Table of Contents
The sign hanging on the mantle in the Nutile home says “We interrupt this marriage to bring you the baseball season.” That’s a good illustration of how much baseball played in the lives of the Nutile family.
Susan Nutile and daughter Katie knew baseball was ever present in their home and lives. The passion for baseball was driven by Bob Nutile’s love for the game and his devotion to youth baseball in Winchester.
For most who knew Nutile in Winchester, he was Mr. Baseball. They knew him as a coach and manager for Winchester’s youth baseball program for 47 years and president of Winchester Baseball for 21 years.
He was the namesake of Robert J. Nutile field on Wildwood Street.
It’s only the very few older townies that remember Nutile as a kid roaming Winchester’s ballfields and area hockey rinks. His accomplishments in sports started early in life, first as an athlete and later as a coach.
There was a steady stream of mourners at Costello’s Funeral home last week as family, friends, and baseball colleagues gathered to pay their respects for a coach, friend, and mentor.
Bob Nutile passed away on Sunday, May 18, 2025, at Sunrise of Lynnfield, where he had been living since February. He suffered a stroke in 2006 and battled Parkinson’s Disease since shortly after the stroke.
Nutile was a Winchester native, having grown up on Nathanial Road. Aside from a brief period early on in their marriage, when he and his wife Susan lived in a few towns surrounding Winchester, Nutile was always all about Winchester.
It was only in recent years that the Nutiles downsized from their Taft Drive home and moved to Woburn.
“He was a townie from start to finish” says Nutile’s older sister, Reggie Mead. “He was a Winchester guy, there’s no two ways about it. When he moved to Woburn, it was the big shock of everybody’s life. Woburn was the town rival for all of our growing up. Katie (his daughter) gave him a Woburn t-shirt when they moved, which I thought was hysterical because I’m not sure I ever saw him wear it.
“People who are not townies probably do not remember how great the rivalry was between Winchester and Woburn,” Mead added. “For all of our growing up that was the huge rivalry, that was the Thanksgiving Day football game, and it was the rivalry no matter what and to have him move there (Woburn) it was kind of fun.”
Nutile was weeks away from his 16th birthday when his dad suffered what turned out to be a fatal heart attack at Mead’s wedding reception. She explained that while her brother had coaches through all of the sports that he played, “At 16, you really need a role model and that was tough for him to lose his role model at that point.”
“He was very fortunate, and the town was very fortunate that there were men who were willing to step in and be a model for him and be a guidance for him and be someone he could talk to if he needed to,” Mead said. “I think that was very significant in his development and as he got a little bit older, he really appreciated the fact that these men were willing to step in. We, as a family, were really glad that these people were willing to step in. That’s sort of the beginning of his getting involved and volunteering and doing all kinds of stuff with the kids in town.”
Multi-sport high school athlete
As a teen, Nutile started umpiring and coaching in Winchester’s youth baseball. That was the beginning of his volunteer efforts for Winchester baseball.
His own sports achievements began as a pitcher and shortstop on Winchester’s Little League All Star team in 1957. He was also the captain of his youth basketball team for two seasons, 1959-60. Nutile was invited to play quarterback for St. Mary’s football team.
At Winchester High School, Nutile was a multi-sport athlete. In football, he was the leading scorer in his junior and senior years, and all-scholastic in 1966. He was captain of his hockey team and all-league in his junior and senior years, and he was a three-year starter for Winchester’s baseball team and all-scholastic in his junior and senior years. He also ran track.
Nutile went on to Vermont Academy and then to Clarkson University on hockey scholarships and also attended University of Massachusetts at Amherst.
After college, Nutile continued with his coaching and playing. He played minor league hockey for the Greenfield Mohawks in the Eastern Hockey League. He coached Winchester’s Pop Warner football and played on a variety of softball teams.
One of Nutile’s softball teammates, Richie Lanzillo, would become his coaching partner for decades on a variety of Winchester’s youth baseball teams. Two of those baseball seasons stand out as particularly accomplished, 1982 and 1994.
The 1982 regular season team made league history, finishing the season undefeated with an 18-0 record. The all-star team, which included five players from that undefeated team, won the New England Championship.
One of the standouts from the 1982 teams, Greg Wyse, delivered the eulogy during Nutile’s funeral at St. Mary’s Church and said Nutile was not just a coach, but remained a constant presence in his life.
“He was a community leader a motivator, a friend,” Wyse said. “The lessons I learned on the baseball diamond, I take with me today. I will always be grateful for his wisdom and mentorship on the baseball field and in life. Thank you for every practice, every prep talk, every life lesson disguised as a baseball drill. You shaped us more than you ever knew.”
Wyse said Nutile was a perfectionist on the baseball field and would often attempt to psych-out the opposing team by conducting a flawless infield practice routine prior to the start of the game. While Wyse was the leading hitter on the undefeated team, he said Nutile insisted the boys stay humble.
“He reminded all of us that only as good as our last game or last at bat,” he said.
The Winchester Star reported the 1982 team outscored its opponents 127-29.
It wasn’t just about wins and losses on the baseball diamond for Nutile. Mead said she always thought hockey was her brother’s favorite sport, but the town’s baseball program provided more volunteer opportunities than other sports.
“He obviously loved sports down to the bottom of his heart,” she said. “But baseball had a big organization in town, and it was something he could volunteer to be part of. The baseball with Little League and Babe Ruth League were managed with volunteers and that gave Bob a place to put back into the town.”
One aspect of Winchester baseball became a focus for Nutile and that was the condition of the town’s baseball fields.
Former Winchester Baseball president, Bob Sullivan said Bob Nutile helped gather a group of Winchester residents to bring more organization and fundraising to the town’s baseball program and to improve field conditions.
