Berlin Legend Returns to Old Stomping Grounds as Pro Coach

BERLIN/NEW BRITAIN, CT — A former pitching star at Berlin High School who went on to a 12-year career in professional baseball has returned to the area where he achieved his greatest moments as a teenager.

Mauro "Goose" Gozzo, who led the Redcoats to the Class M championship game in 1984, has signed on as the new pitching coach for the New Britain Bees of the independent Atlantic League of Professional Baseball. He will work alongside manager Wally Backman, a spark plug of the 1986 World series champion New York Mets.

"I'm excited, and it's time for me to get back into professional baseball," Gozzo said Friday. "Under Wally, it's definitely going to be a fun-filled summer. It's a very competitive league and a very high brand of independent baseball."

Gozzo will be directing a pitching staff that includes eight former major league hurlers who have combined for 474 appearances and 25 wins at the big league level. The bulk of that work was done by Manny Delcarmen, who pitched in 298 major league games and was a member of the 2007 World Series champion Boston Red Sox.

Of the 15 pitchers on the Bees' spring training roster, five are left-handed, giving Gozzo great flexibility.

"We have a really good pitching staff," he said.

When Gozzo arrives at New Britain Stadium, he can wistfully glance next door at Beehive Field, former home of the New Britain Red Sox, where he pitched in the state championship game 34 years ago.

"[The stadium] was basically brand new then, and we sold the place out for the championship game against Plainville," he recalled. "Plainville was our rival - the city of New Britain separates Berlin and Plainville in certain directions - so it was perfectly placed for both teams that made the championship."

The title encounter matched Gozzo against Plainville's Jeff Howes, who got the better of him that day. Howes and Gozzo both were drafted by the New York Mets that spring - Howes in the fourth round with the 81st overall pick, and Gozzo in the 13th round as the 315th selection - and despite their rivalry, wound up being teammates and roommates in the New York-Penn League.

While Howes spent three seasons in the Mets and St. Louis Cardinals organizations, Gozzo made it all the way to the big show - but not with the Mets. They traded Gozzo as part of a 3-player package to the Kansas City Royals in 1987 in exchange for future 20-game winner and perfect game hurler David Cone.

Following the 1988 season, Gozzo was selected by the Toronto Blue Jays in the minor league draft. After posting a gleaming 12-1 combined record with Class AA Knoxville and AAA Syracuse, he earned a call to the big leagues, and made his debut Aug. 8, 1989 against the Texas Rangers before 48,689 fans at the Skydome (now the Rogers Centre).

Gozzo unhesitatingly called his initial outing the biggest highlight of his professional career. Facing a powerful lineup that included 569-home run hitter Rafael Palmeiro, three-time All-Star Jim Sundberg, A.L. batting champion Julio Franco and slugger Pete Incaviglia, "Goose" pitched eight innings of shutout ball, allowing just three hits as the Blue Jays prevailed, 7-0.

The only batter whom Gozzo could not solve was veteran Harold Baines, who collected all three Ranger hits, all singles. Gozzo recorded four strikeouts, including Incaviglia twice, a fact Gozzo is sure to bring up when the Bees open the regular season on April 27 in Texas against the Sugar Land Skeeters, managed by Incaviglia.

As a footnote, Ranger lefthander Kenny Rogers pitched in relief in Gozzo's successful debut. On July 28, 1994, Rogers pitched a perfect game, a feat duplicated by Cone on July 18, 1999, giving Gozzo the distinction of affiliation with pitchers who have tossed two of the 20 regular season perfect games in major league history.

Gozzo wound up pitching parts of six seasons in the big leagues, including stops with the Cleveland Indians and Minnesota Twins before finishing up with the Mets in 1994. He left pro ball after the 1995 season with the AAA Iowa Cubs, posting a 7-7 career major league record in 48 games.

After getting married and starting a family, Gozzo lived in Tennessee for more than 20 years, operating an instructional facility which trained future big league stars Matt Cain and Drew Pomeranz. He and his family moved back to Connecticut about 10 years ago, where he headed an elite organization that traveled the nation, and where his sons Paul and Sal honed their skills.

"I was always instructing and coaching; I never really left the game," he said.

Both sons enrolled at Tulane University in New Orleans following high school. Sal is the starting shortstop for the Green Wave, while Paul, a catcher, has transferred to the University of Connecticut.

Gozzo eagerly awaits his first coaching job in professional baseball. "It's a great situation," he said.

Photo courtesy of the baseball card collection of Alex Jensen

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