Vic Lombardi

Victor Alvin Lombardi was born on September 20, 1922, in Reedley, California, twenty-two miles southeast of Fresno. He was the son of Biagio Vito Lombardi, a farm worker who had emigrated from Italy, and Lena (Freitas) Lombardi, the daughter of Portuguese immigrants and the mother of five children from a previous marriage. When Vic was young, the family moved thirty-eight miles south to Tulare. As a pitcher at Tulare High School, he played for Pete Beiden, who would later become a legendary coach at Fresno State University.\n', "

Lombardi was signed as an amateur free agent in 1941 by Brooklyn Dodgers scout Tom Downey. That year, at age eighteen, he began his professional career with the Johnstown Johnnies of the Class D Pennsylvania State Association. Twice striking out nineteen, as well as eighteen and seventeen, he finished with 204 strikeouts and posted a 12-3 record, with a league-…