Sally Hoffman knew she was going to get married twice: first, to the love of her life, Michael Crescenzo. Then she married baseball. It was a package deal.
“I had no interest in baseball,” said Sally, now 92 years old and a neighbor of mine. “He introduced me to baseball.”
A Milwaukee native, she met Michael when he was in the Air Force. “It wasn’t love at first sight,” said Sally, “but there was a connection.”
They were sitting on the stoop of her home, discussing the future. She thought Michael would go back to his home in Philadelphia and marry a nice Italian girl, and she’d stay in Milwaukee and marry a nice Jewish boy. Shortly after that, they got married and moved to his hometown in 1954.
They raised three children, and Michael pursued several business ventures. One was a pizza shop in southern New Jersey near a college.
