FORT MYERS, Fla. — This is Dick Berardino’s 48th year in the Red Sox organization. And he has no desire to slow down. The 77-year-old Watertown native is in the midst of a two-week instructional stint at Boston’s minor league complex at JetBlue Park.
“I enjoy being around young people and doing whatever I can to help them, and it’s made me a better person,” said Berardino, who managed in the minor leagues for 21 years. “Baseball has never felt like work to me because of how much I’ve enjoyed being around the game.”
His 1976 champion NY-Penn League team in Elmira included future Red Sox major leaguers Bruce Hurst, Wade Boggs, and Glenn Hoffman. Berardino was also on manager Joe Morgan’s coaching staff in Boston from 1989-91.
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After powering Holy Cross to the College World Series title in 1958 as a junior outfielder — going 2 for 4 in an upset of Southern Cal — he was signed by the Yankees in the predraft era for $32,000 ($2,000 paid for his senior year tuition). Berardino made it as high as New York’s AAA team in Richmond, Va., before shifting from playing to coaching.
He draws on that experience today when talking with young prospects.
“This is where they will be tested, and for many to deal with failure for the first time. It’s how they react to adversity that is most important,’’ Berardino said.
Berardino, who had spent his summers as a minor league coach and manager, taught business courses and coached baseball at Watertown High before leaving in 1986 to coach at Boston’s Triple A team in Pawtucket, R.I.
A member of the athletic halls of fame at Watertown High and Holy Cross, Berardino still stays in touch with his high school baseball coach, former major league player George Yankowski.
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“George lives in Florida now, and I was at his 90th birthday party two years ago,’’ Berardino said.
In 1998, the longtime Waltham resident received the Edward M. Kenney Player Development Award from the Red Sox; in 2008, Boston’s chapter of the Baseball Writers’ Association of America honored him with its Judge Emil Fuchs Award for long and meritorious service to the game.
As the Red Sox organization’s longest active player-development consultant, Berardino evaluates base-running skills and outfield play.
“These are the only two weeks of the year I’m wearing a Red Sox uniform,’’ he said. “The rest of the season, I do my evaluating at Pawtucket, Portland, and Lowell from the stands.’’
Berardino, who also played football in high school and college, met his wife of 53 years, Kathleen, when he was playing in her hometown of Binghamton, N.Y., in 1960. They have two grown sons and six grandchildren, including Ryan Berardino, a senior first baseman at Lincoln-Sudbury Regional High this spring.
Marvin Pave can be reached at marvin.pave@rcn.com.