Joe Del Sardo

Joseph Del Sardo

• Bats Left, Throws Left

• School Jacksonville University
• High School South Catholic High School (? presumably the present Seton-LaSalle High School in the Pittsburgh South Hills ?)

• Born January 16, 1956

Biographical Information

Joe Del Sardo played baseball for three seasons in Italy. He qualified for one of his team's Italian-American roster slots as his grandfather was from Italy.

Del Sardo hit .329/.417/.536 with 39 runs and 22 walks in 32 games as Nettuno's center fielder in 1979. He batted .400/.400/.571 with 7 runs and 3 steals in 7 contests for the Italian national team in the 1979 European Championship as the Italians took home the Gold Medal. He was named the best hitter in the Euros that year. He was even better in the 1980 campaign, batting .441/.568/.697 with 63 runs, 43 walks, 35 RBI, 8 home runs and 8 outfield assists in 36 games for Nettuno. He lost the batting race by .004 to Joseph Martelli.

In the 1980 Baseball World Cup, Joe produced at a .275/.383/.350 clip as Italy's center fielder and stole 5 bases in 6 tries. He was part of a historic Italian win over Team USA and Frank Viola. In '81, he played his final season abroad, again hitting over .300 with an OBP over .400 and a slugging over .500 for Nettuno. He finished his 3-year Italian career with a batting line of .367/.472/.597 with 137 runs, 94 RBI, 30 doubles and 22 home runs in 107 contests in an aluminum-bat era.

Del Sardo then returned to his native Southwestern Pennsylvania and worked in Dormont, PA as a pharmaceutical representative.

Sources

• Italian Baseball Federation
• 7/19/84 Pittsburgh Post-Gazette article on Del Sardo - available here