Lou Petrucci

'Old friend novel that can't miss'

by Corky Blake

Tuesday, December 19, 2006

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I reported to the Bethlehem Globe-Times for my first full-time job in the summer of 1982. The newspaper was adding a Sunday edition that soon thereafter went head-to-head with Bethlehem Steel in a race to their unceremonious demises.

I remember that first day vividly because of the pair who flanked me as new sports writer hires.

To my left stood Larry Reisman, a proud Lehigh alum who used the Globe-Times as a springboard to eventually taking the world of Florida journalism by storm. Today, Reisman is the editorial page editor for the Scripps Treasure Coast Newspapers and still a Lehigh football season ticket holder.

To my right stood a short guy with a five o'clock shadow -- it was 10 in the morning -- who swayed back and forth like he had a car double-parked on Fourth Street.

My initial impression was "why are they showing a janitor how to use the Globe-Times' computer system?"

It didn't take long to realize Lou Petrucci wasn't a janitor at all but a sports writer fresh from Boston University and ready to take on the world.

Petrucci and I spent the next 30 months covering Bethlehem scholastic sports, an occasional college game and working every Friday and Saturday night for what seemed an eternity. We celebrated New Year's Eve 1982 by compiling a scoreboard page and splitting a six-pack of warm Budweiser.

What fun we had!

Petrucci entrenched himself into the greater Bethlehem sports community like no one before or after. He brought his passion for sports, especially baseball, from his hometown of West Haven, Conn., to Bethlehem. Lou found a kindred soul in the late Tom Morgan, who allowed him to take infield practice with his players before covering his Bath Legion baseball team.

Lou knew every varsity athlete and coach by name -- and their parents, their brothers and sisters, aunts and uncles, grandmothers and grandfathers. If they were Italian they held an extra special place on the Petrucci pedestal.

When the World Wrestling Federation and PBS Channel 39 collaborated on an hour-long round table discussion, Petrucci was the media's representative. He sat alongside Sargeant Slaughter, Captain Lou Albano, Rowdy Roddy Piper and moderator Shelley Brown. He brought appropriate gifts for all.

Soon he began writing a Saturday column entitled "The Lip." The column was patterned in part after his idol, Mike Lupica, but it soon became a Bethlehem original and usually pushed the boundaries of journalism integrity.

Lou celebrated the 1984 Winter Olympics by superimposing his head on a luge contestant and soared down South Mountain.

Lou sponsored the "Scholastic Stud of the Year" contest, which featured the bare legs of a male representative from each of the three city high schools. Bethlehem Catholic's Carmine Venezia won the prestigious award thanks in part to his elementary school-age sister and her classmates stuffing the ballot box.

And so it went until one day -- with layoffs looming -- Lou went into editor John Strohmeyer's office and volunteered to be axed so co-worker Matt Schuman's job would be spared.

When Petrucci emerged from Strohmeyer's office he was laughing.

"I told him I wanted to go back home," Lou said shaking his head with his trademark grin. "He said 'that's great' and he canned both of us."

A legend moved on, but I'm glad to say he's returned. Not as a sports writer but as the author of "Heart of the Hide," a novel featuring young Nicky Palmieri and his sandlot baseball buddies, determined to stop a 43-game losing streak to bully Rusty Alves and his Morse Park Gang.

"I started writing the book in December, 2002, and finished it in 2004," said Petrucci, who switched careers and is a sixth-grade teacher at Minnesauke Elementary School in East Setauket, N.Y. "It took me 1½ years to get it published."

The 238-page novel is advertised as a book for young teens, but I guarantee any adult who understood why the movie "Field of Dreams" emptied millions of tear ducts will not be able to put down Petrucci's offering.

"I had to write about what I knew," Lou said.

Nicky Palmieri and his sandlot Kelsey Avenue Crew are fictional in name only. They are Lou Petrucci and his band of boyhood friends.

Nicky, like Lou, is the boy born with a cleft palate who fights through numerous operations. He's the boy who finds it more convenient to invent "little" lies rather than face reality, even with those who care and love him the most. He's the boy who doesn't want to share disappointments around his father, who works multiple jobs to pay for the surgeries.

When Palmieri's idol, former West Haven sports star Jerry Gambardella Jr. dies while in college, Nicky is distraught. He believes the best way to honor Jerry is by secretly placing his coveted Heart of the Hide baseball glove in the casket so he can play baseball in heaven.

That act sets up a string of lies by Nicky, who must explain why he's without his glove. He accuses Rusty of stealing it rather than telling Big John, his guardian angel, and others the truth. Along the way Nicky's temper and wise mouth land him in trouble with his principal, Mrs. Anderson.

As you turn the pages toward the last big game against the Morse Park Gang, you can't help but root for the Kelsey Avenue Crew. You hope Nicky is able to figure things out. That telling the truth, in the long run, is much easier that lying.

Most likely you'll be reading with moist eyes and tissue in hand.

And when you close the book and reflect on your childhood experiences and friends, you can't help but root that "Heart of the Hide" finds a national audience, particularly among those youngsters who feel self-conscious because they've been born with a cleft palate or other defect.

Corky Blake can be reached at 800-360-3601, ext. 3600, or by e-mail at: cblake@express-times.com