(Editor’s Note: This is second installment of the “Where Are They Now” series in which we highlight standout players from previous generations. Last week, we highlighted Kyle Gelling of West Islip.)
Getting to play baseball professionally is a dream for just about every kid that ever steps foot on a field. Half Hollow Hills West alum Rob Rizzo had finished up his collegiate career at Lynn University in Boca Raton when his head coach called him asking if he wanted to play overseas in Italy.
Rizzo did not hesitate to say yes. He hopped on a flight and played baseball in the Serie A1 League for 3 months until the season ended. With that, his career ended with what he called a “three month vacation in Italy.”
It was a soft landing to his career which had included a lot of dominating on the field from Half Hollow Hills West HS down the coast to Boca Raton, FL.
Looking back at it now, Rizzo has no regrets with how his career played out.
The Early Days
Rizzo was born and raised in Melville, NY. His father had pitched collegiately at NY Tech, so baseball was in his blood. Growing up in the 1980s, Rob stated he naturally gravitated towards the Mets as it was their golden years. When he was 7, he recalls watching them win the World Series in improbable fashion against the Boston Red Sox. He cited his favorite players as Wally Backman and Lenny Dykstra.
In the days before travel baseball took over, it was all about playing locally. He was fortunate to play for his dad.
“He was my first coach and the reason for my success,” said Rizzo. He went on to play for the Smithtown Cardinals when he was 13. He recalls going to winter workouts led by Jim Mecir and Frank Catalanotto, two Smithtown alum that went on to have lengthy big league careers. The team was run by Frank Catalanotto Sr and Angelo Ciminiello, whose son, Michael, was the Carl Yastrzemski Award winner in 1992.
Baseball was not the only sport he excelled in. In fact, he also played soccer, volleyball and basketball to stay active during the year.
When discussing how those skills helped him in baseball, he said, “Being a soccer goalie really helped me as a shortstop to use my hands and create good angles going to the ball.” Rizzo’s goalie records still stand at Half Hollow Hills West.
Despite his versatility across several sports, baseball was always his true passion.
His first year was also the first year of legendary Head Coach Tom Migliozzi‘s career, 1994. Migliozzi was a high-end player at St. John’s and had played pro ball for the Texas Rangers in 1991. Migliozzi used to take BP against the team’s pitchers, and Rizzo stated it was a great challenge as a high schooler facing your 26-year-old coach that was still playing at the high level for the LI Storm.
Rizzo was a 4-year varsity player and he truly came into his own as a junior when he went 9-1 on the mound with a ridiculous 107 strikeouts over 71 innings. Hills West won the County Championship against Deer Park, 5-3. What made that more interesting is that while Migliozzi was coaching Hills West, he was teaching at Deer Park. Hills West advanced, but wound up losing to undefeated Division Blue Dragons in the Long Island Championship.
“We were shutout by Jimmy Bailin, 4-0. Their pitching was better than our hitting. It was the only loss I had that year. If you’re going to lose to a team like Division, there’s no shame in that – it’s respectable.”
That summer, Rizzo played in the Empire State Games, a now-defunct tournament that pitted the best players in the state against each other. The Long Island team was led by two all-time great coaches in Bill Batewell and Doug Robins. Over 200 players tried out. Long Island ultimately lost to the city team.
“I was blessed to play for those two coaches.” He noted they were old school guys and while some players don’t respond well to criticism, ultimately that’s what’s needed to get better.
That summer also included Rizzo getting invited to participate in the Area Code Games in California, which is reserved for the best players in the country.
“Once you get your name on that list, I got about 50 emails and calls. When you get invited, there’s a ton of interest from schools,” he added.
Rizzo decided to attend Lynn University, but it was certainly not his first choice considering he hadn’t heard of it. In fact, his first thought was “Lynn University; where’s that?” As it turns out, Lynn is located in beautiful Boca Raton, FL and while he had Division-I interest from schools like Marist and Providence in the northeast, he wanted to go elsewhere.
“Once I went to visit, my father said, ‘You’ve got to go there’. And it turned out to be the best decision I ever made. There’s real baseball there in Florida. At that time I wanted to play at a high level and I wanted to play as a freshman.”
