Vickie Biagini Interview Coming Tuesday

Part 1: Loved It

My latest interview is set to go tomorrow, but it's not the usual Greatest 21 Days interview.

It's not a direct interview with a player, coach or manager from the CMC set. It's an interview with the longtime wife of a manager from the set.

That's because the main subject and member of the set, 1990 Rochester Red Wings manager Greg Biagini, can no longer tell his story directly. He passed away in 2003 from cancer at the age of 51.

I featured Biagini here back in November, chronicling his story through research, a story that started as the player Biagini never made the majors, but the coach Biagini finally did.

I posted Biagini's research-based feature then. A month later, I got a comment.

The comment was signed Vickie Biagini and it was a rather nice comment. It's still attached to the November post. Vickie Biagini, it turned out, was Greg's longtime wife.

My interviews here have generally been with the players or coaches themselves, their recollections of their careers.

But with Biagini unable tell his story, might his longtime wife be interested?

It turned out she was more than happy to tell his story through her recollections.

As his wife for 27 years, Vickie Biagini was there for everything. They were married until they separated, though on good terms, in 2001. Greg was diagnosed with his cancer in 2003, passing later that year.

But Vickie was there for everything, the two met in Greg's second season as a pro, as he played in her hometown of Kinston, N.C.

She was there as he moved up to AAA and played in Mexico, but never making the majors as a player. She was there as he started his managerial career in rookie Bluefield, making his way back to AAA.

She was also there, when Greg finally got his call to the majors, as the Orioles hitting coach in 1992.

She shared all that, and more, including their son Tanner Biagini's efforts to follow his father into the game.

Along with the interview, Vickie sent up a bunch of pictures of Greg and the family throughout his career. Those will be included in the posts.

She also sent up something that, under the circumstances, ties everything together.

Since this blog is so tied to this one particular set of cards, I try and have the person I'm interviewing sign the card, setting the interview apart from a standard research-based post.

For a post like this, though, the questions were obvious.

It turns out, though, with everything else, Greg left behind a bunch of his autographed cards. Vickie took a look through them and, sure enough, there was his 1990 CMC Red Wings card, signed.

Part 1 of the Vickie Biagini interview: Loved It