This story was excerpted from Christina De Nicola¡¯s Marlins Beat newsletter. To read the full newsletter, click here. And subscribe to get it regularly in your inbox.
MIAMI -- It¡¯s not unusual for former college teammates to wind up crossing paths in the Majors. Look no further than Duke alumni Griffin Conine, Matt Mervis and Graham Pauley on the 2025 Marlins.
Then there¡¯s catching coach Joe Singley and left-handed reliever Anthony Veneziano, who were off-campus roommates at Coastal Carolina in 2019.
¡°He's my age, which is so funny, right?¡± Veneziano said. ¡°Being a coach at 27, and I'm a player at 27.¡±
Singley transferred over from Indian River State College during Veneziano¡¯s junior year in the Chanticleers¡¯ program. The pitcher and catcher hit it off quickly, in large part because of an unfortunate bond they shared.
¡°Ironically, both our fathers passed away, so we kind of hit it off right from the jump,¡± Singley said. ¡°Both pretty neat, really driven and had one goal in mind: It was just baseball the whole time.¡±
Veneziano fondly recalls finding out Singley was colorblind during their first week living together when the latter was ready to leave their place wearing a camo hat, a green shirt and red shorts. During hurricane season, they¡¯d carpool out of harm¡¯s way and stay at one of their childhood homes. They both cherish the memory of a night spent in Myrtle Beach, S.C., with Singley¡¯s father before his terminal cancer diagnosis.
Since Singley underwent four shoulder surgeries during his collegiate career, two of them during his time with Coastal Carolina, he became a de facto coach. When Singley was finally healthy, his father got sick. He had to step away from school to take care of him, and when his dad passed, Singley came back and was academically ineligible.
That¡¯s when his coaching career truly began.
¡°I would catch him in a sling and just throw it back with the other hand, so that's kind of where all the catching stuff really manifested for me there,¡± Singley said. ¡°I was studying biomechanics, and then studying catchers and helping them, and also caught every opportunity that I could even while hurt. So that's really where the birth of all this started.¡±
Singley -- who was hired over the offseason to be the Marlins¡¯ catching coach, assistant catching director and bullpen catcher -- had spent the previous three seasons with the Reds¡¯ organization (2022-24) after Tyler Stephenson reached out to him seeking help.
¡°It's cool,¡± Veneziano said. ¡°Honestly, I kind of saw that coming. He had some injury struggles in college, so he was almost like a player-coach when I was there. So [him] being a catcher and me being a pitcher, it was perfect that we were roommates together, because his baseball knowledge is through the roof. He helped me a lot during my time at Coastal.¡±
Despite their diverging paths, Singley and Veneziano kept in touch over the years and would lend a hand at their alma mater each offseason. Singley even plans to have Veneziano in his wedding one day.
¡°Immediately I called him, hoping he was still here, and then it worked out that we're both here now,¡± Singley said of his hiring. ¡°It's incredible. We still laugh about it, because we didn't really have any doubts that, one way or another, we'd both end up here [in the big leagues]. But it's just funny thinking about that like we are here. It's pretty cool.¡±