Former Yankees skipper pays visit to local pizza place
TROY, N.Y. » When Rocco De Fazio woke up Wednesday morning to start his shift at his pizzeria, DeFazio’s Pizzeria, he did not think that he would be serving a special celebrity guest that night, until he heard that former New York Yankees manager Joe Girardi was on his way to his pizzeria.
“I had no idea he was coming. My son said, ‘I just got a phone call that your buddy Joe Girardi is going to probably be here in about a half an hour and he wants dinner,” so I told him to tell him, ‘Oh, thanks for giving me a heads up,” said DeFazio as he recalled Girardi stopping into his pizzeria around 6:30 p.m.
Girardi, a former World Series winning player and manager with the Yankees, had been in Albany on Wednesday to meet at the state capital with legislators about sports gambling legislation. DeFazio said that Girardi was familiar with his shop since they have a mutual friend that brings Girardi Bolognese sauce from DeFazio’s Pizzeria.
“His favorite and his son Dante’s favorite is Bolognese sauce, so I told him his nickname to us here is Joey Bolognese,” DeFazio said.
DeFazio said Girardi wanted a classic pepperoni pizza and that Girardi actually helped cook his own woodstove pizza, since DeFazio said the former Yankee told him that he loves pizza on a woodstove and that he actually has one in his backyard.
DeFazio went on to say how it was a cool experience for not only himself as a Yankees fan, but also for some of his
customers who also had the chance to meet Girardi and take photos and get his autograph during his nearly twohour visit at the pizzeria, located at 266 4th St.
DeFazio said that he was also able to get the former player and manager to sign a few stickballs for him too.
“He’s really such a wonderful guy and he made himself available to people there, he made sure he talked to everybody and he even did a video for one woman whose 86-year- old mother absolutely adores him,” DeFazio said.
DeFazio said that he offered to let Girardi sit in the back of his pizzeria shop in a special table that DeFazio’s grandparents and parents
sat at and while back there he said that he even gave Girardi a few cooking lessons like putting sliced carrots in the sauce.
“He’s sitting in the back room of the store sitting in chairs that have probably been in my family for about 80 years, and I’m cooking an alfredo sauce and marinara sauce, and I’m giving him cooking lessons, and he appreciated it since he also
loves to cook,” DeFazio said.
On Wednesday night Girardi also stopped by Troy Fire Department’s station 4 to talk and take photos with some firefighters there.