Joe Ricciutti’s career has come full circle.
The 36-year-old Staten Island, SOA ’95, native has the rare luxury of being able to work 10 minutes away from home. Ricciutti’s office, the Richmond County Bank Ballpark, is home to the minor league baseball team the Staten Island Yankees.
As the president of the single-A affiliate of the New York Yankees, Ricciutti has reached the pinnacle of minor league front offices, running a team that is responsible for producing the next generation of players for one of baseball’s most storied and successful franchises.
“It’s fun,” Ricciutti acknowledges, but “it’s not as much fun as Columbia.”
Indeed, this executive was once a part of the Columbia community.
After completing his masters in management and production in 1995, Ricciutti eventually found his way back to his former university, where from 1999 to 2002, he worked as a tech director in the office of University Events Management, and was a part of the original team that opened Lerner Hall.
“I loved being with Columbia,” he said. “Working around students was so enjoyable. When you help them, they’re so appreciative, and it’s so sincere, so genuine.”
The feeling is mutual. “Dedicated, compassionate, helpful, funny, and always on his stuff,” is how he is described by Elizabeth Strauss, SEAS ’08 and president of the Engineering Student Council. “Joe is the older brother everyone should have gotten.”
Unfortunately, the love affair would not last. In 2001, then-mayor Rudy Giuliani brokered a deal to bring minor league baseball back to New York. As part of the deal, a new stadium was to be built on Staten Island to house the Yankee affiliate. Ricciutti spent his summer vacation that year consulting and offering advice for the building of the new stadium, and he considered joining the organization full time.
“When I saw the articles in the local newspaper about the stadium being built, and always being in venue management, there was just something about producing on a 7,000-seat scale that was extraordinarily challenging,” Ricciutti said. “And working 10 minutes from home is pretty cool, too.”
In January 2002, Ricciutti left Columbia to join the Staten Island Yankees as the director of concerts and events for the newly christened Richmond County Bank Ballpark.
But in 2005, when the opportunity presented itself to return to Columbia, Ricciutti did not hesitate: “In a minute,” he said.
His new position was that of assistant director of event management, and it did not take long for him to work his way up to director of Lerner Hall.
As with the Yankees, however, Ricciutti’s new position came with several unexpected responsibilities, the largest of which was planning commencement.
“I was there just a few months, and I was asked to be a part of the team to put up commencement,” he said. “In my old capacity at Lerner, we were never really involved with commencement. It was just one of those days where you would show up late to the office. We had no idea what went on to support it. When I asked how many people show up to commencement, the answer was 40,000.”
To this day it is his proudest accomplishment at Columbia. As a reminder of what that team achieved, he keeps an aerial shot of the throng of 40,000 people on the Low Plaza lawn in his BlackBerry.
Ricciutti remained at the University until earlier this year, when he was suddenly contacted by the Staten Island Yankees, who had undergone major changes in ownership. The New York Yankees bought out the previous owners’ 51 percent share of the club, and sold half to Mandalay Baseball Properties, a subsidiary of Mandalay Entertainment that owns several minor league baseball teams throughout the country.
Along with new ownership came a new vision of rebuilding the franchise and making it a mainstay on Staten Island. Ricciutti saw this as an opportunity to give back to his hometown.
Leaving Columbia the second time around was not easy.
“I tried to forbid Joe to leave, but it didn’t work,” Strauss said. “He was such a presence on this campus and someone you could always count on. It was quite a blow when he left.”
Now, Ricciutti has seen much success with his new responsibility. This year, the ballpark saw an astronomical 30 percent rise in attendance and boasted more sellout games than in the previous seven years combined.
The Staten Island Yankees have built quite a following, successfully initiating the elusive sense of hometown identity while winning four Penn League Championships, a result of the combination of strong player development by the parent club and innovative marketing tactics by the single-A front office.
Still, Ricciutti knows his job is not complete. Audience development is a slow process and is sure to keep him busy for awhile. The word “typical” cannot yet be used to describe a day in the life of the president of the Staten Island Yankees.
“I’m sure at some point when it’s all done and built there will be a ‘typical’ day somewhere in there,” Ricciutti said. “But I haven’t seen one yet.”
