Joe Rossi Hall of Fame

Pete D’Amato was a longtime baseball coach of American Legion baseball in Greeley, Colorado in 50’s 60’s and 70’s. On the baseball field, Coach Pete D’Amato was vociferous, direct and firm. Off the field, he was quiet, fun, self-effacing and not a self-promoter. He had a deep and sincere concern and love for all his players, for people. There’s a saying, “Good things take time, quality takes time.” Sixty years after Pete initiated the Greeley High School Wildcat baseball program, the field was named — the Pete D’Amato Baseball Field. Many good and permanent tributes can be paid to Coach; however, it seems the best way to demonstrate his influence during those 60 years is to mention what used to be said in the late 1940s, ’50s and ’60s. “Pete’s ‘Cats were the farm system for Alvin Garcia’s Greeley Grays,” so to speak. Coach D’Amato was a hero/mentor to many of his former players until the day he went home.