Fields to be renamed in memory of Greg Montalbano

Westborough - When Greg Montalbano was growing up in town, much of each summer was spent walking to the Upton Road Baseball Fields, playing ball and dreaming of someday pitching in the major leagues.

    If all goes according to plan, beginning next year a new generation of Westborough children will spend their summers at the Greg Montalbano Memorial Fields dreaming the same dream - of one day playing major league baseball.

    Frank DeSiata, Westborough’s Recreation Department director, unveiled plans to change the name of the field at a recent Board of Selectmen meeting, and the selectmen voted unanimously to endorse the move.

    Greg died Aug. 21 of testicular cancer. He was 31 years old. A 1995 graduate of St. John’s High School and a 2005 graduate of Northeastern University, Greg was drafted by the Red Sox in 1999 and pitched in the Boston minor-league system for five years, playing for the Lowell Spinners, Sarasota Red Sox, Trenton Thunder and Portland Sea Dogs.

    In 2001 he was named the Red Sox Minor League Pitcher of the Year by the Boston Baseball Writers Association.

    After being released by the Red Sox, Greg went on to pitch for the Worcester Tornadoes of the Class A Can-Am League, enjoying success as a starter and relief pitcher before the cancer returned to his body. After the cancer returned, while he was receiving treatment, Greg returned to Northeastern – where he has been inducted into the Huskies Athletic Hall of Fame – and finished earning his engineering degree.

    DeSiata, who grew up with Greg’s mother, Sharon, also played softball with his father, Andy.

    “Greg was our batboy,” DeSiata remembered.

    DeSiata said he was sitting with his wife, Karen, and Jim Coffey, a mutual friend of both the DeSiatas and the Montalbanos, when he got the idea to rename the Upton Road Fields after Greg.

    “We decided it would be a great idea, but we wanted to get Greg’s parents’ okay and make sure his sister, Kristen, was onboard with it, too,” DeSiata said. “I wanted to make sure it was an appropriate thing to do. When I asked them, Greg’s parents were very humbled by the gesture.

    “To me it’s a perfect fit. It’s always been an honor for me to say I coached Greg Montalbano when he was a young boy, and the Upton Road Field was his first home field. To me this would be a fabulous place to have his name and legacy remembered.”

    When not playing baseball as a kid, Greg spent time as an altar boy and a Boy Scout.

    “Greg was just the real deal,” DeSiata said. “He was a great baseball player and he grew up to be a great man, too. He was grounded and humble and had a wonderful family. His best friends were his cousins. He was just a great, great young man. He was the type of kid about which you’d say, ‘Man, wouldn’t you like to have him as your son?’”

    DeSiata is hoping the project can be fast-tracked so it will be ready in time for the start of the Little League season next spring.