Franklin Delano Petruno

Franklin Delano Petruno

Frank passed away on June 9, 2023 at the age of 90. He was born Nov. 8, 1932 to John and Susan (nee Shema) in the coal-mining town of Sykesville, Pa. Beloved husband of Janet (nee Estvander). Dearest father of Thomas (Laura), Susan Fink (husband Greg Brooks), David, Dale (Debbie) and Nancy McMinn(Dave). Grandfather of five, great-grandfather of four. He was the cherished brother of Joseph, Margaret Rohal, Jack, Michael and twin sister Frances (all deceased). 

Frank had enjoyed dual successful careers as a Cleveland business executive and as a player and manager in the ranks of the city’s extraordinarily popular minor league baseball teams in the 1960s. While Cleveland’s industrial economy began to struggle after World War II, the services economy boomed. In 1969 Frank was offered the opportunity to join a small Cleveland-based discount drugstore chain called Revco. As the firm grew rapidly in the 1960s and 1970s via acquisitions — at one point ranking as the nation’s largest drugstore chain — Frank was named Revco’s Vice President of Security and became a nationally known expert on retail-store security.

While Revco was his full-time job, Frank’s part-time vocation was sports, particularly amateur league baseball, which drew huge crowds in Cleveland during and after World War II. He was a seminal figure in Cleveland “sandlot-league” baseball in the 1950s and 1960s, as a star player (right field) and then manager for the Wenham Truckers-sponsored team, one of sandlot’s winningest franchises. In the 1960s, a period of severe racial strife nationwide, Frank was a tireless advocate for inner-city athletics in Cleveland, coaching youth football and baseball at city recreation centers. In recent years he devoted much of his time to the development of Cleveland’s Baseball Heritage Museum at the restored League Park on the city’s Eastside. League Park was the original home of American League baseball in Cleveland (today’s Guardians) and also hosted other teams including the Negro League Cleveland Buckeyes.

A member of the American Legion, Frank was a corporal in the U.S. Army 1952-54. He also had a lifelong devotion to his church, St. Joseph Byzantine Catholic parish in Brecksville.

In lieu of flowers memorial donations are suggested to St Joseph Byzantine Catholic Church 8111 Brecksville Rd Brecksville OH 44141 or The Baseball Heritage Museum 6601 Lexington Ave Cleveland OH 44103.

Friends received from 9 – 10:30 AM SATURDAY JUNE 17at St. Joseph Byzantine Catholic Church 8111 Brecksville Rd Brecksville with a Funeral Service at 10:30a.m.