Bert Cuoio

Pocatello lost one of its native sons and long time residents on Saturday, October 30. Bert M. Cuoio, a local baseball pioneer, husband and father of five, passed away, at the age of 97, of complications after a recent heart attack. Born in Pocatello December 31, 1912, to Italian immigrant parents Vito and Filomena Cuoio, he rose through the sandlots, street ball players, and the Pocatello American Legion baseball club, to go on to play for several major league farm teams around the country a�"- mostly in California and Texas a�" including clubs sponsored by the Cincinnati Reds and the St. Louis Cardinals. In 1934, he journeyed to San Francisco and garnered a position playing center and left field with the San Francisco Seals, where he met and played with Joe DiMaggio, who was about to go to the New York Yankees and become a baseball legend. Bert was a tremendous hitter and was one of only about three of thousands of players in the then Utah-Idaho league to have hit the ball over the distant outfield fence of Overland Ball Park in Pocatello built by the Union Pacific Railroad. At the time, this was the largest baseball field in the world, located near the present-day intersection of Oak Street and Yellowstone Avenue. Bert was a 1931 graduate of Pocatello High School and attended Idaho State University before pursuing his baseball career. After the attack on Pearl Harbor, he joined the U.S. Army in 1942, and served his country in both the European and Pacific Theaters during World War II. Having had experience working for the Bank of America in Hollywood, California, he was assigned to the Army Finance Corps and was subsequently stationed in Camp San Luis Obispo, California, and later at Fort Polk, Louisiana. He was sent overseas to Malvern, England, in support of the D-Day invasion, and after the conclusion of the war in Europe, was transferred to Manila in the Philippines to support the war in the Pacific. Following the Japanese surrender, he was discharged and returned to the United States in 1946. After a short marriage to Bessie Frank of Houston, Texas, he moved back to Hollywood and the Bank of America. It was in the Bank of America where he met his loving wife of 63 years, Ophelia Schemm of Saginaw, Michigan. They were married in Las Vegas, Nevada, in February of 1947. After a brief stint as proprietor of a candy store in the California mountain resort of Big Bear, he and Ophelia returned to Pocatello, where he was employed with the Pacific Fruit Express Railroad until he retired in 1977. Although his baseball playing years were then behind him, he filled his days with his love of gardening, fishing, hunting, and the great Idaho outdoors. He will be much missed and long remembered by those family members who survive him: His wife, Ophelia, a brother and sister, Fred Cuoio and Yolanda Donnigan all of Pocatello; four sons, Bert (Judy) Cody of Houston, Texas, Michael (Diane) Cuoio of Sequim, Wash., Greg (Ann) Cuoio of Lacey, Wash., and John (Suzie) Cuoio of Pocatello; and one daughter, Lisa Mabe, also of Pocatello. The fourth of seven children, he was preceded in death by three older brothers, Antonio, F.A. Tony, and James, and a younger sister, Ann. He is also survived by 15 grandchildren and 16 great-grandchildren. Private family services will be held. Condolences may be sent to www.colonial-funeralhome.com.