Ralph DiLullo

Ralph A. DiLullo (Corp)

• Born March 31, 1911 in Capracotta, Italy
• Died August 9, 1999 in Paterson, NJ USA

BR Minors page

Biographical Information

Ralph DiLullo was a minor league player, manager and scout.

DiLullo's father, a corporal in the Italian Army, was killed in World War I. He came to America with his family in 1917, when he was only 6 years old, and settled in Paterson, NJ. He signed his first minor league contract with the St. Louis Browns in 1931 and he played in the minor leagues as a catcher for a number of years. In 1946, he was hired as a scout by the Pittsburgh Pirates, then became a minor league manager in 1948 in the Detroit Tigers chain. He was future Hall of Famer Jim Bunning's first minor league manager while at Detroit's employ. He managed the Fargo-Moorhead Twins in 1948, the Thomasville Tigers in 1949, the Richmond Tigers in 1950 and 1951, and the Greenville Spinners in 1952. In 1953, he became a scout for the Chicago Cubs, concentrating on the northeastern United States, and stayed with the team until 1974. During this time, he signed Joe Niekro and Bruce Sutter, both as undrafted free agents at a cost of $500.

In 1974, DiLullo went to work for the Major League Scouting Bureau. That is where he met and nurtured a young Billy Blitzer, who would also become a long-time scout.

His son, Ralph DiLullo, Jr., was a multi-sport star at Wagner College who played in the minor leagues as an outfielder in 1959 and 1960.

Honors, awards and recognition

In 1986, he was named the East Coast Scout of the Year by the Scout of the Year Foundation. The Ralph DiLullo Award, handed out by the East Coast Scouts Association, and the Ralph DiLullo Memorial Award, handed out by the New York Professional Hot Stove League, are named in his honor. He was elected to the Professional Baseball Scout's Wall of Fame, located at Richmond County Bank Ballpark, in 2006. A book, Foresight 20/20: The Life of Baseball Scout Ralph DiLullo, was written about him. Upon his death in 1999, Grahame Jones of the Los Angeles Times called DiLullo, "baseball's premier scout."[1]

Year-By-Year Minor League Managerial Record

Year	Team	League	Record	Finish	Organization	Playoffs	Notes
1947	York White Roses	Interstate League	67-70	5th	Pittsburgh Pirates
1948	Fargo-Moorhead Twins	Northern League		8th	Pittsburgh Pirates		replaced Bruno Haas
1949	Thomasville Tigers	Georgia-Florida League	60-80	5th	Detroit Tigers
1950	Richmond Tigers	Ohio-Indiana League	80-58	3rd	Detroit Tigers		includes interim by Kenneth Holtcamp August 10-17
1951	Richmond Tigers	Ohio-Indiana League	53-74	4th	Detroit Tigers
1952	Greenville Spinners	Tri-State League	63-76	6th	none

Further Reading

• Lee Lowenfish: "29 Years and Counting: A Visit with longtime Cubs Scout Billy Blitzer", in The Baseball Research Journal, SABR, Volume 40, Number 1 (Spring 2011), pp. 49-52.