Once that decision was made, it was back to business at Half Hollow Hills West as Rizzo’s team was the reigning County Champs. As it turns out, they were unable to defend their title as they were upset in the County Semifinals by Westhampton. It was a thrilling game, it went 9 innings with Westhampton coming away with the W. Rizzo was tagged with the loss despite pitching all 9 innings and striking out an incredible 19 batters.
Rizzo finished his high school career as a 3x All-County player, 2x League MVP and was the Carl Yastrzemski Award winner as a senior. His numbers were otherworldly as he batted .448 at the plate and went 9-1 with 107 strikeouts over 63 innings and 18 walks on the mound.
Lynn University
The next stop was the Sunshine State as Rizzo headed off to college at Lynn where he was a two-way guy for the Fighting Knights for his first three seasons.
He was thrown right into the fire. Lynn opened up at Mark Light Field against the University of Miami in 1998. That year’s team had the No. 1 overall pick in the draft, Pat Burrell, as well as several other future big league players like Aubrey Huff, Bobby Hill, Jason Michaels and others that spent time in pro ball like Russ Jacobson and Greg Lovelady.
“That’s when I realized it was a much different beast than playing in NY.”
Following his freshman season, he played on the LI Storm in the summer. That program was founded by the late Mike Leiderman, who was a legend in the Long Island baseball world. Rizzo spoke glowingly of Leiderman.
“Mike was one of the best ever. He was all baseball-oriented. When you went on a trip with him, you didn’t pay for anything. It was kind of fitting that only Lou Gehrig’s disease could take him down.”
During Rizzo’s junior season, they once again opened up against Miami, who happened to be the reigning National Champions. That night, they unveiled the banner and gave out their Championship rings.
“I was on that mound thinking ‘holy crap’ I could barely feel by fee. IT was a cool feeling to face Miami, knowing they had just won it all, they were raising the banner, you’re thinking wow this is legit. And there was 5,000 people screaming at you.”
Rizzo recalled that he pitched into the 6th inning, he even left with a 4-3 lead although an error ultimately cost them the game, as the Hurricanes came away with a 5-4 win.
He was clearly amped up, as he noted that his FB topped at 92 MPH that night which was the hardest that he’s ever thrown. His catcher that night, Greg Brown, is one of his closest friends to this day and he is now the Assistant to the GM for the Chicago Cubs as well as the Hitting Coordinator for the organization.
“I still send videos to him of my son hitting as ask him what he could do better. It’s really cool to develop those relationships you have with your college teammates.”
Rizzo went on to focus on pitching for his senior season in 2001. He went 7-1 with a 1.50 ERA. Despite his massive success, he was not drafted. He did have the opportunity to play overseas in Italy, which he jumped at. He played for one season in 2001 for the Rimini Pirates, who plays their home games two hours south oof Venice. He called it the Miami of Italy.
“It was a cool experience. They drew about 2,000-3,000 fans per night. But after that I was done, I had a couple tryouts but it didn’t workout.”
The Next Chapter
Rizzo moved back to NY at 25 years old and got his teaching degree. He was able to land a job at the neighboring school from his alma mater, Half Hollow Hills East. He remains there today teaching physical education.
“I got lucky,” he said in regards to his career path. He coached baseball and soccer for 10 years but decided to stop once his kids got older and the travel demands increased. His daughter is in 7th grade and she plays soccer and JV basketball. His son is in 9th grade at Kings Park and plays baseball and soccer. His true love is baseball, and he plays travel ball for Phenom Baseball and catcher bullpens for Neal Heaton’s top arms.
He also coaches the Kings Park Pride organization, a small club that allows the Kings Park kids to stay together outside of the school ball season. He coaches with Mike Zarzicki, whose son Everett was featured as part of our “Up Next’ Series.
Rizzo stated that he still loves the game of baseball and it’s important to him that he passed the game down to his son, just as his dad did to him. He is also a licensed real estate agent, which he does on the side.
He also added that it’s cool to see guys that he played with in the past start their own organizations so he gets to see them at times throughout the season. He mentioned Joe Francisco, Shaun Manning, Jimmy & Bryan Goelz and Pete Kritikos as players that he recalls playing with or against that now have gone onto establish themselves in the travel baseball world.
Additionally, his nephew Anthony Chiappetta, is a Division-I catcher at Farleigh Dickinson and was a part of Commack’s Long Island Championship team in 2021 and County Championship team in 2022.
Rizzo is a baseball lifer through and through, and a perfect example of someone that embodies what Long Island baseball is all about.
