Joe Francisco
Joe Francisco Wins Vote For Best Hitting Instructor on LI
It started as an idea while I was shoveling last Monday and turned into an 8-day voting extravaganza that turned into a ‘social media war’, as someone described to me. There’s millions of awards given to players but why not the coaches? I was curious to see what our audience thinks, so I began with a vote of ‘best hitting instructor’ on Long Island. I asked for recommendations and took the top 32 candidates and turned it into an NCAA style bracket. Clearly, some very good instructors were not included if they don’t happen to utilize social media and for that I apologize. As for the bracket, the final four featured Frank Catalanotto, Ryan Pembroke, Anthony Passalacqua and Joe Francisco. The upset in the previous round was Ryan Pembroke over Keith Osik. To...
Final Round of Hitting Instructor Poll Now on Axcess IG Story
Over the past week, we ran a poll on our IG story to find out who the top hitting instructor on Long Island is. First off, this is simply a fun, offseason poll that is completely subjective. I asked for players and players to send in their nominations and I simply used the top 32 names. I made 4 brackets and tried to make them as even as possible, based on playing career and quantity of client base, in order to even out the divisions. Each day the voting was open for 24 hours and the person with the most votes advanced to the next round. Currently, Anthony Passalacqua and Joe Francisco are in the finals. Passalacqua is the owner of Long Island Baseball travel organization and Francisco is the owner of Team Francisco Academy. There have been several comments regarding some candidates that t...
Prospect Sports and Performance Factory Merge: What It Means for Long Island Baseball
Over the past 12 years, Joe Francisco has owned and operated Performance Factory in Farmingdale. He has taught several of the top players in the area and has been successful. Still he felt something was missing in his academy. “For years, I’ve been trying to add a pitching coach,” said Francisco. “I haven’t found anyone that could rival our hitting program, to be honest.” That changed when Jim Clark introduced him to Bobby DeMichael. DeMichael and his father, Artie, purchased Prospect Sports in May and immediately turned it into a high-octane academy for both baseball and softball teams. One of their priorities was to revolutionize pitching lessons by incorporating a year-round classroom atmosphere with the data-driven technology introduced by Drive Line...
