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By Joe McConnell
Dario Pizzano has been prominently in the news for his baseball exploits since 2003. It all started with his participation on the 2003 Saugus American Little League all-star team that pretty much conquered all opponents to make it to the Little League World Series United States Championship Game in Williamsport, Pa., where they went up against the East Boynton Beach, Fla. squad. As it turned out, they were the last Massachusetts team to make it that far.
The Williamsport journey all began for Dario and his teammates with the District 16 title. They then secured the sectional and state championships, before going on to Bristol, Conn., where they became the New England champs, which led to the World Series.
Upon returning to Saugus and after being treated as conquering heroes that included visits to the State House and Fenway Park among many other locales – plus writing a book on that once-in-a-lifetime summer adventure – they eventually settled back into everyday life. For Dario, that included returning to St. Patrick’s School in Stoneham. From there, he went on to attend Malden Catholic, where he starred on its baseball team. That led him to a Hall of Fame college baseball career at Columbia University, and a 15th round selection in the 2012 MLB (Major League Baseball) Draft by the Seattle Mariners. He toiled for the next decade as a minor league player in the Mariners and New York Mets organizations, while also getting invites to Major League spring training camps. He also participated in the World Baseball Classic for Team Italy.
After retiring from the game, Dario has gone on to work for J.P. Morgan on Wall Street. He’s living in New Jersey, and is currently planning his November wedding to his fiancé Samantha Collazo. But beyond work and his personal life, he has also been dedicated to the MS4MS (Mission Stadiums for Multiple Sclerosis) charity to raise money for those afflicted with the disease that includes his mom Tracie, who has lived with MS since 1998.
Dario is currently the MS4MS Director of Fundraising, boosting funds and awareness in order to find a cure for the disease. He joined the charity in 2019, while still with the Mets organization, because of his close family connection to it.
“I had envisioned myself advocating for this cause and leveraging my platform in any way I could to give back to my mom, who has always put our family first,” Pizzano said.
“We host in-person and virtual fundraising events all over the country, with our team growing to over 30 ambassadors. We have raised over $1.5-million in the last three years alone,” the Saugus native added. “Our beneficiaries are the Johns Hopkins MS Research Center in Baltimore and UCLA Health in LA. A portion of our proceeds also go directly to MS Warriors to help with medical expenses, treatments, wheelchairs and scooters among other necessities for the (afflicted) patients and their families.”
Dario will now be coming home to host two local Boston events next month – the third annual MS4MS Spreading Orange Night at Fenway Park and the first annual MS4MS Spreading Orange golf event at the Belmont Country Club.
The Red Sox game is on Saturday night, June 14, against the rival Yankees. It will be televised on Fox, locally on Channel 25. Fox commentator Ken Rosenthal will be wearing the fundraiser’s orange and white bowtie with its company logo on it to bring attention to his “Bowtie for a Cause” campaign.
After the game, the Cask ’n’ Flagon is hosting a party that includes food, drink and raffle items. Announcer Tom Caron will be talking about the event on NESN the night before the fundraiser on the Sox pregame show.
“Our main event sponsor this year is Wild Sol,” said Pizzano. “Red Sox all-star third baseman Alex Bregman and his wife Reagan are the company’s co-founders, and we have partnered with them on this year’s project,” said Pizzano.
“One of our newest ambassadors is Gus Quattlebaum, Vice President of Pro Scouting with the Red Sox. He was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis three years ago and wanted to get involved with the cause heavily,” Dario continued. “So far, he has raised over $100,000 for the golf event, which is being held on Monday, June 16, in Belmont. They will be many athletes and sports executives participating in the golf tournament, including Eliot Wolf and Christian Barmore of the New England Patriots, former Red Sox Hall of Fame great and NESN announcer Jim Rice, Bruins’ defenseman Charlie McEvoy and Caron. We’re still waiting for confirmations from Patriots owner Robert Kraft, and Sox legend and Hall of Famer David Ortiz.”
MS4MS charity will also be hosting the third annual Spreading Orange Day at PNC Park, before a Pittsburgh Pirates game on June 8, as well as the second annual Yankees’ MS Night at Yankee Stadium on June 3.
“Since the Red Sox are playing the Yankees on June 14 at Fenway, we expect an enormous and rowdy crowd,” Pizzano said. “We secured 350 tickets, 275 of which have already been purchased for that game. There’s still time to get a ticket and join us to support this amazing cause that I am very passionate about. If we sellout before you’re able to purchase a ticket, that’s OK, because you can still join us at the Cask ‘n’ Flagon for the postgame event, or just make a separate donation to our fundraising link.”
To buy tickets for the June 14 Sox game, checkout this link on online: https://www.gofevo.com/event/MS4MS2025. If you just want to donate to MS, this link will get you there to make a contribution: https://ms4ms.org/donate/.
