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Nearly 100 Norwood youngsters turned out at Civic Field to receive expert baseball instruction from former major league infielder Eddie Pellagrini and a team of veteran collegiate coaches during a stop on his traveling summer clinic. Joined by John Connelly, head coach at Northeastern University; Mark Driscoll, head coach at Framingham State College; and Bob DeFelice, head coach at Bentley College, the former Boston Red Sox third baseman shared valuable insights on hitting, fielding, and pitching before putting the young participants through foundational drills.
During his opening talk, Eddie Pellagrini emphasized the paramount importance of team victory over individual statistics, explaining to the kids why he valued clutch hitters over players who simply post high batting averages: “You can strike out three times in a ball game and really look lousy and then come up in the bottom of the ninth inning, get a base hit and win the ball game.” Nostalgia filled the air when he recounted hitting a home run over Fenway Park‘s famed “Green Monster” during his very first major league at-bat. Following the talk, the coaches divided the players—with Bob DeFelice working with pitchers and catchers, John Connelly instructing outfielders, and Eddie Pellagrini and Mark Driscoll training infielders—before wrapping up with base-running drills. Afterward, participants enjoyed complimentary Cokes courtesy of sponsors Coca-Cola Co. and Finast Supermarkets.
Now in its sixth year, Eddie Pellagrini’s popular program runs 52 clinics every summer across Massachusetts and Rhode Island. Praising Norwood as a genuine hotbed of baseball enthusiasm and talent—noting that the town consistently fields strong high school squads and currently boasts three local major leaguers in Richie Hebner of the Philadelphia Phillies, Billy Travers of the Milwaukee Brewers, and Skip Lockwood of the New York Mets—the coach expressed hope that future big leaguers might emerge from the clinic. When asked if they wanted him back next year, the young crowd answered with a unified “yes.”
Archival Note: This article has been dynamically reconstructed from the original public record print archives of the Patriot Ledger
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