Dante Benedetti And How He Kept Baseball Alive In Sf

Dante played baseball as a boy with Joe DiMaggio and his brothers and retained the love of baseball throughout his life.
DiMaggio referred to him as Mr. Baseball.

Dante rescued the USF baseball program that was on the verge of closing down, and coached it for 29 years at a salary of $1 per year (373 wins!). At the same time he ran baseball clinics in Italy, taught at Saint Ignatius College Preparatory (Italian, Spanish, and, of course, sports), and coached kids in the local parks. He subsidized eight local youth league teams for years, often buying equipment out of his own pocket or paying college tuition for players that could not afford it. In his spare time he ran a restaurant and handed out money to anyone who approached him for help.
A man of boundless energy and generosity, he made an indelible mark on the city.