Shane Pallotta:  

I will miss my friend Santy. He as an electric personality and I loved him Accident victim breathed baseball Hard-working Gallone lost his life in Saturday's New York crane tragedy A legendary second baseman at Fordham, Santy Gallone still holds four school records. (Fordham University) All of the seven people who lost their lives in Saturday's tragic crane accident in New York City had a unique story. Santino Gallone's intersected with professional baseball for two years. Gallone, whose body was pulled from the rubble Monday afternoon, was one of six construction workers who perished in the tragedy. He was 37 years old. When the native of Long Island, N.Y., is laid to rest Friday morning, he will be remembered as a loving husband and father, a trustworthy and highly skilled boss and co-worker and -- by all accounts -- a fanatically dedicated baseball player. Gallone, called "Santy" by nearly all who knew him, spent 1989-'92 as the starting second baseman for the Fordham College Rams. Known as an unflappable hard-nosed player, he still holds the school records for hits (222), at-bats (601) total bases (354) and most times hit by a pitch (42). He was inducted into the Fordham Athletics Hall of Fame in 2000. At Fordham, Gallone roomed with teammate Ray Montgomery, who went on to play parts of three Major League seasons with the Houston Astros. "Santy had that persona, the kind of guy who could just take over a room," recalled Montgomery, who has worked as a scout for the Milwaukee Brewers since retiring as a player in 2001. "He would light up any room he entered. He could make people laugh. He was brash, confident, an Italian from the island, all that good stuff. "He was an incredibly hard-working kid, and he made our apartment great. He lived and died baseball and was just a damn good ballplayer." Despite the success he achieved at Fordham, Gallone was not drafted by ...Expand for more