LOUDONVILLE, N.Y. — Siena’s longest-serving manager in major league baseball history, Tony Rossi, has announced his retirement at the end of this month.
Rossi – in his 54th season, all at Siena – will step down on March 20, the school announced Monday. Rossi’s retirement makes Minnesota’s John Anderson the longest-tenured Division I coach in his 42nd season with the Golden Gophers.
“Tony Rossi has defined Siena baseball for more than five decades,” said Siena Athletic Director John D’Argenio. “He turned a Division II team that had just 10 players when he started into a Division I program with scholarship athletes that won five MAAC championships and played in NCAA tournaments.”
Assistant coach Joe Sheridan will be appointed as Siena’s interim coach when Rossi steps down.
Rossi is Siena’s all-time wins leader and Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference leader. He tied for second in NCAA baseball history in seasons coached with former Bentley coach Bob DeFelice, who retired from the Division II school last spring.
Former Division III coach Gordie Gillespie has been on the staff for 59 seasons and is the only head coach at any NCAA level with more seasons than Rossi.
Rossi won six Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference Coach of the Year awards, five conference titles, two NCAA berths and saw 56 of his former players sign professional contracts.
Rossi has a 936-1,202-8 record with the Saints, who are off to a 2-10 start this season and are not even halfway through a run where they will play their first 27 games on the road. The Saints don’t play a home game until April 4; This is not uncommon for teams in that part of the country, where there is still a lot of snow in the valleys and teams have to travel south for most of the season to fill the schedule.
Siena will travel to nationally-ranked Florida this weekend for a three-game series, then play three games in Richmond on March 18 and 19, scheduled to be Rossi’s final games.
