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Lee Louis Mazzilli, who has owned a home in Greenwich, turns 61 on Friday. The former Major League Baseball player was born March 25, 1955, in Brooklyn, N.Y.
Mazzilli was naturally ambidextrous, and swung the bat both ways from an early age. He won eight national championships and was the first round selection (14th pick overall) of the hometown New York Mets in the 1973 Major League Baseball Draft.
In 1979, he led the Mets with 181 hits and 79 runs batted in, and was their sole representative at the All-Star Game in Seattle.
He hit a game-tying solo home run in the eighth inning of that All-Star Game, and drew a bases-loaded walk in the ninth inning to bring in the winning run of the National League's 7–6 victory.
Following the 1981 season, where he hit only .228 and was hampered by injuries to his back and elbow, he was traded by the Mets to the Texas Rangers.
He played only 58 games with Texas and was traded to the New York Yankees for Bucky Dent midway through the 1982 season. Prior to the 1983 season, he was traded to the Pittsburgh Pirates.
At the end of his career, he took up acting, starring as Tony in an off-Broadway production of "Tony n' Tina's Wedding."
On Dec. 11, 2006, he was hired as the lead studio analyst for Sports Net New York, the cable television network for the New York Mets.
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