“The one constant through all the years has been baseball. Baseball has marked the time….It reminds us of all that once was good and that could be again.”
— James Earl Jones, “Field of Dreams”
Baseball has been the one constant of Mike Guadagnolo’s life. Now 79, the Villager marked his 70th anniversary playing the game this year.
“I still have fun playing this game and when I’m pitching, I don’t feel 79,” he said. “When I’m out on that field, I feel like a kid.”
Guadagnolo pitches softball in the Division 4 Recreational League and also the Division 3 Neighborhood League.
“I love playing softball in The Villages,” he said. “The men who play here are the greatest bunch of guys. Everybody wants to win but the reason we’re out there is to enjoy the game and have fun.”
Guadagnolo’s diamond resume stretches from Little League to high school to the Navy to fast-pitch softball titles in Connecticut to slow-pitch softball in The Villages. It even includes sharing a locker room with Hall of Famer Willie Mays.
Back in 1988, Guadagnolo attended a fantasy camp for the San Francisco Giants in Tempe, Arizona. Guadagnolo grew up in Larchmont, New York, just outside of New York City. He was a diehard New York Giants fan as a kid, before the team moved out West.
“In those days in New York, most of the kids liked the Yankees or Brooklyn Dodgers,” Guadagnolo said. “I didn’t like the Yankees because they always won. I didn’t like the Dodgers because they were called ‘the Bums.’ I didn’t want to be called a Bum, so I rooted for the Giants.”
Willie Mays was a childhood hero.
One day, at the fantasy camp, Guadagnolo, then 52, returned from a day on the field and saw a guy sitting in front of his locker. It was the Say Hey Kid — aka Willie Mays.
“I said, ‘Hey Willie, how are you? Do you know you’re sitting in front of my locker?’
Willie said, ‘Sorry man, I’ll move.’”
I said, “Oh no, Willie, stay, let’s talk.’”
Guadagnolo said they had a 45-minute conversation about baseball and the old days in the Big Apple. “Later, we went to dinner,” Guadagnolo said. “I’ll never forget it.”
Guadagnolo’s baseball memories start with Little League. He played the outfield and his team won league championships in the late 40s. “I still have my 1948 championship trophy,” he said. He moved on to play outfield for Maroneck High School and after graduation, joined the Navy.
That meant pitching fast-pitch softball all over the world, including Cuba, Canada, South America, Puerto Rico and across the U.S.
After the service, Guadagnolo studied accounting at Iona College and became an accountant. All through his professional accounting career, he pitched for various softball teams, earning state and local championships in New York and Connecticut.
During the 1970s, Guadagnolo played in charity games against the famed Eddie “The King Feigner” and his nationally known professional team, “The King and His Court.”
In addition to playing, Guadagnolo also earned a reputation as a coach. He was a pitching coach for the Norwalk Community College women’s fast-pitch team. He also held softball pitching clinics for young girls in Connecticut and coached a girls high school team.
Then, in 2005, Guadagnolo moved to The Villages and not only continued his softball career but met his wife, Shirley.
“We met in 2006 and got married in 2011,” Guadagnolo said. The Villages is also where he resurrected his softball career. He is one of the most popular and respected players in the area.
“Everybody likes Mike,” said Jack Finn, his manager for the Virginia Trace Village team in the Neighborhood League. “Mike is a team player and a model of consistency. He’s an outstanding pitcher and a good guy. And not only that – he can sing.”
Turns out that Guadagnolo is a star on The Villages karaoke circuit. He belts out country tunes about five nights a week at local venues.
“I like country music,” he said. “I sing Waylon Jennings, Willie Nelson and those kinds of singers. But I always sing Dean Martin.”
Singing is nice, but nothing can replace the joy of baseball.”
“When you’re out there playing, it’s just the greatest feeling in the world,” Guadagnolo said.