“The interest behind doing that was really to get all the fields safer,” Sullivan said. “We ended up in probably a four-year span putting all the backstops and dugouts and protective fencing around all the fields in Winchester. It was a big deal. A lot of sweat and toil went into it.”
Sullivan said as the fields improved, Winchester was able to host tournaments, inviting other towns to play here and Nutile organized much of it.
“It became his…literally vocation. It was a hobby with him, but he put so much time into it, he loved it,” Sullivan said. “He’s very organized so he knew what he was doing, and you know and he knew the baseball side of it so he was he was definitely the hub of the wheel. You know we were all spokes doing our individual jobs, but as a coordinator, I took a lot of lead from him and as a baseball guy, a lot of the coaches took the lead from him in clinics and baseball knowledge and stuff like that. So, he was the key guy no question. Mr. Baseball is the right title.”
Improving the town’s fields
Of the many projects Bob Nutile and Winchester Baseball spearheaded to expand and improve the town’s ballfields, adding lighting to Nutile Field (then known as West Side field), was probably the most contentious.
The Winchester Star reported that after the Selectmen (as the Select Board was known at the time) voted 4-1 in favor of accepting Winchester Baseball’s gift of lighting for the field a group of residents opposing the lights had quickly gathered enough signatures to petition having the issue added as a warrant for the upcoming Town Meeting.
Steve Powers was chair of the Select Board at the time and he had also been Nutile’s high school hockey coach in his junior and senior years.
“Bob wanted to make the field a showpiece for the kids, and he wanted lights,” Power said. “He was the pusher for the lights. There were a lot of meetings with the selectmen, with the zoning board that he had to attend. Without his perseverance they would have never got that field.
“During the years when the maintenance of the field, Bob (meaning Winchester Baseball) would pay everything,” he added. “The town wouldn’t come up with any money. Nothing. They did nothing. They said we’ll go in and we’ll and do some repairs two or three times a year. That was the only offer. He would have his group pay for all the maintenance. The town would say we can’t afford it up at the level you want to keep it up. So, they actually worked the machines.”
Long time friend and baseball parent Russ Wyse said, “We’d get a dump truck and dump loam on the field, and we’d rake the rocks and stuff out and trying making the field decent playing conditions for the kids to play on.”
Powers said Nutile’s efforts trickled down to the younger groups that used the other fields in Winchester. He said Nutile also pushed for the Skillings Road baseball field to by making a lot of phone calls.
Rich Michienzi succeeded Nutile as president of Winchester Baseball, but prior to that had spent many years on the board with him. Michienzi said there was a secret to Nutile’s success,
“Bob had a way of getting things done because he had so many contacts with the community…the Select Board, the DPW. I’m not quite sure that we, as a community or even as a board of directors at that time, had a sense and appreciation of how Bob did get things done behind the scenes,” Michienzi said. “But he also allowed people to help him on the board. When the lights went up, there were good people on the board, volunteers that had expertise and he let them run with the ball, but then when we went in front of the board, he made the presentation. He just had a good way about him. He liked to joke a little bit, but it removed the seriousness off the table, and it just made for better feelings between all of the Select Board and Bob. He knew when to speak and knew when to let others speak.”
A key part of his success was the team of fundraisers on the board and also the volunteers. One of the major fundraising events, The Rubber Duckie Race, took place each year during Winchester’s Town Day. Hundreds of rubber ducks were dropped into the Mill Pond, each one numbered, and the first duck to go over the falls, wins. People would buy a numbered duck for a donation with the hope that their duck is the first over the falls.
“A lot of people participated,” said Wyse. I’m not sure who initiated the duck race downtown at the falls. That was a big moneymaker. It had a lot of volunteers, a lot of help from people in the town helping him anyway they possibly could. With the money from fundraising he built refreshment stands, bathrooms, storage areas, not just at his field but the other fields as well.”
Nutile’s crowning achievement was probably hosting two Cal Ripken World Series at Nutile Field, in 2009 and 2012. By the start of the 2009 World Series, Nutile Field had added fences, a snack shack, and a new media/storage/umpire building behind the backstop.
Bob Nutile was quoted in the Winchester Star, saying that three days after the 2009 series the CEO of Cal Ripken Baseball asked when can we do another one. In 2012, he made his debut as a World Series coach.
“It’s my Super Bowl,” he told Boston.com.
It was all about the kids
During the almost 50 years in Winchester Baseball, Nutile took part in countless games, practices, board meetings and discussions about lights, fields, neighbors, and everything else associated with ushering a program through the decades. The people associated with Nutile over the years will say it all came down to giving back for the kids.
“One of the most impressive things to me was in the later stages (of Bob’s health) the kids from the 1994 team came over to the house and visited with him which I thought was pretty good,” said friend Russ Wyse. “It says a lot about him. If they age, they probably look back and say he taught us some great lessons. We were a successful team, but he taught us great lessons that we carried through into life. So, I think it was baseball, but I think it was kind of life lessons.”
Michienzi said he respected Nutile because “He knew the game, but he also kept it at a level where he knew it was just youth baseball. He wanted to make sure that the kids had a good time. Bob always kept it at a good level.”
Sullivan agreed.
“His kids liked baseball, did very well at baseball all due to Bob,” he said. “My guys all played baseball in college and that never would have happened unless they had run into Bob who could teach them well, had a good attitude. It helped them go forward with it. They were all good athletes….but the lean toward baseball was strictly because of Bob.”
Even though Bob didn’t have a son in the baseball program, he endeared himself to the kids who were.
“I always say my kids were Bob’s adopted sons,” Sullivan said.
