By Rob Rains
JUPITER, Fla. – It’s a gesture which at first glance might come across as a nervous habit, how Thomas Saggese taps his wrists together every time he steps into the batter’s box.
For the young Cardinals’ prospect, however, there is a far deeper meaning and motivation that explains why he has done that for almost five years now.
Look closer at Saggese’s wrists as he approaches home plate and you will see the tape wrapped around his left wrist. Before every game, he writes the word “more” on the tape. That’s where he is tapping as he comes up to bat.
When Saggese was growing up in southern California, he always told his mom, Wendi, that he loved her. She always responded with, “I love you more.”
Wendi died from breast cancer on July 24, 2019, the summer before Saggese’s senior year in high school. He was 17 at the time.
“It’s a reminder that she is still with me,” Saggese said. “My brother has a tatoo that says “more” on his chest.
“My first game back after she passed away, in summer ball in 2019, I was batting and had two strikes and was nervous because I didn’t want to strike out.
“I had a little routine where I kind of shake my hands out and I kind of looked up to the sky as if my mom was there. It was like she is always with me and she can be with me whenever I want her to be. I started writing that on my wrist just as a reminder of that.”
Saggese knew then, and realizes it even more now, that he had a special connection with his mom, a bond that many people don’t have. He knew his friends didn’t have it; that they didn’t consider their mothers their best friend.
Baseball was part of the reason.
“His mother was 42 when he was born,” said Saggese’s dad Tom, who is retired from his job as a civil engineer. “She just loved kids, loved having kids and would do anything for her kids. They were always together.
“She really liked being competitive. She was a gymnast and she put him in hockey when he was little. She did gymnastics with him, but he really just took a liking to baseball, so she really supported him in everything baseball. He’s always been focused on baseball.”
The elder Saggese recalled his young son going to his brother Tristan’s games, and could tell then his love of the game was different than most kids that age. Thomas is seven years younger than Tristan.
“He was completely focused,” Tom Saggese said. “He would bring his little catcher’s gear and I would throw him pitches on the side. Every time he caught it he took off his mask and threw the ball back to me. Then he put the mask back on and got all set up. He did that the whole game.”
Tom Saggese says he has videos of his son, as a little skinny kid, practicing his swing without a bat.
“He would do that all day – swing, swing, swing,” Tom Saggese said. “He was just really into baseball.”
And Wendi was always there to support him – even after the family’s world was upended.
“I can’t be without him”
Saggese was only eight when his mother’s cancer was diagnosed in August 2010. Two years later, she went to New York to participate in some clinical trials, which were to last for several months.
“About a week or two later, she said, ‘send him (Saggese) out here. I can’t be without him,’” Tom Saggese said. “I put him on a plane … and they had a great time for a few months.”
Wendi home-schooled Saggese while they were living in Manhattan, but not wanting his baseball skills to suffer, she signed him up for a Little League team – in Harlem.
“It was really cool actually,” Saggese said. “The competition wasn’t quite as good (as California) but it was fun.”
Saggese learned how to navigate the subways in New York, to the point that his mother relied on him to know which train to take when they needed to go someplace. As long as he was with his mom, and playing baseball, Saggese was happy.
“He was always laughing and smiling,” Tom Saggese said. “He’s been like that since he was a toddler … There’s not a mean bone in that kid’s body. I don’t know where he got that from. He doesn’t like to hurt people’s feelings. He’s just nice. He’s a better person than I am.”
Saggese’s parents also realized when he was young that he was pretty good at baseball and was serious about the sport. He was in the eighth grade when a family friend gave Saggese a book to read. It was one of the classics in baseball literature, “The Science of Hitting” by Ted Williams.
“That was his Bible,” Tom Saggese said.
The book was published in 1971 and even the revised edition came out 16 years before Saggese was born. No matter, he devoured the book and Williams’ philosophy became his philosophy – hit, hit, hit, then hit some more.
Years later, Saggese’s takeaways from the book remain the same.
“I remember him writing about how he hit until his hands starting bleeding,” Saggese said. “He put in all that work, and he got upset when people called him a natural hitter. I kind of took that to heart.”
When it came time for Saggese to start high school, Wendi talked her husband into getting an apartment about 30 minutes away from their home in Carlsbad so they could be inside the Rancho Bernardo High School district, a decision based entirely on the fact she thought the school had a better baseball program.
Saggese went to school there for two years before the family moved back to Carlsbad when Wendi’s health started to decline.
It was when Saggese was a sophomore that he first caught the eye of veteran scout Steve Flores.
