Pasquale A. Carlucci

Pasquale (Pat) Carlucci is the author of A Baseball Birthright: Chronicles & Connections and is a lifelong fan of baseball. He has worked in sales and marketing in the food and beverage industry since being recruited in college and as an executive search consultant for the last twenty years. He lives in Washington, D.C. and vacations annually on Anna Maria Island in Florida with his family and grandchildren.

Reviews:

Anna Maria Island Sun, October 21, 2025, By Editor Cindy Lane

Local baseball history inspires new book:

With the first game of the World Series beginning on Friday, it’s the perfect time to swing by a coastal baseball-themed neighborhood in Anna Maria and pay homage to Anna Maria Island’s baseball past.

Start by walking on the beach near Cypress Avenue and look through the trees… you’ll catch a glimpse of statues of three young boys playing baseball in front of stadium seating. Walk up the beach access and you’ll see that the house on the property sports a gate with the crossed bats of Milwaukee Braves ballplayers and Baseball Hall of Famers Warren Spahn and Eddie Mathews. Spahn, a pitcher, sold the house to Mathews, a third baseman. Spahn gave the baseball treatment to a cluster of homes where Braves ball­players lived during spring training in Bradenton from 1953-62, naming them “The Mound,” “Home Plate,” “Infield,” “Outfield,” “Shortstop” “Catcher’s Mitt” and “The Diamond.” The Gulf-front neighborhood around Cypress, Spruce and Fir Avenues and Tuna Street has since traded most of the modest single-story homes for large two- and three-story homes.

But its history has been immortal­ized by an author with Bradenton Beach ties, whose book on the 100-year history of baseball in Bradenton and Anna Maria Island is expected be published before the 2025 World Series is over.

Pasquale (Pat) Carlucci was born on Oct. 3, 1951, the day of the “shot heard ‘round the world,” when New York Giant Bobby Thomson’s home run won the pennant against the Brooklyn Dodgers. It wasn’t the best of omens to his father, a Dodgers fan.

But Carlucci’s baptism into baseball led him into a lifetime of baseball fanaticism, culminating in his writing two books,

“A Baseball Birthright: Chronicles & Connections” and “Base­ball in Paradise: A Century of Spring Training in Bradenton,” which will be of special interest to AMI locals.

During a 2023 trip to his vacation home in Bradenton Beach, where he has vacationed with his family since 2013, Carlucci said he started getting “baseball signs.”

He investigated, and it turned out that 2023 marked 100 years of spring training in Bradenton, which he decided to recount in book form, starting with the St. Louis Cardinals, the Boston Red Sox, the Philadelphia Athletics, the Braves, the Kansas City Athletics and finally, the city’s present spring training team, the Pittsburgh Pirates.

Carlucci read up on The Anna Maria Island Sun’s coverage of the Anna Maria baseball neighborhood. He visited the Anna Maria Island Historical Museum, where he learned about locals like Joe Hutchinson, whose dad was Fred Hutchinson, a manager for the Detroit Tigers, St. Louis Cardinals and Cincinnati Reds, and Carol Torgeson, whose dad was Earl Torgeson, who played with the Boston Braves, Philadelphia Phillies, Detroit Tigers, Chicago White Sox and New York Yankees.

He discovered that New York Yankee Babe Ruth once owned the Drift-In in Bradenton Beach, that a baseball field in Holmes Beach is named for Birdie Tebbetts, who managed the Cincinnati Reds, and that St. Louis Cardinal Dizzy Dean once owned a gas station in Bradenton.

But even for those who aren’t baseball fans or history buffs, Carlucci said the book just might serve as a travelogue to their new favorite vaca­tion spot.

Meanwhile, get ready. It’s almost game time.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Hill Rag: The Literary Hill, September 15, 2025, By George Koors, Washington, D.C.

Nats fans may be interested to read Hill resident Pasquale Carlucci’s memoir A Baseball Birthright: Chronicles and Connections. Carlucci has led a very privileged life, and indeed over many decades that privilege can be seen in his many experiences as a baseball fan at stadiums and events across the country.

In A Baseball Birthright, Carlucci writes about many of his adventures, in a book which is part corporate memoir and part baseball chronicle. For those curious about what a life as an avid baseball fan looks like, Carlucci’s memoir offers a detailed picture of decades of devotion as a fan of the sport.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Tweet 1:00 PM · Dec 7, 2022

Baseball Almanac

@BaseballAlmanac

Avid baseball fans often dream of writing down the history they've witnessed – Pat Carlucci did, in A Baseball Birthright. A 60-year journey written so well, a beach-reader will enjoy it, AND a baseball historian. Finished it in 1-day! 🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Hill Rag, Washington, D.C

Fun and Games: The Literary Hill By Karen Lyon -December 6, 2022

Connecting with Baseball

When it comes to the national pastime, Pasquale A. “Pat” Carlucci has led a charmed life. He was born in Queens on the day when the New York Giants squared off against the Brooklyn Dodgers for the 1951 National League championship. That game was one of the most famous in the sport’s history, concluding with the home run that became known as “The Shot Heard ‘Round the World.” While he missed that one, he grew up loving baseball and went on to attend some of the greatest games ever played.

In “A Baseball Birthright: Chronicles and Connections,” Carlucci reflects on his good fortune, the games he’s witnessed, and, especially, the connections he’s made. For, as he writes, baseball is all about connections—“maybe for a minute, for an out, for an inning, for a doubleheader, or forever. This is not because of the game, but because of being at the game, and with whom and why. If the game turned out to be special, all the better. Either way, baseball kindles great memories.”

His memories extend from the “golden age” when players were part of the communities where they played, all the way up through the steroid era, the first game played after 9/11, and the requisite pause in play during the pandemic, which provided the stimulus for him to start his book. He revels not only in the details of the significant games he’s attended, but also in his companions, which have included friends, clients, grandchildren, and his elderly father, a WWII veteran.

Thanks to his business career, Carlucci has moved often and traveled extensively—and he has taken advantage of every opportunity to get tickets to a game. He was at the final All-Star game of the 20th century in Fenway Park in 1999, which honored the greatest 100 players of the century, many of whom were in attendance. Hooked from his first visit to Yankee Stadium as a boy, he has witnessed some amazing rallies, seen numerous records broken, and logged countless game-winning homers. And, as a die-hard Mets fan, he was at the only two World Series games that his team has won in the 21st century (“so far,” he adds).

Written in an easy, conversational style, “A Baseball Birthright” will engage even casual sports buffs, but contains enough baseball lore to satisfy the most rabid fan—if they’re not too green with envy to pay attention. As Carlucci writes, “I consider myself to be the luckiest man on the face of the earth” And, as he notes, if that line doesn’t ring a bell, you’re either not a baseball fan or you’re far too young.