Gary Distasio

A three-year starter in baseball at Reading High School, helping lead the Red Knights to the East Penn title with a .356 batting average in 1958. He played three years for the Pulaski Post Legion team and was selected to start at third base for the East Squad in the Legion All-Star game at Connie Mack Stadium in 1959. Later, he played in the Lebanon Valley League for Adamstown, leading the Hatters with a .368 batting average. Gary became a member of the Rising Sun Major Softball team and played 20 years (1963–1982), consistently hitting over .300. As Rising Sun’s shortstop, he hit .430 to lead the team to the Central Atlantic Regional title (1964) and .371 for the Central Region title team (1970). He made the All-World Tournament Team at Clearwater, FL (1974) and was named to the All-World first team (shortstop) at the tournament in California (1975). Gary played in the World Tournament in New Zealand, where the Sunners shared the title with Canada and New Zealand (1976), paced the Sunners in the National Tournament at Michigan with a three-run homer to win the first game (1977), and hit .345 to help the Sunners win the Gold Medal in the Olympic Sports Festival at Colorado Springs, CO (1978).