Baseball
Favorite athlete: Allen Iverson
Favorite team: Philadelphia 76ers
Favorite memory competing in sports: Walk-off base hit to win my little league championship.
Most embarrassing/funniest thing that has happened while competing in sports: I wasn’t wearing my cup one game and, of course, I got hit in my private area and had to sit out for an inning. I was seeing stars and all, but then I had to go back into the game and pitch, and I threw a shutout inning.
Music on iPod: Drake, Kendrick Lamar, A Tribe Called Quest
Future plans: Become a successful businessman in the world of sports.
Words to life by: “It’s only life, what’s the worst that can happen?”
One goal before turning 30: Start a family and provide for them.
One thing people don’t know about me: I am related to the American Traitor Benedict Arnold.
By Mary Jane Souder
Rob Pecharo can’t really explain how he came by his love of baseball.
“Neither of my parents played,” the Plymouth Whitemarsh senior said. “I don’t even know how I started with baseball.
“My dad was not athletic – he’s a musician. My mom played a couple of sports, but my brother and I both love baseball. I don’t know where it came from.”
Wherever it came from, baseball has become one of Pecharo’s passions.
“People always say how it’s slow, but I like the slow feel of the game and how you can control the game,” he said.
Pecharo, according to coach Chris Manero, is one of those players every team needs.
“He’s not likely to play collegiately next year and will probably not even put up very flashy numbers this year,” the Colonials’ first-year coach said. “But he is certainly one of those ‘under the radar’ and perhaps under-recognized sort of players that completes a team.”
This season, Pecharo is a fixture at first base for the Colonials, and he also has seen bullpen duty. Not a bad ending for a player that saw action mainly for the jayvee until this year.
While some might have gotten discouraged or thrown in the towel, Pecharo never considered that possibility.
“There were 10 seniors last year, so I knew there really wasn’t to be a spot for me,” he said. “They brought me up a couple of times, but I knew I would get playing time on the jayvee, and this year I would come up to varsity and do my thing.”
Pecharo’s high school career, according to Manero, did not follow the usual script.
“You usually liked to see guys play jayvee for one year,” he said. “When you’re a junior, especially at our school which isn’t a huge school, and still playing jayvee and as a coach you see a lot of young talent coming up through the system, you do sometimes question – is there going to be a role for this kid? Is he going to get bypassed by someone younger.”
Despite Pecharo’s success pitching at the jayvee level, Manero wasn’t sure that he would find a spot on the varsity.
“I guess the reason why I was never really completely sure is he wasn’t outstanding at any position,” the PW coach said. “Even going into this season, I wasn’t completely sure – what is his position? Is he a corner guy? Is he a relief pitcher? That was probably the biggest question coming up – is there a place for him to play? As a junior playing jayvee, was he going to make the transition?”
The answer to the most important question turned out to be a resounding ‘yes.’ Pecharo, who played shortstop for Manero during the American Legion season last summer, made it clear he wanted to play first base.
“To be perfectly honest, I wasn’t sure whether or not he was going to be able to play a varsity first base,” Manero said. “We had one guy playing first base for the last three years, Steve Wallace, who graduated, so it was clearly a need.
“Even coaching him in the summer, we never really used him too much there, but he seemed to be confident he could play there. Very early on, I felt comfortable. I would say by the end of the week of tryouts, he was our starting first baseman. It happened that quick.”
Pecharo had turned Manero into a believer.
“We’ve been battling injuries, and because of that, we’ve had to use Rob (in relief) more,” he said. “That was something I wasn’t necessarily expecting.
“I didn’t know how much time he would get on the mound with the other arms we had, but again, there he is – ready to throw whenever we needed him, ready to come right out of the field without even getting a bullpen session to pitch and never complaining about it.”
When his team had some struggles at third base, Manero plugged Pecharo into the hot corner even though he had not practiced there all season.
“Again, it goes back to that theme that he’s always there, and he’s always available for whatever we need whenever we need him,” the PW coach said.
First base, however, is the position Pecharo likes to call home.
“I think first base controls the infield,” he said. “I know everybody says shortstop does, but at first, you control what everybody throws.
“If somebody makes a bad throw from third, I can help them by scooping it up, and getting all the throws from the outfield - I just feel in control at first.”
It’s not the stats and it’s not the talent that differentiates Pecharo from many athletes, but it’s something equally important.
“He’s one of the most coachable players – if not the most coachable player I have ever worked with,” Manero said. “I have a pretty disciplined mentality, I have a pretty regimented structure that he’s gotten used to in the summer, and he thrives off of that. He doesn’t shy away from it.
“When he makes a mistake, he wants to get right back out there and do it right the next time instead of looking for an excuse as to why it didn’t work. He’ll never hang his head. If he strikes out to end the inning, he’ll be the first guy out there on the field.”
It’s those traits that set Pecharo apart, and it’s those traits that make him such a valuable member of the team.
“He’s not an overly vocal leader, but I know when I have young guys on the team and I want my younger players to look and see how they’re supposed to act or what they’re supposed to do, he’s the guy I want them to look at,” Manero said. “He’s the guy I would want my younger players to see how he reacts to adversity, how he carries himself on the field.
“Rob is the kind of kid that will never question a team policy, he’ll never question what we do as an organization. He knows his role is to play – not talk, not question what’s going on but just play. I think that’s a breath of fresh air sometimes as a coach.”
A hard worker in the classroom, Pecharo plans to attend West Chester University this fall where he will major in business with his sights set on pursuing a master’s degree in sports management.
His perfect job?
“Either working with the Phillies or the Sixers in the front office or behind the scenes,” Pecharo said.
He hopes to play baseball at the intramural level, and he has never lost his love of basketball – a sport he played until his senior year when he opted to devote his time to baseball.
Pecharo, who took guitar lessons for five-plus years, admits he has inherited his father’s love of music, and he still plays the guitar and would like to learn to play the piano. His father, a drummer in a band, has taught him to play the drum, and he also played trumpet in the school band.
“He has two tremendous parents and a younger brother (John) who plays on our eighth grade team,” Manero said. “I see the two brothers very similar personality-wise.
“I think he’s had a lot of influence on his younger brother. Rob is going to graduate, but we’ve got another one coming right up that is hopefully going to be the same way.”
And that might be the highest compliment Manero can pay his senior first baseman.
