Baseball
Favorite athlete: Chase Utley
Favorite teams: Phillies and Eagles
Favorite memory competing in sports: Getting a walk-off hit.
Most embarrassing/funniest thing that has happened while competing in sports: I tried to go home on a suicide squeeze when I was running on second base.
Music on iPod: Simon and Garfunkel, CCR, and Bob Dylan
Future plans: Study Math and Physics at college and ultimately conduct research in those fields
Words to live by: “Get busy living, or get busy dying.”
One goal before turning 30: Hit a hole in one.
One thing people don’t know about me: I love being in the woods because it is peaceful and I can think.
By GORDON GLANTZ
Forget about a whodunit.
We have a classic whosaidit.
The quote in question: “Give me six guys like Tom Piccari and I win the league every year.”
A bold statement – one made last spring about the then-mercurial junior second baseman -- and many around the Norristown baseball program lay claim to it.
Former assistant coach Rod Vaughan?
Check.
Current coach Rich Campbell?
Well, with Vaughan moving on from the coaching staff, Campbell gets the last word.
“It was me,” said the Eagles’ coach, staking his claim in the pronouncement.
“But I’m sure Rod said it, too. Any one of our coaches would say the same thing. Nothing has changed (since last season). Tom is a coach’s dream. Any coach would be grateful to have him on their team. He loves the game. He wants to compete. He wants to win.”
Being a math whiz, Piccari is always cognizant of logic backed by statistics and can’t get too lost in this “aww shucks” moment. It never is, or will be, about him. Baseball is a team game.
Example: He is quick to point out a flaw in the theory that himself – cloned by six in some basement lab in Cooperstown, N.Y. – would mean a league title for the Eagles.
“It’s very encouraging to hear that, but I should point out that, in the three games we won last year, I didn’t have any hits,” he said. “I recognize the other guys on the team, and what they do, and vice-versa.”
Soaking It Up
It may be fortuitous that Vaughan’s replacement as Campbell’s right-hand man on the varsity team, Luke Stem, was a player on the last Norristown baseball team to win a league title – in 2009, when Piccari was just entering East Norriton Middle School.
“The two of us are always talking about that, and Tom has soaked it up,” said Campbell. “He is constantly talking it up (with the team).
“He realizes that it is his senior year, and he is going to make it special.”
And if the Eagles fall short of their goal, it will not be something that could be laid at the doorstep of the Univest Featured Athlete of the Week.
“He’s a flat-out leader,” said Campbell. “He’s not a rah-rah guy. He does it by example. He’s always working. He’s not sitting on the side on the phone. He’s always working on something.
“That’s the kind of kid he is.”
Campbell may take it for granted, but when the freshman and junior varsity coaches happen to catch a glimpse of Piccari in action, it all comes back into context.
“We see it every day,” said Campbell. “When the other coaches see it, they are like, ‘Man, that guy never stops. He is awesome.’”
And while Campbell has no qualms about calling Piccari his “best player,” there is no swagger from the senior.
“He is unassuming,” said the coach. “And he is always there to help. “There is no jealousy around him (from the rest of the team). He knows how to handle it well.”
The Power of Two
When it comes to his work ethic, Piccari credits two men above all others.
“A lot of it comes from my father,” he said of his dad, Len, “and from Doc Bishop, my Junior (American) Legion coach. I learned fundamentals from those two. It’s the way I know how to play. I don’t like taking any breaks in games or in practice.
“I hope it continues to serve me well. It’s been fun. Last year, I finally saw my work come together for me at the plate. Fielding has always come easier for me. With hitting, I always had to work harder.
“Doc Bishop is not just an orthodontist, but a doctor on all the fundamentals of baseball. When I was 13, I had a Little League swing. By the time I was 15, I took a combination of what he taught me and was doing it much more mechanically.”
As for his father’s influence, it was about overall approach as much as proper form at the plate.
“He taught me how to think, how to work,” said Piccari. “He taught about having a work ethic for life, in general, that there is no good reason to start a job you don’t intend to finish.”
The Finish Line
To that end, one job Piccari intends to finish is doing all in his power to pick up where he left off last season.
