Dave LaPoint, who pitched for the World Series champion Cardinals in 1982, gave the 2002 club a tip that helped them become a pennant contender.
On Jan. 21, 2002, free-agent pitcher Jason Simontacchi signed a minor-league contract with the Cardinals.
LaPoint, a coach in the Cardinals’ system in 2001, saw Simontacchi pitch winter baseball in December that year in Venezuela. LaPoint and Enrique Brito, the Cardinals’ Venezuelan scouting supervisor, recommended Simontacchi to the club, according to the St. Louis Post-Dispatch.
A right-hander, Simontacchi, 28, was projected to be the No. 4 starter for the Cardinals’ Memphis farm team in 2002. Instead, he developed into a member of the Cardinals’ starting rotation.
Baseball odyssey
After graduating high school in Sunnyvale, Calif., a Silicon Valley technology hub near Santa Clara, Simontacchi was at Albertson College in Idaho when the Royals selected him in the 21st round of the 1996 amateur baseball draft.
Assigned to the Royals’ Class A farm club in Spokane, Wash., in 1996, Simontacchi was a teammate of center fielder Carlos Beltran, 19, and pitcher Kiko Calero. Seven years later, Calero and Simontacchi were Cardinals teammates.
The Royals released Simontacchi in July 1997 and he nearly quit baseball. According to the Post-Dispatch, Simontacchi drove a tow truck in California when he was not playing baseball.
Simontacchi revived his pitching career in 1998 with the Springfield (Ill.) Capitals, an independent team in the Frontier League. He was 10-2 with a 2.95 ERA. That earned him a chance with the Pirates, who signed Simontacchi in January 1999 and sent him to their farm team in Hickory, N.C.
The Pirates released him after the season and Simontacchi went to Australia to play winter baseball. After that, he returned to his parents’ home in California and planned to play in 2000 for an independent team in Chico, Calif.
Then, unexpectedly, he got an offer from Rimini, a team in the Italian professional baseball league.
Mamma mia!
Rimini is a resort city located on the coast of the Adriatic Sea in northern Italy. The film director Federico Fellini was born and raised there. The town’s baseball team had a history of success in the Italian professional league and was on the lookout for talent.
According to Joe Strauss of the Post-Dispatch, “Rimini’s scouting consisted of scouring the Baseball Almanac for Italian surnames. Because his great-grandparents were from Milan, Simontacchi was considered a native Italian player _ an important distinction because foreign players could only appear in Friday games.”
The Rimini team offered Simontacchi $1,500 a month, a furnished apartment, a car and a cell phone. It beat driving a tow truck and pitching for the Chico Heat. Twenty-six and single, Simontacchi accepted and embarked on an adventure.
Simontacchi learned to throw a changeup in Italy and it helped him develop into an ace. He was 12-1 with a 1.71 ERA for Rimini. His performance earned him a spot on the Italian Olympic baseball team. At the 2000 Summer Games in Sydney, Australia, Simontacchi was 1-1 with a 1.17 ERA. He got a win against South Africa and took the loss versus the Netherlands.
After the 2000 season, Simontacchi said arrivederci to Italy, returned to the U.S. and signed with the Twins. Assigned to their Class AAA farm club in Edmonton, Canada, Simontacchi was 7-13 with a 5.34 ERA. A pitching teammate, Kyle Lohse, did much better and was called up to the Twins in June.
Granted free agency after the 2001 season, Simontacchi went to Venezuela for the winter, posted a 3.06 ERA in 12 appearances and got the attention of the Cardinals’ scouts.
Smart move
The Cardinals were the only club to make an offer to Simontacchi, and he was thrilled to get it. According to the Post-Dispatch, Simontacchi’s “finances dictate he still list his parents’ home as his permanent address,” and “the $8,000 monthly salary at Memphis was the most Simontacchi had received to play in the United States.”
Joe Strauss wrote, “Simontacchi owns a fastball, a slider and a nice changeup, but he doesn’t own a car.”
It didn’t take long for the staff at Memphis to become impressed by Simontacchi. He was 4-1 in five starts. The loss was to Fresno by a score of 1-0.
