Tony Asaro isn’t a teacher by trade, but in San Juan Unified, he’s as recognizable on campus as school staff.

Entering his 14th year overseeing community relations for the Sacramento River Cats minor league baseball club, Asaro spends the bulk of his time working to improve the lives of children and families throughout the region.

That work began in San Juan Unified schools, from which Asaro, his wife and four children all graduated and where he began his career.

Today, he’s an enthusiastic and constant figure in schools, preaching the importance of strong character, attendance and academic success to scores of students.

“San Juan schools are fortunate to have such a committed community leader in Tony,” said Superintendent Glynn Thompson. “Tony’s dedication to our students, unwavering energy and positive attitude are an inspiration.”

from Asaro in his own words:

…on how Asaro blends passion for baseball with teaching and inspiring students:

“To be able to take what my passion is, which is baseball, and use that as the teaching element, that’s so powerful. … I believe that we teach our children through the games we play. And I love the game of baseball because if you’re the greatest player that ever played the game, you’re a .300 hitter, you fail seven out of 10 times. There’s no game that we teach our children or play that you fail that often and yet, you’re the best. It’s through those failures that you learn.

“That (relates) to the whole ‘attendance, attitude and academics’ (message): You’ve got be there every day for your teammates and bring what you have to bring. You have to have a positive attitude no matter how many times you get knocked down, no matter how many times you fail, you’ve got to get up one more time than that. Those are the kind of things we talk to kids about.”

… on how his visits to schools motivate him:

“I’ve been very, very fortunate. That’s the inspiration. When I go to a school at 8:30 in the morning, and I put on an assembly, and that starts my day, I’m sure I’ve jazzed them up, I’ve gotten them excited, but I am so pumped. So that when I do one at noon and 2, and then go and give a speaking engagement that night to a Rotary club, that excitement just builds and builds and builds.”

… on how one San Juan Unified leader – his sixth grade teacher – shaped who he is today:

“I was very shy. I could not speak in front of people; I could not make a presentation. (My teacher) brought that out. He said ‘You’re going to be our emcee at our talent show.’ I said, ‘I can’t do that.’ He said, ‘I see you doing impressions of Ed Sullivan and John Wayne for your friends. You can do this.’ He then entered me in a Rotary speaking contest and helped me with that as a sixth grader. It’s one of the two trophies I own in life. … It changed who I was.”

… his thoughts on the meaning of leadership:

“I was asked as a junior in high school to be the captain of the baseball team. I was not the best player on the team. I was able to help motivate the team to be good, but I knew I was not the best player. And there was a reason they asked me to do that.

“And I think that leadership can be someone who stands up and motivates – inspires – but I also think leadership is (being a) role model that people want to follow. I believe that we all have a reputation – those are other people’s ideas of who we are. I believe that the character of who we are makes a difference. And what I urge young people to do, what I urge everyone to do, is to look to the character within themselves. That’s how you become a leader. You are a role model no matter where you are in whatever you do, whether you’re the CEO or the person cleaning the place up, you can show leadership.

“I can’t tell you how many schools I’ve been into, where the multipurpose room looks immaculate. These schools were built in the 1940s, 50s, 60s. That person who’s controlling that, who’s the person of influence there, can’t teach English, can’t teach science or math. But he can make those kids feel good about where they’re at, make that staff feel good about where they’re at. And that’s what they’re contributing.

“The scale is not north to south, the scale goes east to west. We’re all leaders. Step up and be the best you can be at whatever you do.”

Editor’s note: This is part one of a two-part series highlighting local baseball players who live in the publishing area of Valley Community Newspapers.

For a group of mostly Sacramento natives who grew up playing baseball in this very rich baseball city and a few other places, a tradition was born about five years ago.

It was around this time that a group of seniors calling themselves the Noah’s Bagels Baseball Gang began meeting once a week at Noah’s Bagels in Town and Country Village.

Continuing their weekly gatherings since this time, this social group has grown to include 18 members.

The very first members of the group were Jim Westlake, Dick Alejo and the late Danny Mooradian, who are considered the founders of the group.

In speaking about the formation of the group, Dick said, “We just felt like every time we would go out and see some guy, we would say, ‘Hey, we meet here for coffee. Why don’t you join us.’ Pretty soon, here we are (as a large group).”

Joe Duarte, one of the earliest members to join the group, said that there are various ways that one can be eligible to become a member of the group.

“(To join the group, one should) know somebody, played ball with somebody (or) went to school with them and played ball with them,” Duarte said. “Some of these guys played minor league baseball. Only one – Cuno Barragan – played in the big leagues. He caught for the (Chicago) Cubs for (three) years. Almost all of them, except for two or three, played high school baseball. I never played high school baseball, because I went in the merchant Marines in 1944, when I was 15 years old.”

Duarte said that he eventually became a baker, but chuckled when asked about bagels, saying (back then, in the 1940s), I’d never heard of them.”

During one of the group’s recent gatherings, the following members of the group in attendance shared information about their connections to baseball.

