Frank Cacciatore

Frank I. Cacciatore (born April 25, 1953, in Tampa, Florida) was a minor league baseball coach and manager for more than 30 years and a former college baseball player and coach.

Early life

At 15, Cacciatore was a starting pitcher for a West Tampa Little League team that reached the 1968 Little League national tournament. His father, who coached the senior boys team, helped found the West Tampa Little League in 1962. Cacciatore played football, basketball and baseball at Plant High School in Tampa, teaming up with former University of Florida wide receiver Lee McGriff.

College career

In 1975, Cacciatore played right field for Florida Southern College, helping lead the Moccasins (36–10) to the 1975 NCAA Division II national title. He was named a second-team All-American that year and MVP of the Division II World Series. As a junior, he played for the United States national team at the 1974 Amateur World Series, held in St. Petersburg, Florida, after helping the Mocs to 23–15 record. Prior to Florida Southern, Cacciatore played at Seminole Junior College from 1972 to 1973.

Minor leagues

In 1975, Cacciatore went undrafted out of college and signed a free agent contract with the Detroit Tigers. He initially played for the Class A Lakeland Tigers and hit .223 in 72 games. He moved up to the Class AA Montgomery Rebels in 1976 and appeared in nine games, batting .200 before being released.

College coaching career

After his minor league playing career ended, Cacciatore coached baseball at the college level, first as an assistant coach at his alma mater, Florida Southern, from 1978 to 1982. In 1983, he succeeded Dusty Rhodes (baseball coach) as the head coach at Palm Beach Junior College, where he led a Pacers squad that included future Major League Baseball all-star Dante Bichette, to a state championship in 1984 and consecutive conference titles in 1983, 1984 and 1985. At PBJC, Cacciatore compiled an overall record of 166-70-1 from 1983 to 1986.

In 1986, he managed the Hyannis Mets, a collegiate summer baseball team in the Cape Cod Baseball League.

Professional coaching career

Cacciatore's first minor league managerial job came in 1988, when he was a last-minute replacement as manager of the Auburn Astros of the short-season Class A New York–Penn League. (Jim Coveney had been named manager of the Auburn Astros for 1988 but replaced Gary Tuck as manager of the Asheville Tourists in mid-season, before he had managed a single game for Auburn.) In Auburn, Cacciatore was the first professional manager of future Major League Baseball stars Luis Gonzalez and Kenny Lofton, both of whom were selected by the Houston Astros in the 1988 draft and assigned to Auburn to begin their professional baseball careers.

After spending a year coaching at Triple-A Tucson, he spent the 1990 and 1991 seasons as the skipper of the Asheville Tourists. He served as a coach of Double-A Shreveport when the Captains won the 1995 Eastern League title and was a coach with the Brevard County Manatees when they claimed a share of the Advanced-A Florida State League crown in 2001.
By 2012, Cacciatore had managed seven different teams at the short-season Class A, full-season Class A, and Double-A levels of Minor League Baseball. Cacciatore has coached in the Houston Astros, San Francisco Giants, Florida Marlins, Montreal Expos/Washington Nationals, and New York Mets systems. He also served as the hitting coach for the Reading Fightin Phils.

Retirement

After retiring from Minor League coaching in 2019, Cacciatore has served as a pitching coach for the Alpharetta Aviators, a collegiate summer team in the non-profit, wooden-bat Sunbelt Baseball League.

Minor League managerial record

Cacciatore managed the following minor league teams:

References

External links

{{DEFAULTSORT:Cacciatore, Frank
1955 births
Living people
Baseball coaches from Florida
Cape Cod Baseball League coaches
Asheville Tourists managers
Baseball players from Tampa, Florida
Lakeland Tigers players
Montgomery Rebels players
Portland Sea Dogs managers