It is hard to imagine that, even as dominating as Mazzaro was in Rutherford Little League, any of the 26 players in that game – including Mazzaro – would have guessed that ten years to the day after that contest, he would be standing on the mound at U.S. Cellular Field in Chicago, wearing a gray and green Oakland Athletics uniform and setting down White Sox as effortlessly as he retired Little Leaguers on that day in 1999.
Mazzaro’s father, Steve, took over as manager of Lions in 1995, which gave him the option to draft his son onto his team as a 9-year-old the next season. Vinnie, who had pitched and won the Minor League championship game as an 8-year-old, got his first Major level experience in 1996, becoming one of the few 9-year-olds to record a pitching victory in the Major League. “Winning pitcher, Vinnie Mazzaro” became a common refrain on the Scoreline over the next three seasons, as he posted a then-record 21 career victories in regular-season play.
Among his pitching accomplishments in Little League, Mazzaro tossed three regular-season no-hitters, against Kurgan in 1997, Springs in 1998, and Kiwanis in 1999. He capped off his league career by no-hitting Kiwanis again in the 1999 town championship game. Mazzaro’s ten pitching victories, ten complete games, and 60 innings pitched in 1999 all stand as single-season records, and his 310 strikeouts are the career mark.
Unlike some Little Leaguers whose stars flame out on a larger stage, Mazzaro continued to produce highlights as his career continued. As a high school pitcher, he led the Rutherford Bulldogs to the NJSIAA Group 2 championship in 2004, going the distance to win the title game, 2-1 over Sterling Regional.
Mazzaro continued to draw the attention of both college and pro scouts the next year. On the afternoon of the Bulldogs’ 2005 state semifinal game against Wallkill Valley at William Paterson University in Wayne, the Oakland Athletics selected him with their third-round pick (101st overall) in the Major League Baseball First-Year Draft, the earliest selection ever for a player from Rutherford. That day, Mazzaro pitched the Bulldogs to a 2-1 victory; four days later, Mazzaro pitched the title game in Toms River, as Rutherford defeated Seneca 3-1 to take home a second straight Group 2 trophy.
While he had committed to St. John’s University, Mazzaro ultimately signed with the A’s after the season, and he began his professional career in 2006. He spent that season with the Kane County Cougars of the Midwest League (low Class A), and then moved up to the high-scoring California League (high Class A) in 2007, pitching for the Stockton Ports. Despite a higher-than-expected earned-run average, the Athletics liked what they had seen, and they moved Mazzaro up to Double-A in 2008, with the Midland Rockhounds of the Texas League.
At Midland, Mazzaro went 12-3 and posted a 1.90 ERA, which was the best ERA among all 30 Double-A teams in 2008. He moved up to Sacramento of the Pacific Coast League (Triple-A) in August and went 3-3 for the River Cats, also winning a game in the playoffs as Sacramento won the league title and subsequently captured the Bricktown Showdown (now the Triple-A National Championship) against the Scranton/Wilkes-Barre Yankees in Oklahoma City.
Some had projected Mazzaro to make the Athletics’ young rotation out of spring training, but instead he began the year as the No. 1 starter in Sacramento. He got off to a good start with the River Cats, and then ran into a couple of rough outings in early May. But his last four starts in May produced a 0.33 ERA in 21 innings of work, and on 1-Jun, A’s manager Bob Geren announced that Mazzaro would be his starting pitcher against the White Sox the next night.
On that Tuesday, 2-Jun-2009 – ten years to the day after he stood on the mound at Rutherford Little League pitching for Lions against Elks – Mazzaro survived a first-inning jam and went on to pitch 6⅓ innings of scoreless ball, allowing only three hits. He did walk four, including a four-pitch walk to AJ Pierzynski in the seventh inning, while striking out just one. But after that walk, which came on his 105th pitch, reliever Craig Breslow got Wilson Betemit to ground into a double play and end the inning. Two frames later, Mazzaro’s first Major League victory was in the books, a 5-0 defeat of the White Sox.
The Rutherford Little League salutes Vin Mazzaro on his ascent to Major League Baseball.