Apr 15, 2019 By George Von Benko for The 6 min read

During his playing days Randy Wadsworth cut a wide swath at California High School and later at California University of Pennsylvania.

Wadsworth was a three-sport standout in high school. He played baseball, football and basketball for the Trojans.

“I was a throwback playing three sports,” Wadsworth said. “It’s a tough question about how I benefited from that. I have two sons, one is 23 and the other is 18 and they both played baseball. I never got them into other sports. So we did specialize, he went to Parkland High School which had like 850 kids per class. So you really have to specialize in a sport if you want to actually make the team.

“When I grew up there were 106 kids in my class and if you were a decent athlete you could play all three. From my experience I absolutely enjoyed playing all three sports. I was on some successful teams, basketball was probably my weakest sport. I enjoyed football, but I had just a love and a passion for baseball.”

Wadsworth was a member of the Trojans’ basketball team that won a section title in 1982 and competed in the state playoffs. He tallied 23 points off the bench that season.

On the gridiron Wadsworth was on Trojan squads that posted records of 6-4 in 1981 and 2-7-1 in 1982. He scored four touchdowns and four extra points for a total of 28 points that season.

In 1983 Wadsworth had a fantastic football season as he was named to the Pittsburgh Press All Star team. The Trojans posted a record of 7-3 and Wadsworth rushed for 1,302 yards and 14 touchdowns. He had a monster game against Jefferson-Morgan rushing for a then school record 304 yards and four touchdowns. He was also an outstanding free safety on defense recording 55 tackles and six interceptions.

“I started as a sophomore as a cornerback,” Wadsworth recalled. “I did spell Brian Schaum at running back. I was the feature back in 1982 and 1983 as a junior and a senior.”

In baseball Wadsworth was the starting catcher and helped the Trojans win the 1983 WPIAL Class AA championship. They beat Leechburg 6-4, which featured future major leaguer Mickey Morandini, who played for Philadelphia and the Chicago Cubs. California then lost in the first round of the PIAA tournament to Everett 4-0.

The WPIAL championship was the Trojans’ first in baseball. The school has since won four other times: 2001, 2006, 2014 and 2017.

The following year in 1984 Wadsworth and Cal advanced to WPIAL semifinals before losing to Carlynton, then rebounding to qualify for the PIAA Class AA championship game where they lost to Oley Valley. Wadsworth hit a lusty .557 during the regular season.

“I still think we should have won the PIAA championship game,” Wadsworth lamented. “If the umpire would have called just one more strike. We were right there. Coaches Romaine Howell and Budd Grebb were great when they took over the baseball program. We just took off. We had some athletes. If you think about it on the baseball team I was drafted, Brain Schaum was drafted and Brian Zanardelli was drafted.”

When Wadsworth graduated in 1984 he looked at several college scholarship offers.

“I was thinking about football and I had several schools interested,” Wadsworth explained. “But when it came down to it I wanted baseball. I started out at Robert Morris with teammates pitcher Brian Zanardelli and Brian Konick, a shortstop.”

Wadsworth transferred to Cal U from then-called Robert Morris College after that school dropped its baseball program after being the team’s starting catcher in 1985.

“They were going to honor our scholarship, we could have stayed there, but I wanted to play baseball,” Wadsworth said. “Coach Chuck Gismondi found out I was available and he approached me and the rest is history.”

In 1986 as the lead-off hitter, Wadsworth batted a team-high .377 and also led the Vulcans in hits (52), runs scored (36), and home runs (7). He was second on the team in RBIs (33), triples (5) and walks (21) and finished third in at bats (138), doubles (5), and stolen bases (5). Wadsworth received first-team, all-conference honors. The Vulcans posted a record of 19-25.

For an encore and hitting out of the third spot in the lineup, Wadsworth batted. 380 and tied the single-season home run record with 11. His 56 RBIs in 1987 is still a tied for the school record 20 years later and Wadsworth also led the team that season in hits (46), runs (32), doubles (5), triples (5), walks (30), and stolen bases (8).

Wadsworth was selected as the Vulcans’ Most Valuable Player both seasons and received the PSAC-West Player-of-the-Year honor in 1987 despite his team finishing with an 18-21 overall record.

“I loved playing for coach Gismondi, he was a very good coach,” Wadsworth said. “I would have liked to have won more games. We worked hard. You learn from adversity.”

Wadsworth was drafted by Los Angeles Dodgers in the 24th round of the 1987 baseball draft and went on to play professional baseball in the Dodgers’ organization and played for both the Great Falls (Montana) and Sarasota (Florida) Dodgers before a broken collarbone injury sustained from a home-plate collision ended his playing career. His career minor league numbers in 16 games was one RBI and a .148 batting average.

“After I recovered from the injury.” Wadsworth said, “they released me and I debated trying to latch on with another team and I walked away and went back to school.”

After getting out of school Wadsworth went into property management. He has been in real estate for 25 years. He currently works for Catholic Senior Housing and Health Care Services.

Wadworth was inducted into the California University Hall of Fame in 2007. Wadsworth was labeled the “best athlete that ever played for me” by 2003 Cal U Hall of Fame inductee Chuck Gismondi.

“Regarding the Hall of Fame it was pretty humbling and pretty amazing,” Wadsworth said. “When Coach Gismondi called me I was stunned. As a kid growing up in California I used to go to a lot of the games and hear the names and watch some of the people inducted with me such as Kenney Toomer and Tim Loomis. To be elected to this and knowing the great athletes that came out of here made this a great and special honor.”

Wadsworth, 53, and his wife and Cal U alumna Dawn have been married for 28 years and reside in Orefield, Pa. They are the proud parents of two children — Christian, 23, and 18-year-old Cullen who plays baseball for Longwood University.

George Von Benko’s “Memory Lane” column appears in the Monday editions of the Herald-Standard. He also hosts a sports talk show on WMBS-AM radio from 10 a.m. to noon on Saturdays.