Central Catholic’s ties to ’79 team abundant
The Central Catholic baseball team will play in a WPIAL championship game Wednesday night for the first time since 1979. That team of 36 years ago should be remembered not so much for what it accomplished, but for what the players went on to do.
The 1979 Central Catholic team produced a Pro Football Hall of Famer and two general managers for Major League Baseball teams.
Central Catholic’s star pitcher-shortstop of 1979 was Dan Marino. A future Hall of Fame quarterback, Marino was 12-0 as a pitcher before being selected by the Kansas City Royals in the fourth round of the Major League Baseball draft.
Central Catholic’s standout catcher was Mike Berger, named the Miami Marlins general manager less than two weeks ago when former general manager Dan Jennings moved into the manager’s role.
A senior infielder for Central Catholic in 1979 was Tony LaCava, who has been the Toronto Blue Jays assistant general manager for close to a decade.
Central Catholic’s coach 36 years ago was Joe Emanuele, who still attends Vikings games. But this team has another tie to the 1979 squad. Central Catholic’s coach is Frank LaCava, a younger brother of Tony.
Central Catholic lost to Hopewell in the WPIAL title game in 1979 and ended up making it to the PIAA semifinals before losing to State College.