Piccari said that of all the “level to level” changes in baseball, nothing matched going from junior varsity to varsity as a sophomore.
Although he played regularly, based on if and when a starting infielder was called upon to pitch, Piccari knows he was getting the chance to play strictly for his defense, as he mustered only a handful of base hits for a team that went 8-6 in league play and just missed the postseason.
In the interim, a combination of natural growth and work on his core and arm strength in the weight room turned him into a different hitter as a junior. While he batted .351 and scored a team-high 11 runs while chalking up a .518 on-base percentage, he fanned only four times. Campbell also pointed out that Piccari was at his best when it mattered most, batting .371 in league games.
“Notice his league stats are higher? In big games he comes to play,” said Campbell.
Unfortunately, with many seniors from the year before gone, it was a year of learning on the job for the Eagles.
“It was pretty difficult to bear, especially coming from my sophomore season,” said Piccari. “We lost something like eight seniors.”
But Piccari turned that negative into a positive, saying the team “had to have that year” to learn on the job.
The time is now.
“The drive to win is my drive,” said Piccari, whose competitive spirit was exemplified by working to become one of the better players on the Norristown golf team as a senior after initially going out a freshman to relax a bit. “It is at the top of my chart. And in a sport like baseball, every inning is just as important as every other inning.
“It’s easy to get caught up in personal accolades when you think you’ve done well, but if you have gone 4-for-4 and it’s the last inning and you’re down by a run, you need to go 5-for-5.”
Head of the Class
It only figures that Piccari is a student of the game, as he is an excellent student, period.
“He is first in his class,” said Campbell. “In terms of the academics, he’s got that down in spades.”
Piccari has been offered a full academic scholarship to Pitt, has been accepted to Penn State and is waiting on word from Princeton.
A wildcard is Lehigh, where he was also accepted and would have the best chance of continuing his baseball career.
“It’ll depend on where he goes,” said Campbell, who has already trumpeted Piccari to longtime Lehigh coach Sean Leary, who seems open to offering a walk-on opportunity to a selfless player with a non-stop motor.
“I told him that he would kind of develop the way he did in high school. He may need a year to watch and learn. What hurts him is his speed. He has a good first step and solid hands, but he’s not real fast.”
Another captain, Alec Proietto, is third in the senior class. Terrell Dale is second in the junior class. Piccari’s brother, Matt, a promising junior varsity southpaw, is second in the sophomore class.
“Our team cum is good,” proclaimed Campbell. “It’s translating. The kids are starting to believe.”
It is not by accident that both Piccari brothers are excellent students, or that younger sister, Jessica, is “easily the smartest,” said Piccari, who said the sixth-grader at East Norriton Middle School “adds a creative and artistic side to things” that her older brothers do not.
This is where his mother, Mary Ellen, comes into play.
“Just as it is with dad with baseball, mom has done the same thing,” he explained. “She has taught me there is no reason to start something that you don’t intend to finish.”
And the respect that Piccari gives and takes with teammates and coaches is an extension.
“She taught me how to respect people,” he said. “It’s a huge factor in how I present myself and what value I give to my name.”
While admitting that time management is often as difficult as a current course load of four AP classes, Piccari says his teammates in similar situations – like his younger brother and Proietto, with whom he has some of the same classes – form a strong support system outside of the family unit.
“It can be difficult,” said Piccari, who works 13-15 hours a week as a server at the Shannondell at Valley Forge Retirement Community during the offseason and holds down a Saturday shift there during the season. “It helps to have friends in similar positions.
“Time management skills have helped out a lot.”
Piccari intends to major in general math, while either holding down a second major – or a minor – in physics.
“Logic and problem solving are two things that I love,” he said. “Statistics behind sports have always been of great interest to me.”
Applying those skills to his greatest love, baseball, does he see the Eagles surprising some people this season?
“I would have to say so,” he said. “We have a lot of guys who are really ready to play.”
For the Good of the Team
Of the three captains, Piccari is the only position player (Proietto and Andy Faunce are pitchers). Moreover, as he slides over to shortstop to fill a need, he will naturally take over a more vocal role as the quarterback of the infield.
It is something a little new, but one he is embracing.
