Lenny DiNardo: From Pitching Strikes to Pitching Homes

Boston Globe's Peyton Doyle wrote a great article of pro baseballer player turned Edge Agent and Fraioli-Wilson Team member, Lenny DiNardo. 

Lenny DiNardo still finds time for baseball, whether it's in the broadcast booth or giving pitching lessons.

Lenny DiNardo was meant to play baseball. He knew from a young age that his left arm would take him places.

Once his baseball career ended, though, DiNardo wasn’t sure where life would take him. He definitely didn’t think he would walk off the field and into the world of real estate.

“I really had no idea what I wanted to do after. I kind of knew I wanted to be a baseball player, and thank goodness that worked out,” DiNardo said. “After retirement from baseball, I just kind of needed to do something, and real estate kind of fell into my lap, as well as broadcasting.”

After 13 years playing professional baseball, the southpaw began his career as a licensed realtor in Rhode Island in 2017. He now works for Edge Realty Group, which offers listings in the Ocean State, as well as Massachusetts and Connecticut.

For DiNardo, even the place where he would end up working and making his home after baseball was a foreign land once.

“Moving from Florida, it’s a different kind of pace,” DiNardo said. “When I was moving to Rhode Island, everybody thought I was crazy, a salmon swimming upstream so to speak. The snow is still kind of a novelty for me even though it’s been close to eight years. I still don’t mind shoveling the drive.”

So far in his career, DiNardo has seen every kind of house possible in the state, and everywhere, too, from Warren to South Kingstown. To him, it doesn’t matter who’s selling the home or what it looks like, what’s important is the experience for the people with whom he’s working.

“I’ll help someone who has a cardboard shack and they want me to sell it. I’ll do my best to take care of them and treat them the same way as if they had a $4 million mansion,” DiNardo said. “I would never turn down a listing, because I feel like you’re helping people out and giving them knowledge and expertise regarding selling or buying … It’s a good feeling when it’s all said and done with a close and you can see the smile on their face.”

When asked what life lessons he carried from the diamond to the doorstep, DiNardo said that nothing is as important as hard work.

“My mentality as a baseball player was the old-fashioned show up early and stay late, kind of work harder than the next guy. And I take that same work ethic to everything else I do,” DiNardo said. “Let’s say I’ve got a smoke inspection that day. And a lot of times, the fire marshal will get there 15-20 minutes early, but I’m typically there before them. So if anybody shows up before me, I got to look at my clock, because it just doesn’t happen very often.”

DiNardo may have hung up his cleats and turned his attention to real estate, but his involvement with baseball isn’t over.

The former pitcher spends about half of the regular season at Fenway Park for NESN. DiNardo is a key part in the network’s coverage of the Red Sox.

He can be seen on pre- or postgame shows, as well as specialty segments like when he spoke to Garrett Whitlock about being a Rule 5 Draft pick.

DiNardo said baseball season is when he feels especially thankful for the supportive team around him.

“If I’m in Boston doing Red Sox games, it’s a 12-hour a day if you count the two-hour drive [in] and two-hour drive back,” DiNardo said. “So it’s nice to have a team around you, including my wife who got her her license as well, to be able to kind of take over if I’m busy, which during this part of the time of the year, it’s more often times than not, I’m swamped.”

That team around him is one of his favorite aspects of his life. DiNardo knows that teamwork isn’t just required when trying to win World Series titles, but also in most work settings.

No matter what the office looks like, DiNardo knows that a person is nothing without a good group around them, and everyone is needed to keep everything running smoothly.

“If I’m on stage with two or three people during a Red Sox broadcast, we all try to make each other better, and if I’m not making the person next to me better, than I’m not doing my job. And the same thing goes with real estate,” DiNardo said. “We’re all trying to help each other out with listings, and if I can’t do something, everybody else is trying to help me out and vice versa.

“Whether it’s real estate or broadcasting or baseball, it’s all a team atmosphere. Making each other better is the main focus.”

Read the original article here! Boston Globe