in the
Greats Graveyard
A Bethel Park family, the Ciaramellas, pen local history books as they research and unravel special hometown stories close to their hearts.
BY NICOLE TAFE
For the Ciaramella family, history isn’ t just something found in textbooks— it’ s a living, breathing adventure waiting to be uncovered. Whether it’ s rediscovering forgotten baseball players, restoring the legacies of Negro League stars, or chronicling the life of a silent film actress, Vince Ciaramella, his wife Erika, and their son Enzo have turned their love of history into a family mission.
Vince, a psychology teacher at Insight Pennsylvania Cyber Charter High School, has been writing for years. His journey into sports history began with“ Jack McClelland: The Pride of Pittsburg”— a biography of his great-greatgrandfather who was Pittsburgh’ s first boxing superstar. But it wasn’ t long after that endeavor when baseball history became the family’ s primary focus.
During the COVID-19 pandemic, the Ciaramellas were looking for a safe place to get some exercise and ended up walking the winding roads of Calvary Cemetery in the Greenfield and Hazelwood sections of Pittsburgh. Their exercise soon doubled as a research project— identifying and documenting baseball players buried there— which led to their first co-authored book,“ Greats in the
Graveyard.”“ We wanted to keep active, but we didn’ t want to go to the cemetery without a purpose,” Vince says.“ So, we started researching baseball players and where they
Vincent and Enzo on New Year’ s Day at St. Paul’ s Cemetery in Pittsburgh’ s Spring Hill neighborhood.
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