Biography
By Jim Hague
When Steve Ballerini was graduating from Ridgefield High School in southern Bergen County, he didn’t have many options to go to college.
“I had an offer from Monmouth, but I decided to go to Rutgers-Newark,” Ballerini said. “Tom Kaechele (the Rutgers-Newark head baseball coach at the time and current athletic director at Northern Valley-Old Tappan High School) recruited me heavily. I visited the campus and liked the players and the coaches. I also had a chance to start at Rutgers-Newark from my freshman year, so I liked that I would play right away. I also wanted to be part of a winning program.”
At the time that Ballerini made his commitment to R-N, the baseball program was on the rise. The Scarlet Raiders were just becoming a factor in the New Jersey Athletic Conference.
“We were always competitive, always right there,” said Ballerini, who was a member of the Scarlet Raiders’ baseball program from 1999 through 2002. “Every game meant something. We were always in the running for a playoff spot in the league. We just always managed to fall a little short.”
However, in Ballerini’s freshman year of 1999, the NJAC made a change and decided to use strictly wood bats instead of aluminum.
“It was definitely an adjustment for me coming out of high school,” Ballerini said. “It took a while to get used to it.”
But the move to wood bats didn’t deter Ballerini, who was named the NJAC Rookie of the Year that year.
“I was pretty proud of that,” Ballerini said. “I won the Rookie of the Year using the wooden bats. It was pretty special.”
Ballerini went on to have a brilliant four-year career at R-N. He was named the New Jersey Collegiate Baseball Association Division II/Division III Player of the Year during his senior season, leading the highly competitive NJAC in home runs (10), total bases (106), slugging percentage (.757), hits per game (1.76) and runs batted in per game (1.50).
That season, Ballerini managed to collect 60 hits and 51 RBI in just 34 games.
During his tenure with the Scarlet Raiders, Ballerini owned a .371 career batting average, collecting 192 hits, 151 RBIs, 49 doubles, a dozen triples and 19 home runs in just 137 games.
He also had the distinction of playing for three different head coaches during his days at R-N, starting with Kaechele, then Stan Hyman and finally Mark Rizzi.
“It was definitely an exciting time for me,” Ballerini said. “I really enjoyed my days at Rutgers-Newark. I was surrounded always by a good coaching staff, guys who knew what it took to make it on the next level.”
For his efforts, Ballerini was named as an NCAA Division III Second Team All-American.
“I actually was a little surprised with my performance,” Ballerini said. “I was fortunate to make the most of my hard work. I did a lot of drill work, a lot of conditioning, in the offseason to get ready. I do look back at times and reminisce. It was a great time in my life, a big part of my life. I put in a lot of time and effort, but that time and effort paid off.”
After graduating from R-N with a degree in sociology and a minor in criminal justice, Ballerini worked out with a few Major League Baseball teams with the hope of getting a free agent contract. It ended up being Ballerini’s ticket overseas.
Ballerini signed a contract to play professional baseball in Italy, with a team called Rajo in Milan.
“That was definitely a cool experience, learning about a different culture,” Ballerini said. “It was different, being away from the United States, but I was playing baseball, so it didn’t matter much. I was on a team with other Italian-Americans and South Americans. It was great, because we were playing because we loved the sport so much. Baseball was definitely on the rise in Italy at the time, so it was really exciting.”
Ballerini was also taken care of pretty well by the owners of Rajo.
“I got a monthly paycheck,” Ballerini said. “I also had an apartment and a car. So they definitely took care of us.”
Ballerini played against former major leaguers Jaime Navarro and Rafael Medina while in Italy.
“I was getting paid to play baseball,” Ballerini said. “You can’t get better than that.”
After two years in Italy, Ballerini decided it was time to retire from the game.
“I figured that was it,” Ballerini said. “I came back home and had to start my life.”
Ballerini eventually got involved with his own construction company, based out of Oradell in Bergen County.
Balitano Contracting handles all kinds of brick paving and stone work, including Belgian blocks and retaining walls. He’s been busy with his own business for eight years.
Ballerini is married. His wife, Lisa, is expecting their first child, a boy due in January. Ballerini also has a stepdaughter, Mia Rose, who is five years old.
His life has kept him too busy to play baseball any longer, but he has fond memories of his days with the Scarlet and Black. He was inducted into the Rutgers-Newark Athletic Hall of Fame in 2008.
“I never thought any of that would happen to me, the awards, the honors,” Ballerini said. “I was just glad to help the team, help the program make the next step. It was all good for me at Rutgers-Newark.”