With Woody Williams, Garrett Stephenson and Andy Benes sidelined because of injuries early in the 2002 season, the Cardinals needed starting pitching. They gave starts to Mike Crudale, Josh Pearce, Travis Smith and Mike Timlin.
The Cardinals finished April with a 12-14 record.
Memphis manager Gaylen Pitts, his pitching coach, Dyar Miller, and director of player development Bruce Manno suggested Simontacchi as a solution to the Cardinals’ pitching needs.
“He doesn’t panic when he gets in trouble,” Pitts said to the Memphis Commercial Appeal.
Desperate and with few better alternatives, the Cardinals called up Simontacchi and gave him a start against the Braves on May 4 at St. Louis. He was the 11th pitcher to start a game for the 2002 Cardinals.
Italian stallion
Simontacchi’s parents took a flight from California to St. Louis and were in the stands at Busch Memorial Stadium when Simontacchi made his big-league debut.
Facing a Braves lineup that included Rafael Furcal, Chipper Jones and Gary Sheffield, Simontacchi retired the first 10 batters before Marcus Giles broke the streak with a home run.
Simontacchi pitched seven innings, held the Braves to two runs and got the win, a 3-2 Cardinals victory. Boxscore
Genuinely dazzled by Simontacchi’s performance, Braves manager Bobby Cox told the Post-Dispatch, “I don’t know how Italy lost the Olympics.”
Cardinals catcher Mike Matheny said, “I was very impressed with his composure and his ability to execute pitches when he had to.”
Manager Tony La Russa kept Simontacchi in the starting rotation, and the rookie rewarded him by winning his first five decisions and seven of his first eight.
In June 2002, Cardinals starting pitcher Darryl Kile died. Simontacchi’s role became even more vital to the club.
Kyle Veltrop of The Sporting News noted, “Simontacchi lacks swing-and-miss stuff. He thrives when he can keep hitters off balance and get them to put the ball in play early in the count.”
Simontacchi finished with an 11-5 record in 24 starts for the 2002 Cardinals. He was 2-0 in September when the Cardinals clinched the National League Central Division title.
Only Matt Morris (17) had more wins than Simontacchi for the 2002 Cardinals. Simontacchi also hit .240 in 50 at-bats.
In three seasons with the Cardinals, Simontacchi had a 20-10 record.
From 2013-17, he was a coach in the Cardinals’ farm system.
RetroSimba 
Being of Italian descent and having worked and lived there all I can say is “grazie”!! Jason Simontacchi learned how to throw a change up under Mike Romano who at the time was the manager of Rimini. If not for the fact that soccer is king in Italy while baseball is just a blimp on the radar Mike Romano would be a national hero. Even though he never made it to the big leagues Romano has been a part of Italian baseball since 1973. During his playing days he was a two way player. Too bad Jason’s career was cut short by injuries.
Thanks, Phillip. Whoa! How fortunate you are to have lived and worked in Italy. I am hopeful I’ll get the chance to visit there. Thanks for the keen insights about Mike Romano. I’m glad you put the spotlight on such a positive influencer.
Better stay away from northern Italy. After sampling the food, you might not want to come home. Here’s some Rimini baseball.
If the food’s good, I’d make it my home.
Thanks for sharing the clip of Rimini baseball, Marty, and for the tip about the food. I’m dreaming of seaside mornings, magnificent food and relaxing baseball at night.
Nice to see the Frontier League get some shout outs- it’s a really fun league and Hal Lanier (former Cards 3rd base coach) once managed the league’s former Normal CornBelters….Hal was hilarious and full of the best baseball stories.
When Simontacchi briefly signed with the Cubs it about broke my heart…he was one of my favorite Dave Duncan reclamation projects.
Thanks for reading and for commenting. I’ll check out a Frontier League game sometime. The whole vibe of the league seems more appealing than today’s MLB. I also should have noted that the 1998 Springfield team with Jason Simontacchi won the Frontier League championship, beating the Chillicothe Paints in the final.