“He may be the best human being I’ve ever signed”
Flores has been a scout for 43 years, including a seven-year stint with the Cardinals in the 1980s. Among the players he signed were future Cardinals Todd Worrell, Terry Pendleton and Greg Mathews.
Saggese was in a showcase tournament that Flores, working for the Texas Rangers, happened to attend.
“He probably weighed about 140 pounds,” Flores recalled. “All I said in my notes was ‘strong backside kick move to the ball,’ which is what I look for in hitters.”
Flores also made a note to continue to pay attention to this kid, and the more he did, the more he learned about the relationship between Saggese and his mother.
“His mother drove him 2 ½ hours to the San Fernando Valley for hitting lessons and then drove him back,” Flores said. “She would wake him up, put him in the back seat and he would sleep all the way. She also drove him to play on a scout team run by Chuck Fick (another former Cardinals’ scout).”
Flores watched as Saggese got a little bigger his junior year, in which he hit 10 home runs to go with a .422 average, then noticed as he hit 10 more homers in summer ball – followed by three in the 2020 high school season, shortened to just seven games before the Covid-shutdown.
“His senior year I was at a game at Murrieta Valley, which is a huge ballpark,” Flores said. “It’s 420 feet to straightaway center with a backdrop, and Tommy hit a line drive halfway up the backdrop. He maybe weighed 165 pounds at the time.
“I looked around and I was the only scout there. I was like, ‘I’ve been doing this 40 years; how am I the only guy on this guy’? It was crazy.”
The more Flores watched Saggese, the more he liked what he saw in him as a player. Then he met Saggese, and his affinity for the person began to develop.
“His makeup is off the charts,” Flores said. “He may be the best human being I’ve ever signed. He’s incredible. His parents did a great job. I just heard one story after another about his makeup; it was almost hard to believe.
“The more you are around him, the more you adore his mentality. He’s not afraid to work. … His philosophy is just enjoy life. I think he did it to honor his mother because she did everything for him baseball-wise… ‘anything you need Tom’ basically.
“I think what he plays for is to honor his mother.”
“I want to feel the ground when I hit”
After Saggese’s senior season was stopped because of Covid, Flores wasn’t sure what would happen with the draft. Luckily, he thought, the Rangers had been able to get two of their crosscheckers in to see Saggese during the abbreviated season.
He sent a text to Saggese one day just to check in and see what he was doing to work out, knowing all of the hitting cages were closed.
“He sent me a video back of him hitting off a tee barefoot in the grass,” Flores said. “I went, ‘OK, here’s something I’ve never seen before.’ I texted him back and asked what he was doing. He said, ‘I want to feel the ground when I hit. I want to feel if I’m driving into the ball.’ I just went, ‘wow, this is a high school senior.’ This is like watching Honus Wagner or something.”
Saggese said, “that sounds like something I would do, but to think I thought that back then is pretty cool. It’s interesting because that’s what I feel now. I probably did it this offseason too … I’m positive I did. I like to be barefoot.”
Wanting to feel all of the aspects of hitting is also the reason Saggese has stayed away from using batting gloves, except on really cold or humid days.
“I never liked the feel of batting gloves when I was little,” he said. “I just didn’t think they were made that well. I felt like I couldn’t feel the bat like I wanted to. I just didn’t see the purpose of them.”
Flores noticed that, of course, along with all of the other elements of Saggese’s game that he really liked. What impressed him even more, however, was how well Saggese had dealt with his mother’s illness and the maturity he showed at such a young age.
“My brother had died right after his mother,” Flores said. “I texted him and said, ‘I feel for you’ and told him my brother had just died. He texted me right back and said, ‘I appreciate your thoughts.’
“When I was preparing to go to their house to visit with him and his dad before the draft, I kept saying to myself, ‘Is this real?’ Then I went to the house and I realized this kid is really that humble and he really does love baseball like crazy. This is real.
“This kid is going to play baseball for a different reason. Everybody wants to be a millionaire, but this kid is going to play to honor his mother and for the love of the game.”
Flores was able to convince the Rangers to select Saggese in the fifth round, the final round in that 2020 draft, and signed him away from a college commitment to Pepperdine.
“After we drafted him, I asked him what would your mother have wanted you to do?” Flores said.
The answer was obvious.
“The connection we had was unlike anything else,” Saggese said about his mother. “I was grateful for that. I knew it was different. There’s some people you connect with and some people you don’t. I feel like that happens even within families. I’m lucky that I think our connection was beyond anybody else’s.”
Even when his mom’s illness got worse, Saggese knew he was bringing her some joy by playing.
