Napoli lands happily ... in Toledo

That's the nutshell version of how a kid from Brooklyn ultimately wound up running one of the most popular sports franchises in the country. The unabridged version is a bit more interesting as Napoli chronicles his rise from the streets of Kings County to running the Toledo Mud Hens.

Okay, so Napoli really wasn't a wild-eyed youth running through the streets of Brooklyn in the late '70s like some Tony Manero wannabe. But he was a city kid, as New York as the subway, bagels and the corner pizza joint. And he did give up what could have been a lucrative career in banking to follow a dream after reading an article in Sports Illustrated nearly two decades ago.

The article in question, one of several in the magazine that influenced Napoli's career path, was about the Durham Bulls and the phenomenon the team and Minor League ball had become in the wake of the movie "Bull Durham." It wasn't long after reading the story that Napoli, now the vice president and general manager in Toledo, packed up and left the big city for Canton, Ohio.

"It was a charming story about Minor League baseball 20 years ago," said Napoli, a St. John's graduate who had been working for now defunct Manufacturer's Hanover in New York City at the time the article appeared. "I never realized you could make a career out of sports. So I started looking at clubs and I ended up in Canton in the summer of 1990.

"I had a great job out of school. I just didn't enjoy going to work every day. And then I started thinking about the things I enjoyed growing up. I had always loved sports but never thought of it as a career. And if you roll back the clock to the late '80s, you had more clubs failing than thriving. And my family thought I was nuts, but I moved to Canton for $900 a month."

Napoli, 43, took a job as the head of sales and promotions for Cleveland's Double-A affiliate in the Eastern League, but was more of a jack-of-all trades, doing a bit of everything from pulling the tarp during rain delays to taking tickets when necessary. He was young and he was having fun, and it quickly became apparent that banks were for bankers, something he obviously was not.

It was during his time in Canton that Napoli read yet another article in SI, this one by acclaimed author Leigh Montville. The story told the tale of the Toledo Mud Hens and how that franchise had also taken on the responsibility of being one of Minor League Baseball's most recognizable faces. The story was funny and touching, and once again Napoli was hooked.

So he called then Toledo general manager Gene Cook, a long-time fixture and goodwill ambassador of the community in his own right, and before you could say Corporal Klinger, Napoli was the Mud Hens assistant general manager.

"That story was the kind that if you read it, you'd laugh out loud," Napoli said. "So, I ended up calling Gene and I stayed here for a few years."

But Napoli wasn't the permanent fixture he is today in Toledo. He would move on to work for the Chicago Bulls of the NBA as the manager of corporate sales and promotions, and with the Detroit Tigers [the Mud Hens' parent club] as the assistant director of marketing and ticket sales, before returning to Toledo in 1998 when Cook retired.

Upon his return to northwest Ohio, Napoli became one of the driving forces in the construction of Fifth Third Field. The stadium, a building some thought would never get built, became a reality and remains one of the showplaces in Minor League ball, thanks in large part to Napoli's influence. He's a hands-on administrator, but he's also a down-to-earth real person who is more willing to get a deal done with a handshake and smile than by boxing someone into a corner.

Napoli's a respected businessman who has found his niche. So much so that the folks of Toledo have entrusted yet another venture to him and the nonprofit group that runs the Mud Hens. The city has embarked on building a new hockey arena that will also be home to an Arena Football League franchise, and Napoli has taken on the task of getting the project completed, from laying the first brick to selling the final ticket.

It's not Manhattan, but Napoli knows it doesn't have to be. He's got his wife Annette, whom he met in Toledo, and his four children [Marisa, Daniel, Michael and Gina] with him, becoming the poster boy for everything that's possible in a small town.

"When you grow up in New York, you don't even know there's another world out there," Napoli said. "But when you find out there is, it's easy to fall in love with these small towns, especially when you see how important the teams are to the communities. I haven't looked back at all and have loved every minute of it.

"And, my family doesn't think I'm nuts anymore. They used to. I still have buddies in New York, though, that think I live in Idaho and ask me if I drive by cows every day on my way to work. I love Toledo. It's a best-kept secret, and it's really easy to live here."

Though Napoli admits there are times when he thinks about taking his considerable talents elsewhere -- and he's had offers -- those moments pass quickly. He's in Toledo to stay. And it doesn't look like any magazine article is going to change that this time.