Colorful Falco set to retire

Besides having the dads on the team, they have a lot of promise for the future.


By Keith Groller
Of The Morning Call

 

Monday night was typical of the Summer of '99.

It was sunny, hot and dry -- the kind of night best spent floating in a backyard swimming pool, sunglasses shading eyes, cold beverage numbing the hands, suntan lotion soothing shoulders and steaks sizzling on the grill.

Instead, Lou Falco spent Monday night the way he has spent hundreds of summer nights over the past 22 years.

Falco was in the crowded, sweaty, tobacco-juice stained dugout of the South Whitehall Serpents at Lehigh University.

Falco's Serpents closed out the 1999 Tri-County League regular season against the Tri-City Fleetwings. And as the night began it was a possibility that not only would Falco be finishing up a season, but a memorable career as well.

However, a 5-2 South Whitehall victory ensured that the Serpents season would last at least one more night and that Falco would get to add at least one more game to one of the most colorful careers in local amateur baseball history.

"I still love this," Falco said after being removed from the game in the fifth inning. "There's no other place I'd rather be. I still can't wait to get to the games and I'm still a little nervous before every game.

"It was kind of sad driving over here tonight knowing that this could be the last game. I will definitely miss this."

Falco has decided that 22 summers of hustling home from work, changing into a uniform and grabbing a bite to eat en route to the game is enough.

He has three children -- 14-year-old Joey, 11-year-old Jason and 8-year-old Chelsey -- who are all active in sports and he'd like to see them play their games.

"There's a time to go for everyone and this is my time," he said. "At the beginning of the year, I said this was going to be it. It's not an easy decision to make."

Falco will at least leave knowing that he could still play the game at a high level at age 43.

The left-handed hitter singled sharply to right off hard-throwing Matt Hlay in the second inning Monday and then fought several tough pitches from lefty reliver Myron Trunick before fouling out in the fourth.

Typically, Falco flung the helmet against the fence as he returned to the dugout.

"Louie is one of the fiercest competitors I've ever played with," said pitcher Bruce Sokol, a teammate of Falco's since 1988. "He hates to lose. Always has. He's just a gritty guy, who plays hard and wants to win at all costs."

Falco was one of the Tri-Co's best players in the 1980's and he wasn't afraid to let you know about it.

"Hot dog may be too strong a phrase to describe me, but I was cocky," he said. "I can't deny that. Even now, I tell my kids that it's OK to be a little cocky as long as you can back it up. I was always able to back it up to a degree."

Falco won back-to-back batting titles in 1988 and '89, hitting .492 and .461. And if he didn't beat you with the bat, he'd beat you with his arm.

From 1985 through '91, Falco was a combined 20-1 as a pitcher.

He was the Tri-Co's "Pitcher of the Year" in '85 with a 7-0 record and 1.39 ERA. In 45-1/3 innings that year, he allowed just 24 hits.

He may have been even better two years later when he was 5-0 with a 0.57 ERA.

"I was the kind of pitcher who if you hit a homer off me, next time up you could expect to get brushed back," Falco said. "That's the way I was. As a pitcher, you have to be mentally tough. I didn't want to hurt anyone, but you can't lay back as a pitcher. You have to be aggressive. Once I lost that mental edge, I stopped pitching."

Falco never stopped hitting. He carried a .346 lifetime average into this season and is hovering near the .270 mark this year.

He will finish about 20 hits shy of 500, but he will be among the Tri-Co career leaders in virtually every major offensive category.

But the most important numbers to Falco were those found in the win-loss column.

"I'm very proud to have played on three league championship teams ... for Mountainville in '81, for Coplay in '88 and for South Whitehall last year," he said. "And in 22 years, we've made the playoffs 20 times. I've always believed in playing the game hard and the right way."

The fundamentals were instilled in him at an early age by DYC coaches George "Buck" Boyle and Fred "Fritz" Baranek. When he managed the Coplay team in the '80's they did more pregame drills than any team in the league.

And now, he'll get the chance to remind his kids of the fundamentals in person.

"It's great that Lou will get more of a chance to see the kids play, and I'm happy that this is it for him," said his wife Marilee, as she scanned the field from her lawnchair. "But I know he's really going to miss this. Sports has been such an important part of his life. I knew what I was getting into when I began dating him and he was playing in two baseball leagues and two softball leagues."

But it's not over yet.

Mondschein smiled and said, "Maybe we'll send Louie out the right way ... as a champion."



keith.groller@mcall.com

From The Morning Call -- July 27, 1999

Copyright © 1999, The Morning Call