Nick Mamone
Nick Mamone, a man who contributed to the development of hundreds of young people, is a 2012 posthumous inductee to the Mercer County Hall of Fame.
He played shortstop on the Sharon Legion team and numerous other independent teams. He also was an outstanding duckpin bowler for many years.
In softball, he played for Jack’s Grill, one of the Tri-State area’s top teams. As a member of the National Malleable team, he helped the club to four championships in five years. He also served as captain of Westinghouse in the Industrial League, winning three titles.
He also played on several other softball squads that won titles. But it was in coaching that he added to his Hall of Fame credentials.
His first year in 1961 as manager of McDowell Bank team in the Hickory Babe Ruth League, the bankers won the title. It was a feat he would repeat four times from 1963-66. In 1964, his Hickory Junior Varsity team won the first Penn-Ohio JV All-Star Championship.
While coaching Babe Ruth in 1965 and 1966, he also managed Hickory American Legion team and led the team to two third-place finishes. Those were the only years when his teams didn’t win titles.
In 1967, he directed all his coaching skills to the Legion squad and the team won consecutive crowns from 1967-73. His teams also made strong showings in the Salem (Ohio) baseball tourney, finishing runner-up 3 times against the top teams iOhio.
Nick coached the Sharon area team in the short-lived Inter-City League, featuring teams from Cleveland, Akron, East Liverpool, Salem and Aliquippa, winning the 1969 title. In his coaching career, his teams won 281 games, while losing 100. They won 13 different championships.
Besides baseball, he coached the Bialko’s women’s softball team to the Pennsylvania Class A State Slow-Pitch Championship. The team lost in the national tourney in California to a California team.