ANNA MARIA – Pasquale “Pat” Carlucci, the author of “Baseball in Paradise: A Century of Spring Training in Bradenton, Florida,” held a book signing event at the Anna Maria Island Historical Museum in Anna Maria on Thursday, April 30.
Within the first hour or so of the three-hour event held on the museum’s front porch, Carlucci, a part-time Bradenton Beach resident, quickly sold all 20 copies of the books he brought for the occasion.
“I didn’t bring enough books,” he lamented.
Carlucci said he’ll drop off more copies to be sold inside the museum, where several other books that detail Anna Maria Island’s history are also sold. Published in 2025, “Baseball in Paradise,” and his previous book, “A Baseball Birthright: Chronicles & Connections,” published in 2022, can also be purchased at several online retailers, including Amazon, Wal-Mart and Barnes & Noble.
Even though he ran out of books, Carlucci stuck around for the entire three hours he was scheduled to be there. Shortly after noon, he chatted with longtime Anna Maria resident John Kolojeski and John’s wife, Sue Seiter. Seiter suggested Carlucci serve as a guest speaker during next year’s Friends of the Island Library lecture series.
Carlucci hails from New York, New York, and he wore a New York Mets shirt to the book signing.
“They really stink this year,” he said of his favorite team’s woeful start.
Carlucci and his wife own a second home in Bradenton Beach and they and their family have been coming to the Island for the past 13 years. After living in Michigan for many years, Carlucci and his wife now live in Washington D.C., so they can be close to their grandchildren.
While sitting on the museum porch, Carlucci said, “2023 marked 100 years of baseball in Bradenton and the gist of the book is a hundred years of spring training baseball in the Bradenton area. The first chapter is about how and why the book came to me and a lot of local people who helped me on my journey of discovery are named in the book.”
The book’s first chapter details how his latest book-writing journey stemmed in part from a conversation he had with his friend, Ken, who told him that many years ago he visited a spring training home in Anna Maria occupied by members of the 1979 World Series-winning Pittsburgh Pirates team and managed to get a baseball autographed by some of those legendary Pirates’ players.
Carlucci chronicled how he was sitting on the beach one day and Googled “baseball and Anna Maria Island” and discovered a YouTube interview titled “Boys of Winter Baseball” conducted by the Anna Maria Island Historical Society.
Carlucci paid a visit to Bortell’s Lounge and learned the bar’s current fishing and boating décor had replaced the previous baseball-themed décor. He also discovered “Birdie” Tebbetts Field in Holmes Beach, which is named after former Major League Baseball player, manager and scout George “Birdie” Tebbetts.
For the book signing, Carlucci hung plastic pennants from the museum porch, representing the teams that conducted their spring training activities in Bradenton, starting with the St. Louis Cardinals.
“The St. Louis Cardinals for two years. After that, it became the Philadelphia Phillies for three years. After that, it was the Boston Red Sox for two years. Then it became the Boston Bees, who were really the Braves, and the manager was Casey Stengel. Then the Second World War came and there was no spring training – although that period was interesting also, which in the book. Then Boston came as the Braves again and they were here for a long time because they were a premier powerhouse; and they have so much history here on the Island,” Carlucci said.
BRAVES ON AMI
The Braves’ past presence on Anna Maria Island is recognized by two statues of boys swinging baseball bats and a third statue of a boy pitching a baseball. The statues stand between the Gulf and a beachfront home on Cypress Avenue in Anna Maria.
The home was once owned by Braves’ Hall of Fame pitcher Warren Spahn, who later sold it to Braves’ Hall of Fame third baseman Eddie Mathews. Attached to the home’s gate are two baseball bats crossed like an X, with two baseballs placed above the bats and a replica of home plate bearing the signatures of Mathews and Spahn placed below the bats.
“The Braves left in ’62, I think. They were followed by the Kansas City Athletics, who were here for six years and became the Oakland Athletics, owned by Charlie Finley. Guess who their hitting coach was for two years, which I never would have known if I hadn’t written this book? Joe DiMaggio, and the back story is in the book,” Carlucci said.
After the Athletics moved their spring training headquarters to Arizona, the Pittsburgh Pirates came to Bradenton in 1969.
When asked what he hopes people take from reading “Baseball in Paradise,” Carlucci said, “Baseball is more than baseball. It’s American culture and community. And the way the book is written, there’s a year-by-year template for a hundred years – whatever’s happening in the world and in Bradenton. Who was the team, who was the manager, who was the best player and how did they do during the season?”
