Former Yankees Pitcher Sam Militello Has Had A ‘Rewarding' 25 Years With The Tampa Spartans

Forbes

6 hours ago

Sam Militello is part of an impressive 'Who's Who' of Tampa baseball that includes two of his Jefferson High School teammates, Tino Martinez and Luis Gonzalez. He and Martinez overlapped one season at the University of Tampa, where Militello returned following a pro career and has spent the last quarter century as a coach.
'Being a Tampa guy, I grew up watching Dwight Gooden, who was something special,' said the 55-year-old, in his office at UT's Bob Martinez Athletics Center four days after the Spartans took a doubleheader from Central Missouri to win yet another Division-II national title. 'I got to play against Gary Sheffield and Carl Everett. All these studs from Tampa, which has been a hotbed for a long time. All of the Tampa major leaguers know each and it is like a little club that we have.'
It was quite a club the left-handed pitcher was part of in three seasons (1988-90) at UT. Militello was on the front end of a 35-year string of success that has seen the Spartans win 10 national titles. While the first of those championships was in 1992, two years after he was a sixth-round selection of the Yankees, the wheels along the Hillsborough River began turning big time in the mid-to-late 1980s. Militello had much to with that, though he needed a reassuring phone call when it came to deciding what school to attend.
'I spoke with Tino's father when I was deciding where to go to school,' said Militello, of the late Rene Martinez. 'I asked why Tino went to UT. He could have gone anywhere in the country. After that conversation, I hung up the phone and said, 'I am going to UT.''
It was a good choice. In 1990, his junior and final year at UT, Militello went 15-2 with a 1.75 ERA to earn Division-II player of the year honors. His effort helped the Spartans make it to the national championship series and place third. That same year, Martinez made his MLB debut with the Mariners, who selected him 14th overall in 1988.
'(UT's) success started with Tino, before I got here,' said Militello, who as a youth made the three-block walk to Al Lopez Field to see he his beloved Cincinnati Reds train. 'He came here and the landscape of UT baseball changed.'
Militello is a big reason why the program continues to excel at an extremely high level 35 years after he last toed the rubber for the Spartans.
Militello made his MLB debut with the Yankees as a 22-year-old in August 1992. It was an impressive debut, blanking the visiting Red Sox on one hit in seven innings to earn the win. He went 3-3 with a 3.60 ERA in nine starts. Shoulder injuries began to plague him the following season and he spent much of the next few years attempting to work through the ailments in the hope of returning to the big time. It was not meant to be. Militello's playing career was over at age 26.
The Yankees offered Militello a scouting position, though he was far more interested in coaching. As luck would have it, the expansion Tampa Bay Devil Rays, as they were then known, were to begin play in 1998 and commence minor league and player development operations in 1997, a year after Militello threw his final pitch.
Militello reached out to few people he knew in the Yankees' player development system, a couple of whom left the organization to join the expansion club. He confided in Mitch Lukevics, who remains with the Rays as a senior adviser for player development, and Bill Livesey, Tampa Bay's director of player development before he became an assistant to then-general manager Chuck LaMar.
'I wanted to coach because I was a student of the game and I loved it, so the teaching part came easy,' he said. 'I called Bill and Mitch, met with them and talked about creating a position as a rehab pitching coach. They thought I would be perfect for that.'
Militello worked with minor leaguers and rehabbing big leaguers for two years before Tampa Bay did away with the position. He reached out to Mike Brown, his pitching coach with the Yankees' Triple-A affiliate in Columbus, Ohio, who by that point was working in the Cleveland organization. Militello spent the next two years coaching in the Indians' system before an opportunity arose back home.
Terry Rupp was a teammate of Militello's at UT in 1988 and, following stints as a minor league player and manager, returned to the university in 1996 to be Spartans' head coach. In the fall of 2000, Rupp asked Militello if he was interested in being the pitching coach. Done deal. However, Rupp left to take over at Maryland shortly after Militello was brought on board. It made sense to offer the former Spartans' pitcher the job, though something was missing.
'They wanted me to be the head coach, but I didn't have my degree because I left after my junior year,' said Militello, noting university higher ups required a degree to be a head coach. 'I told Cleveland, 'Hold on, I might be back.''
There was no going back. Not when another former UT teammate, Joe Urso, was handed the keys to the program.
'Joe surfaced late in the (hiring) process and he wanted me to stay, so I ended up staying,' said Militello, who completed his 25th season with Urso as pitching coach and, essentially, a co-head coach. 'Little did I know that 25 years later I would still be in the same spot, which I am totally fine with and have been totally fine with all along.'
Opportunities to become a head coach, including at Division-I institutions, arose especially early in his UT tenure. However, Militello has been and remains literally and figuratively right at home.
'When I am asked if I want to be a head coach, my response is, 'I am,'' he said. 'Joe treats me that way. He includes me in all decisions and we are to the point we know what each other is thinking. At the time (I was hired), I thought I might move on to something else, but this is home with my family is here. It has been great.'
Militello is a pillar for Urso to lean on. Someone who he not only has known and trusted since they played at UT, but has a like-minded view of how the program should be run in the larger picture as well as the day-to-day grind of a season.
'Every decision we make, we make together,' said Urso, who played at rival Plant High and played all or part of six seasons in the Angels' system before managing a rookie-level club within the organization. 'Nothing is done without both of us putting our stamp on it. We have had two head coaches here for a long time and that is the strength of this program. It's the consistency at the top and I am lucky to have Sam.'
The Spartans have won seven national titles under Urso/Militello. The last five have been with another former Spartan and Angels' minor leaguer, Jose Jimenez, serving as an assistant coach and recruiting director. Yet another former UT player and Angels farmhand, Christopher Rosenbaum, has assisted the past three seasons following more than a decade as a scout with the Nationals, Mariners and Astros.
Not surprisingly, there is continuity at the JV level with Mark Johnson, a UT teammate of Urso's and Militello's, running the show. He was assisted for a couple of years by former Royals minor leaguer, Daniel Mercado, who now helps the varsity.
'Joe and I have been here 25 years and people know what to expect,' said Militello, who received his degree in exercise science in 2005. 'Our players know what to expect from us every day because we have been doing it here for so long.'
Not that maintaining UT's family-like culture has gotten easier, especially when the transfer portal is seemingly humming 24/7. The Spartans have had their share of transfers, which makes the fall critical when it comes to bonding.
'That's when it starts,' said Militello. 'We do golf outings, we do play shooting, we go bowling. Sometimes it is easier than others, but you keep trying and ultimately (the family atmosphere) happens.'
Between transfers and first-year players, the Spartans had 19 new faces join the program this past season. One of them was C.J. Williams, who under Militello's tutelage was the Sunshine State Conference pitcher of the year. The righthander thrived in a culture that was unlike anything he had experienced.
'When they say they have built a family culture, they mean it,' said the Deerfield Beach, Fla. native, who spent two seasons at a JUCO and two seasons at FAU prior to his graduate year at UT. 'I had never seen a team, a coaching staff, the fans and (baseball) alumni all having bought in on the family aspect. That was eye-opening to me.'
Now an alum, Williams is sure to continue to build and maintain a relationship with the program and university.
'It's the relationships that we have created for each of our players that I am most proud of,' said Militello. 'You bring in (new players) and they don't know each other. By the time they leave here, they are best friends, they are in each other's weddings, their kids are hanging out together. There is nothing more rewarding for Joe and I.'