“Toward the end, my junior year, that’s when I started to get good,” he said. “She was in a lot of pain, although I didn’t really realize that at the time. I saw her posts on Facebook that she had a bad day, and then I went 3-of-3 with a home run, and it like made her day.”
Saggese pauses for a moment, his emotions still very real, as he knows, even now, what he does on the baseball field has a meaning beyond the day’s box score.
“I’d like to think she would be really proud and excited,” Saggese said. “Even before she passed, I played because I loved the game and I want to play to respect the game and play hard. I kind of want to honor what God has given me and I want to honor what my mom has done for me.”
“He truly does understand the beauty of life”
Saggese’s pro career began in 2021 and just two years later, he found himself traded to the Cardinals. Coming to the organization with him was Tekoah Roby, who had become one of his best friends after he also was selected in that 2020 draft.
Roby, and Flores, watched as Saggese led all of the minor leagues in hits and total bases in 2023, establishing himself, at 21, as one of the top prospects in the game. He was named the MVP of the Double A Texas League after a season in which he posted a .306 average with a combined 26 home runs, 34 doubles and 111 RBIs.
Part of the reason for his friend’s success, Roby believes, is the attitude that Saggese has about life – shaped at least in part because of his mother’s death.
“I think when something like that happens, it can either help a person gain perspective or he can become bitter,” Roby said. “I think he chose to gain perspective. I think he truly does understand the beauty of life.”
Roby and Saggese are sharing an apartment in Jupiter this spring, and Roby has marveled about how his friend lives his life.
“He’s got a lot of great attributes,” Roby said. “He’s one of the best people that you could meet. One thing I think he does that kind of stands out is he truly does care about everybody around him. I think he takes time to get to know people around him, and he truly cares.
“His attitude toward life, baseball, whatever, I think it’s very healthy.”
Saggese’s faith also has grown since he started playing baseball professionally. It’s also been a factor in his success, he believes.
“Pro ball makes you grow up quick,” he said. “It was a lot of stuff (in a short time) … my mom, the Covid season, the draft. I started going to chapel and I grew more in my faith. I’m pretty strong at this point but there is room to grow.”
That sounds like the description of Saggese as a baseball player too.
“It’s interesting, and pretty wild, because it’s kind of like it happened over time,” Saggese said. “It’s almost like if your child is growing but you see them every day, you don’t really notice it. I would describe it the same way.
“I’ve loved pro ball. I’ve noticed that people who have a beginning to faith, and who grew up in that kind of household, they get to pro ball – and they know it can tear you down. I think people have to have faith in something to survive.”
One of the highlights of Saggese’s spring was getting some tips on playing defense from Ozzie Smith. Watching Nolan Arenado and Paul Goldschmidt go about their pre-game preparation, and what he learned from that experience, will stick with him into the regular season.
As much as Flores wanted personally to see Saggese remain with the Rangers, he knew the trade to the Cardinals would be good for him.
“You look at our (the Rangers) infield and those guys, barring injury, are going to be there for six or seven years,” Flores said. “It was right for Tom.
“I text him every month or so because I don’t want him to think just because he’s no longer a Ranger we don’t think of him. Everybody in the organization misses him. I get texts from other scouts all the time; ‘did you see what Tommy did today?’ or ‘I read this about Tommy.’ Everybody loved him.”
Saggese joined the Springfield Cardinals after last summer’s trade. He had not been there long when he learned that he had something in common with one of his new teammates, Pedro Pages.
Pages’ mother had also died of cancer, in 2016, when he also was a senior in high school.
“My mother is a big part of my story too,” Pages said. “When my mom passed it motivated me more. Everything I do now is for her. I went up to Saggese and shared my story with him and that honestly brought us to be closer. We are like brothers now I guess.
“It’s part of life. At the end of the day you can’t control it. I want to make it to the major leagues for my mom. That’s my goal. She kept fighting for two years, so why would I stop fighting? I’m just fighting for my dream.”
Saggese is too.
“I didn’t really feel like I was a victim,” he said. “Her having cancer was all I ever knew. I was more grateful that she had cancer for 10 years. It was a blessing that I got that much time with her.”
Even though they are no longer together physically, Saggese knows his mom is always there. All he has to do is tap his wrists together.
What would she be thinking about Saggese’s success?
“She would be in Jupiter right now, I’m sure,” her husband said. “I’m sure she would move there. She would be absolutely thrilled.”
Photos courtesy of the Saggese family and Springfield Cardinals
Follow Rob Rains on Twitter @RobRains
