Coach of Connie Mack’s great, great, grandson

By Kathleen McGillicuddy Kelly, Connie Mack’s Granddaughter, Roy Mack’s Daughter

Dick Fitzgerald is one very special man. Having been an outstanding pitcher for many years, and although he was never considered a household name in the pitching world, there may not be another pitcher in baseball history who has stood on the mound longer, or has thrown as many pitches.

Dick was born and raised in Narberth, PA, suburb of Philadelphia.

When he was a 10 year old boy, his father took him to Shibe Park to see the Philadelphia Athletics play. After the game they saw Connie Mack. Dick’s father had a baseball with him and said to his son, “Let’s ask Mr. Mack to sign it”. Connie Mack was very gracious, talked with them, and signed the ball.

Afterward, Dick asked why it took so long for Mr. Mack to sign the baseball. They looked at the ball and to their astonishment it was signed Cornelius McGillicuddy . Unfortunately through the years, the ball was lost.

Who knows? Maybe someone out there has a one of a kind signed baseball?

Dick, better known as Coach Fitz, now coaches at Notre Dame Prep H.S. in Scottsdale, Arizona, where Brian Mack Poupore, great,great, grandson of Connie Mack, attends high school and plays on the Notre Dame Prep baseball team.

While living in the Philadelphia area, Dick attended Merion Elementary, Bala Cynwyd Jr. High, Lower Merion H.S., Lafayette College in Easton, PA. Remarkably for over 60 years, Dick has pitched in youth, (Narberth State Jr. American Legion Champions in 1950, 15 yr olds.) high school, college, professional AAA, amateur, semipro,and senior men’s baseball leagues. Over 60 consecutive years Dick Fitzgerald has won well over 700 games pitching almost 8000 innings on five different continents. He played on a World Baseball Tour with Baseball International in 2005. It included playing in Japan, China, the Phillipines, Australia, Sri Lanka, Egypt, Italy and France .

Many people believe that Dick has thrown more pitches than Nolan Ryan and Satchel Paige combined. Of course he admits not quite as hard, although at age 55, his fast ball was clocked at 83 mph. At the tender age of 73 he is able to throw his age at 75+mph.

After pitching 4 ½ years in the Baltimore Orioles minor league system, Dick retired from professional baseball at age 25 to enter the business world. He became a successful CEO in the insurance/investment industry. In 1968, Dick, moved from Philadelphia, PA to a suberb of Seattle, WA where he opened an office for the company he was with at the time.

One of his partners was Robin Roberts, Hall of Fame Pitcher for the Philadelphia Phillies, who remains a good friend and teases Dick about still pitching by telling him, he’ll never make the majors.

Recently Dick was honored at a Seattle Mariners/Chicago White Sox game along with six teammates for playing in the Seattle senior baseball league since it’s inception 20 years ago. At age 42, Dick pitched batting practice for the Seattle Mariners for six years.

As of last year Dick and his wife, Sally, now spend 6 mos in the Seattle area and 6 mos. in Arizona , which brought him to coach at Notre Dame Prep. about 5 blocks from their condo.

When not pitching, Dick has instructed over 1,000 youth, high school, college and adult pitchers, plus numerous coaches. He has served as a pitching instructor and speaker for various baseball camps, clinics and colleges, including the US Naval Academy. He continues to be a member of the American Baseball Coaches Association.

Besides coaching, Dick most enjoys playing with two of his three sons on the same team in the senior league in Seattle.

He can still pitch nine innings once a week, and is considered one of the ageless miracles of senior baseball.

After hearing about the Philadelphia Athletic’s Historical Society, and going to the web site, besides being very impressed, he told me two players who were favorites of his Dad were Lou Brissie and Sam Chapman. Dick said they were heroes of his growing up, along with the older boys in his neighborhood who went off to fight in WW II. Dick said he would really like to visit the Philadelphia Athletic’s Historical Society museum in Hatboro, PA sometime in the future.