Suffolk Sports Hall of Famer and proud Italian-American Frank Catalonotto was honored with the first “achievement award” from the Italian American Baseball Foundation.

At a ceremony in Brooklyn in early December, Catalonotto was joined by guest of honor Joe Girardi and other well-known local Italian-American ball players to accept the honor.

Catalonotto spent 13 years in the big leagues and was recently named as the head baseball coach at New York Institute of Technology.