Barragan: “I was born (on June 20, 1932) and raised in Sacramento. I graduated from Sacramento High School in January 1950, and I played football and baseball at Sacramento Junior College. I signed a contract with the Sacramento Solons in 1952, and I played my first year of professional baseball in 1953 for Idaho Falls and then came back and went in the service in 1954 and 1955. I did two years of active duty in the Navy. I went to spring training with the Solons in 1956, was optioned to Amarillo, Texas, Western League, and had a reasonably good year there, and played with the Sacramento Solons in 1957.”

Barragan added that after a brief retirement in 1958, he eventually was drafted from the Solons by the Chicago Cubs in 1961.

“My first at bat was (at Wrigley Field on) Sept. 1 against the San Francisco Giants and I hit a home run off of Dick LeMay on the first pitch. It was pretty exciting.”

Dick Alejo: “I was born in 1936. My professional career was not that big. I just went down to Mexico and played for a team, called Puebla, with Cuno Barragan and Sparky Anderson (who later played and managed in Major League Baseball). Besides that, I played for the American Legion Post 61, McClatchy High School and in the Winter League and at Sacramento Junior College. I did well, but I’m not going to (the National Baseball Hall of Fame in) Cooperstown!”

Nick Capachi: “I played on all the city leagues growing up – the 125-pound, 75-pound leagues – then I played for (American) Legion, high school, county leagues, the Placer-Nevada League and the KFBK all-star team,” said Capachi, who turned 77 last April. “I also played on the (Sacramento Junior) College team. We won the state championship in 1953. We beat Long Beach for the state championship right here at (William) Land Park. I also played in the Army, while I was stationed in the Presidio (in San Francisco).”

Augie Amorena: “I went to Sacramento High School and graduated in 1948. My parents (Amelia and Augustine Amorena) were immigrants from Spain. I started playing baseball when I was about 14. I played Summer League in the different weight divisions. I played (American) Legion, Sac JC and local Winter League, Spring League. We had a team in the Winter League, Julius Style Shop, and Joe Freitas was the manager. We were all young kids, just out of high school. The enthusiasm, the fun, we could hardly wait until Sunday to play ball. We did okay. We won a championship one year. And I played minor league baseball four years (including his time in the International League with the Edmonton Eskimos). I also played in the service for the Army team (in Hawaii).”

Mike Bakarich: “I was born on Mother’s Day, 1944, at Sacramento County Hospital. When we were younger, there was no Little League. You played in the 100-pound league, got weighed.  I grew up in West Sacramento and I had to take the Gibson bus and the streetcar to go to McClatchy Park to play baseball. They couldn’t remember my name, so they called me ‘the kid from across the river.’ I played with these guys since I was in the 7th grade, probably. I went to Grant Tech (College, which was located across the street from Grant High School) and I played all three sports there. Then I played baseball in the Winter League, in the National Division, played in the County League and the Rural League and I quit playing hard ball in 1960 or 1961, because I like to play fast-pitch softball. We were playing maybe 75 or 80 ball games a summer, and trying to play baseball and softball was kind of tough. With the fast-pitch softball, I’ve been to two world tournaments and two national tournaments. I played all over the United States. I’m in the fast-pitch hall of fame and the baseball hall of fame in Sacramento.”

As it is with so many others, my love of baseball began in my youth. Outside my boyhood home in Manteca, the neighborhood kids (shout out to Brian Sutton and Keith Danel), my brother Kevin and I would gather in the middle of the street, mark some of the manhole covers as bases, and play the game. We’d wear white T-shirts on which we had written our favorite player’s number. On my back, I had the number “22,” with the name “Clark” printed across my shoulders. I was a longtime San Francisco Giants fan and Will Clark, the team’s first baseman during the mid to late 80s, was my hero and my brother’s idol.

 

I spent many a summer’s day playing baseball with my friends — we would start right after breakfast and play until it was too dark to see the ball. We’d pick teams, argue about who played what position, and waste away the day hitting balls into the neighbors’ yards. (Phyllis Higgins never knew that her front yard was our homerun marker, but I am sure she grew tired of us boys rifling through her rose bushes looking for lost balls.) My friends and I would often end our games stretched out on my front lawn, drinking cherry soda and talking about our favorite players, possible trades and the hope that one of our teams would go on to the World Series.  

 

Of course, in those days, we would constantly beg our parents for an opportunity to see a real ballgame at a real ballpark. Truly, it was a great gift when we’d go to see a game in San Francisco or Oakland. And more than two decades later, it still is. 

 

Thanks to the generosity of a good friend, I had a prime seat at a recent Sacramento River Cats game. Prior to the beginning of the game, I thought about how lucky Sacramento is to have the River Cats, as Minor League ball seems to be the last bastion of pure sportsmanship in professional baseball – if not professional sports entirely. There, at Raley Field, it isn’t about steroids, but strikeouts; there are no arguments about instant replays; there, standing in the batter’s box and on the pitcher’s mound, are just young athletes working hard so that they may one day make it to a Major League field. In my mind, they’re already there.

 

What can I say about the game itself? Well, the Cats lost. But win or lose—it wasn’t the outcome that mattered. Sitting there, watching these men play a game I love, it was like being in a time machine, visiting forgotten parts of my memory, reliving those childhood games. Every swing, every crack of the bat, every strike out came with a gush of memories. The River Cats may have been beaten, but I walked out of Raley Field a winner.

 

E-mail Ryan Rose at ryanrose@valcomnews.com.