John Marzano was a former MLB player and in the WFBL was a former manager and coach of the A's, and was a broadcaster with the club when he suddenly and tragically died in a fall at his home on Saturday April 19th, 2008 at the age of 45.

According to sources from the Athletics organization, Marzano was found dead at the bottom of a flight of stairs in his native South Philly after a fall, which may have been itself caused by a heart attack.

Marzano’s rise to the position of manager with the A’s capped an incredible ride through professional baseball for the man lovingly known as “Johnny Marz” to everyone in the organization.

After retiring from MLB following the ’98 season, Marzano joined the fledgling Philadelphia Athletics FBC as a coach. He became a highly valued member of manager Paul Molitor’s staff over the years, culiminating in the 2002 WFBL championship season. Following that ’02 campaign, Molitor left a team that was being broken up in an expansion dispersal.

GM Matt Veasey recalls asking Marzano to take over as manager. “He was the natural choice. It was a tough time in the organization, there was hard work to do, and Johnny Marz was exactly the kind of guy who could both get that hard work done and maintain a light atmosphere in the clubhouse. He was a local guy who had the love and respect of the fans, and I felt that would help buy us some time in what we all thought would be a few difficult seasons.”

Thanks largely to Marzano’s touch as manager, the A’s never did have that difficult rebuilding period. In fact, his first team, coming on the heels of a complete overhaul, had the best regular season record in WFBL history, going 17-1-4 before losing in the Division Semis to Middle Village by a heartbreaking 7-4 score. “We had something like a 10-1 lead on the final day, and it all evaporated all of a sudden. Heartbreaking…” was how Marzano described the end to that playoff game in an interview just a few weeks before his death.

Marzano returned to manage the club to a 12-8-2 season in 2003, and another close loss in the Division Semis, before resigning due to personal issues that were never publicly disclosed but were believed to include difficulties with an illness in his family. After a two-year break away from the club, Marzano returned as the color commentator for A’s radio and TV broadcasts in 2006, a position that he still held at the time of his death.

He left behind a wife, Terri, two daughters, Dominique and Danielle, and two grandchildren. Services were held on Friday April 25th, and the Athletics established this Hall of Fame remembrance of Marzano. The A's players also wore the initials 'JM' on their uniforms, as well as having 'Johnny Marz" inscribed on the back of their batting helmets, for the rest of the '08 season, which resulted in the 2nd-ever WFBL Championship for the franchise.

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