Former Italian / American Player & Coach: Joe Amalfitan

John Joseph Amalfitano was born January 23, 1934 in San Pedro, California. He attended Loyola Marymount University in Los Angeles getting signed as a bonus baby in 1954 by the New York Giants.

The rules at the time had him on the Giants big league squad for two seasons; he appeared in nine games going 0-5 in the Giants 1954 Championship season. The next year he played mostly as a pinch hitter batting .227 with an RBI. He spent the next four seasons in the minors batting over .280 every year with a high of .308 in 1959.

He was back in the majors in 1960 with the transplanted San Francisco Giants, playing as the team’s main second baseman in 1961 batting .255. The next season he was an original Houston Colt 45 (later to be the Astros) after being drafted as the second pick in their expansion draft. He hit .237 that year, then was traded back to the Giants for Many Mota.

He would play out his career with the Chicago Cubs as a utility infielder through 1967. Amalfatano never hit more than .277 in a season (1960) or hit more than 4 HRs in a season driving in a career high 27 RBIs three times. In his ten year career he batted .244 with 9 HRs & 123 RBIs in 643 games. On the back of one of his early baseball cards it said “Joe likes to play the accordion”.

After his playing days he became a long time major league coach for thirty one seasons. He first coached with the Cubs under his first manager back in his NY Giants days, Leo Durocher. Amalfitano was a member of the 1969 Cubs coaching staff that saw their NL East lead be taken over by the eventual World Champion New York Mets.

Amalfitano went back to San Francisco as a coach from 1972-1975 then to the San Diego Padres from 1976-1977. He moved on to another old team, the Cubs under Herman Franks for 1978-1979 taking over as interim manager when Franks was fired.

He became full time manager after Preston Gomez was let go, for part of 1980 through the 1981 strike shortened season. He then went to Cincinnati for the 1982 season under John McNamara & Russ Nixon.

In 1983 he began his long 16 year run as Tommy Lasorda’s third base coach with the Los Angeles Dodgers, winning a World Series in 1988.

 It was Amalfitano who greeted Kirk Gibson when he rounded third into the coaching box on his way home, after hitting his famous World Series walk off HR. Since 1998 he has been in the Giants minor leagues teaching baseball fundamental skills