The American Association announced Tuesday that Kansas City T-Bones’ manager Joe Calfapietra has been named the Manager of the Year for the 2018 season.

Calfapietra led the T-Bones to a 62-37 record and a playoff berth as the second place finishers in the south division. The Eastern College alum also helped a league-leading eight players into organizational ball since the end of the 2017 season.

Calfapietra is in his second season as the T-Bones’ manager. The 46-year-old has an overall record of 966-819 in 19 seasons as a manager, all at the independent level. Calfapietra spent 14 seasons as the manager of the New Jersey Jackals of the Can-Am League. Only four of those 14 teams did not reach the postseason. The Jackals won the league championship in 2004, at the end of Calfapietra’s second season in New Jersey, and then his teams reached the league championship series in five consecutive seasons, 2011-15. In 2016, the Jackals went 62-38, before losing in the first round of the Can-Am playoffs.

Calfapietra started his coaching career in 1994, when the T-Bones were in Duluth, Minn., and were known as the Dukes. In 2002, Calfapietra was the first-ever manager of the Gary SouthShore RailCats, where he was the league manager of the year, before starting with New Jersey the following season.

In the first games of the playoffs, Kansas City will take on the Sioux City Explorers at T-Bones Stadium Tuesday and Wednesday evenings at 7:05. Tickets are available for $8.00 at tbonesbaseball.com or by visiting the Box Office, which will be open special hours on Labor Day 10:00 am – 2:00 pm.

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