October 2, 2000 – The son of immigrants from northern Italy, Dario Lodigiani was born in the North Beach neighborhood of San Francisco. Lodigiani played ball with both Joe and Dom DiMaggio, first at the local playground now named in honor of Joe, and later in junior high and high school. A three-sport All-Star at Galileo High School, he turned down a scholarship to St. Mary’s College—at that time a West Coast baseball powerhouse—to sign with the Oakland Oaks of the Pacific Coast League in 1935. That was the beginning of a 73-year career in professional baseball. He spent all or parts of six years in the majors between 1938 and 1946 playing for the Philadelphia A’s and the Chicago White Sox, primarily as a third baseman. He lost three seasons while serving in the Army Air Corps in the South Pacific between 1943 and 1945.

When an elbow injury cut short his big-league career he returned to the Pacific Coast League, playing for Oakland and San Francisco from 1947 to 1951. After managing in the minors for two years, he coached for the Indians and Athletics, and scouted for the White Sox for more than forty years. He was still employed by Chicago at the time of his death in 2008 at age ninety-one. The team awarded him a World Series ring following its 2005 win. In 2006 he was elected to the Pacific Coast League Hall of Fame.

Here he recalls his experiences with such legendary figures as Commissioner Kenesaw Mountain Landis, Connie Mack, Casey Stengel and Ted Williams.