom the Anderson’s had named Bob. In February 2006, Bob and his own wife, Marie, had their own son. In honor of Bob’s dear departed uncle who was tragically killed, Bob and Marie named their first and only child, Joseph.
Bob Anderson and Marie Giblin-Anderson raised their only son in a way that surely has made Joseph Coppo, from where he is now, very proud, as the youngster was brought up actively involved in youth sports and enrolled in Little League. Amazingly enough, young Joseph was selected to an all-stars team this summer, and that team has played extremely well. In fact, Joseph’s team is very close to completing the dream of reaching S. Williamsport. For real.
That team is Park View, and when its Green Monsters won the Southern California Little League Championship on Saturday, Joe Coppo’s little namesake picked up the game-winning RBI. Yes, ladies and gentlemen, Park View’s catcher, #27, Joseph Anderson is the kid trying to fulfill Coppo’s Little League dream.
How amazing is that?
(Joseph Anderson, catcher for Chula Vista’s Park View Little League, prepares to throw a ball back to his pitcher during the 2018 Southern California Little League Championship tournament held at Aliso Viejo Little League in Aliso Viejo. That photo was taken during The Green Monsters’ victory over El Segundo Little League of El Segundo. Photo courtesy of Jon Bigornia.)
This Little League writer suggests that Park View might wish to perhaps consider dedicating its World Series quest to the memory of the late Joe Coppo. What a Disney tale doing so would make. However, that is just one man’s suggestion, and I shall let those in charge decide on their own.
If The Monsters reach the World Series, and how much more so if they win the entire tournament, in a way, Coppo will have achieved through his namesake what those barbaric terrorists tried to prevent the coach from accomplishing.
Finally, “Joe Man”, as Coppo’s young namesake was nicknamed, is also one of this Italian Jew’s little paisans, as my family lived in what is now Italy for hundreds if not thousands of years. In fact, my last name means “From Rome”, and an old street in Venice might have been named centuries ago after one of my Jewish ancestors.
Here is to Joe Man and his Green Monsters advancing to S. Williamsport, and then winning the Little League World Series for Park View, for Chula Vista, for CA District 42, for SoCal, for the West Region, for every American with ancestors that had lived in Italy, for every victim of 9/11, for the entire USA, and especially for the memory of Joseph Coppo Jr. And let us say, Amen!
Salut! Play ball!
Let’s Go SoCal’s Green Monsters !!
(The wall with the names of the fallen at the World Trade Center. Listed in the middle is Joseph John Coppo, Jr., of blessed memory. May all of the victims of that horrible day be remembered with a blessing, and may their families be comforted. Photo courtesy of Marie Giblin-Anderson).
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