Verducci-Cervasio Reunion on Lake Street ... in Florida?

My wife Maria and I ventured across South Florida this weekend to visit with our daughter Tina. As the on-the-field reporter for the Boston Red Sox, she is kept very busy by the New England Sports Network (NESN) at the Bosox facility in Fort Meyers.

I knew I'd get a tan watching the likes of Schilling, Veritek, Co-Co, etc. go through their stretching exercises and concentrate on the basics for America's greatest game. But, Lord, I could never have expected the joyful experience it all turned out to be.

"Hey, Dad, Tommy Verducci's in town. Maybe you'll get to meet him finally," announced Tina. "And Dan Shaughnessy is here, too."

Wow, I thought, Danny is always so approachable. Feel like I know him all my life. But, Tom Verducci, ... how can he possibly know how much his family meant to my life? Heaven on earth: great weather, Tina with the Red Sox, the guy who was at the creation of "Red Sox Nation" and "The Curse of the Bambino", and the #1 Baseball Writer in America! Doesn't get any better than this!

I was right. They say "The sizzle is better than the steak." Not for me this weekend. The meal could not have been better. In fact, we had a Lake Street, Newark, New Jersey Reunion in Fort Myers with Tom Verducci. And Dan Shaughnessy, the Boston Globe legend, was a patient prince through it all. (I think I know why: just substitute the ethnic Boston neighborhoods that feed the Red Sox Nation for the Newark streets, and it's all the same... family, "the Greatest Generation," fields of valor, sports, parents who cared, and kids who listened.)

The stately Verducci shook my hand. Tina made the introduction. My wife exclaimed, "Joe, you finally get to meet Tommy Verducci, Tweet's kid." (Maria knows all the stories!)

To my daughter's frustration, I hardly allowed Sports Illustrated's award-winning baseball writer to speak. I had to tell him how since I could remember, his late dad Tony, his uncles Frank and Bruno, and the rest of the Verducci family that grew up next to the Cervasio walkup on Lake Street in the heart of Newark, (on the line of the First and North Wards), were at the center of my life.

While my dad, Marine PFC Rocky Cervasio, was a football hero at Barringer High and a warrior who survived the hell of the South Pacific during the Big One, it was Tommy's dad Tony who would always be featured at our breakfast table. You see, Tony was a couple years behind Dad, but he also starred in Football for The Big Blue, went off to the University of Pittsburg (first kid from the block to make it to college), and came home to craft a legendary high school football coaching career at Seton Hall Prep. "He's our Vince Lombardi," my father would claim.

It was always "Tweet" (Mr. Verducci's nickname; his brother Frank was "Honeydew"--it's all in Bad News on the Doorstep) who would get center stage as an athlete, coach, friend, member of my dad's wedding party. "Joseph, do as I say," my humble Dad would recite, "And do as Tweet did. Play your heart out on the field, go to college, then it will all work out."

Well, it worked out for all of us. Tommy did get a few words in as he told me about his siblings, his widowed Mom, his days at Penn State, and then the writing career. Shaughessy smiled as he heard how Tom's Dad made sure he helped me out in getting to Cornell, calling some Newark Star Ledger and Newark News sportswriters to confirm I could run the pigskin. (Tony Verducci was also a great salesman, never to forget his old hero Rocky from Lake Street and Barringer High.) What beat writers? The same Tom grew up reading: Jerry Izenberg, Lloyd S. Glicken, Sid Dorfman, Herb Stutz, etc.

Coach Verducci helping an ol' buddy's kid, ... and what happens to his son, Tom? Now he's just the #1 Baseball Writer in America!! Good begets Good!!

Dan smiled through it all, watching Tom Verducci hear stories about his honorable Dad that had never graced his ears before. The Irish sports icon from Boston is married to a lady with Sicilian roots. He understood the whole family deal. His ears really perked up when Tom referenced his Dad's birthplace on Lake Street in Newark by its street address. Dan knows that kind of detail comes from memories and respect tatooed on the subconcious ... and in the heart!

Well, this is just another blog, and I have a great day job to get to. So the rest of the reverie will have to come out somewhere else, and later.

But this weekend, I realized I surely did make a mistake when I wrote Bad News on the Doorstep. I should have listened to that aging literary agent in West Palm Beach when she said, "Mr. Cervasio, you should have written the real story. I have a hunch it's better than your fictionalized memoir."

Indeed, Tina, my wife Maria, Tom Verducci, and I had a little Lake Street, Newark Reunion at the Boston Red Sox training facility in Fort Myers, Florida this weekend. Dan Shaughnessy took it all in. I know he wasn't bored.

A couple of others who witnessed it? Just maybe Tommy's Dad,Tony and my father, Rocky, ... just maybe they were sitting somewhere in that Heavenly version of Newark's City Stadium, Tony with his cigar, and Rocky nursing a Lucky Strike. If it were possible, they were both smiling--Tony so proud of his son Tommy, and Rocky beaming over his oldest grandchild Tina. Just maybe...

Joe Cervasio, back in Boca Raton, returning to Jersey this weekend.

Comments

[Erika]

Good post.

[Joe C.]

Erika:

Thanks for visiting. Indeed, our short time with Tom and Dan was an honor for those of us who appreciate the power and effectiveness of their sports journalistic skills, and the sincerity of their delivery. In addition, they are great guys who value family, country, and God--great Americans reporting on America's sport and the thrill of victory. Yes, it was a thrill to be with them and Tina, and the telling of some old tales made it even more special.
Joe Cervasio