Catching up with Joe Cerasi

By JOHN A. LEWIS
Burlington County Times

Of course he still thinks about it.

You don't listen to speculation about where you'll go in the major league draft, and then never think about baseball again. Joe Cerasi wonders, from time to time, about what might have been.

And then the real world asserts itself. The Maple Shade High School and Rider College graduate lives in Hamilton, Mercer County, and he's married, with two children. And at 38, any time he gets to spend on green grass, with a glove on, is best spent with 8-year-old Joseph and 6-year-old Nicole, his son and daughter.

“I learned a couple things from (former Maple Shade coach) Jim Varsaci,” Cerasi said. “Biggest of all, it's not everything. Have a good time doing what you're doing, but remember baseball is not everything. Now my priorities have changed.”

In high school, Cerasi's priorities were getting on base and creating opportunities for the Wildcats' offense, which he did better than anyone had done before. Cerasi graduated in 1987 with Maple Shade career records in steals (52), runs scored (65), home runs (11) and RBIs (78). He batted .515 as a senior, with 34 hits, and set the school's single-season RBI record (29) as a sophomore. He twice hit five homers in a season.

“I was selected to the junior Olympic Team in my senior year,” he said. “I went down to Chapel Hill, North Carolina to play. That was a pretty big thrill for me. We never won a championship. My junior year we lost to Florence in the state playoffs, and my senior year we were pretty good.”

He played for legendary coach Sonny Pittaro on a Rider team that reached a pair of NCAA regional tournaments.

“I thought I'd be drafted after my junior year,” Cerasi said. “There was some talk about it, but nothing happened. My senior year, there were a couple of calls. The Blue Jays were interested, but that didn't happen either. Then the Padres said they might sign me as a free agent, but that never came to fruition.”

Cerasi spent the offseason between his junior and senior years playing for the Grand Lake Mariners of the Great Lakes Summer Collegiate League. He has the distinction of delivering the first hit and the first RBI in the history of the club, which still plays in Celina, Ohio.

After college, he returned to Maple Shade as a junior varsity baseball coach. He played a season locally in the Rancocas Valley League.

“After that, I got in a bad car accident, and that pretty much ended that,” he said. “I just decided to accept it and move on. I went to the real world and went to work.”

He married Kimberly, who he'd met at Rider, in 1993. He's worked for the past 11 years for SYSCO Food Services of Philadelphia, first as a marketing executive, and then as a district sales manager.

“I thought I had the ability to play at the next level,” Cerasi said. “But things happen for a reason. Sometimes they put the Maple Shade scores in (his local paper). I still look in at what Rider's doing, and I get into it with the kids.” Cerasi said.

He coaches Joseph's team, and he enjoys it.

That's enough baseball for someone living in the real world.