“Being quiet and unassuming, he’s not the kind of kid you notice until you see him play,” said Campbell. “As a shortstop, he is very active and vocal. We didn’t always have that here in the past. He makes sure he reminds everybody where they need to be.”
But it goes beyond just being the shortstop. Just as he has grown physically, Piccari has matured into a leader.
“He’s taken on that role,” said Campbell. “In practice the other day, the kids were all working. Tommy was working. He saw a sophomore doing soft toss into the net. He stopped him and said, ‘Take a look at your feet. Try this, and you’re going to feel more power.’ Since then, that sophomore has been a different player. That’s the kind of things he does. That’s who Tom is.”
Then again, Piccari has always done whatever needed to be done, even if it meant being more vociferous than typical, when playing baseball.
“Around the baseball diamond, I have always been more vocal,” he said. “As far as being a more verbal leader, I hope to be that.”
Campbell finally got a full grasp on Tommy Piccari -- and who he is -- last season, when he emerged to claim all-league honors at second baseman.
“I’ve had him the last two years,” the coach lamented. “When I was the freshman coach, they moved him up to JV. When I was the JV coach, they moved him up to varsity.”
But Campbell knew enough, after one season, to approach Piccari about the position change. The reasoning was simple. There were other second basemen in the pipeline but no shortstops that were ready for varsity-level baseball.
The choice was left up to Piccari, but the words “for the good of the team” were really all he needed to here.
“That’s the plan,” said Piccari. “It’s an interesting change. I played shortstop until I got to a bigger field (after Little League). That’s when I moved to second base because of my arm.”
Due to the same physical growth and diligence in the weight room that helped him become a heavy hitter in the middle of the Norristown lineup, the arm strength is there.
“Yeah, absolutely,” he said. “I feel my arm strength is in a position where I can play shortstop the same way I play second base.”
Piccari has also elevated his game at the plate.
“He has come a long way from a small and unimposing kid who was a slap hitter who tried to run things out,” Campbell said. “Now, he commands the strike zone. He has power now. Now he hits the ball to the fence – or over it. Now, he drives the ball. He is going to get a lot of opportunities, batting out of the 3-hole. I feel real good about our offense.”
Added Piccari: “We have more power hitting this year. There are not a lot of gaps (in the lineup).”
As opposed to a year ago when, if the Eagles faced an ace pitcher, it was Piccari who was usually the only one who could be counted on to hold his own.
“When we faced some of the best pitchers, he was always the one or two kids who got hits,” said Campbell. “If we were held to one hit, it was Tom who got the hit. He raises his intensity level and does the job.”
Decision Time
With Piccari moving over to shortstop for the Eagles, Gavin Leary gets a shot to start at second base, reminding Campbell of a story.
“Gavin Leary is our second baseman this year, but last year we spoke and he said to me, ‘You know, Mr. Campbell, I was better than Tom when we played Little League but he just kept getting better and he worked so hard to get better,’” the coach recalled. “He then said, ‘He just loves the game more.’”
It could be said that this love for the game is genetic. It is in Piccari’s blood. His grandfather, the late James Campbell (no relation to the coach), had the reputation for being quite a player.
“He was good,” said Piccari. “He could hit the ball far. I heard he was offered a contract with a team in the minors – I believe in the farm system of the Yankees – but he couldn’t take it because the money wasn’t good enough. This wasn’t like any kind of ‘Alex Rodriguez’ type of contract. It wasn’t for a lot of money, but he was good enough to get a look.”
With options to attend some of the best schools for his chosen field of study in the country, Piccari realizes that he also might have to turn away from the game he loves and was born to play.
“I have prioritized my studies into making my college selection, and sports has taken a backseat,” said Piccari, who noted the irony that he can go shoot a round of golf from time to time in college easier than finding a random baseball game to scratch his itch. “I know I have a decision to make.”
And if that decision leads him away from the diamond, he is braced for an afterlife that would include “finding a way to involve myself,” such as coaching.
But that’s not the same as playing.
“I would miss it dearly,” he said. “I love it. You have to love it, if you go this far – as far as considering playing it in college.”
But taking a step back, and breaking it down like a difficult math problem, he will have it mastered.
“I’ve been blessed, I really have,” he concluded.
