NYCBL Alumni Spotlight, Syracuse University

Welcome back to the New York Collegiate Baseball League Alumni Spotlight. Every other week until the beginning of the 2009 NYCBL season in June, former NYCBL (NCBL or NESBA) players or coaches will be featured. Last June, 33 current or former New York Collegiate Baseball League players were selected in the Major League Baseball entry draft. Countless other former players and coaches have gone on to success at the collegiate and professional levels.

This week, the spotlight shines on three players from Syracuse University. Syracuse dropped baseball as a varsity sport in 1972, however three multi-sport athletes from the ‘Cuse competed in the Northeastern Collegiate Baseball League in the 1980s. In this week’s spotlight are former Orangemen Will Pennyfeather, Byron Abraham and Sonny Spera.

Will Pennyfeather spent two football seasons (1986, 1987) at Syracuse University as a back-up wide receiver playing for head coach Dick MacPherson. He was a back-up wide-out on Syracuse’s 11-0-1 national title contender in 1987. In the summer of 1988, the Perth Amboy, N.J., native took to the outfield for Auburn Pepsi-Cola of the NCBL. Through the first half of the ’88 season, Pennyfeather batted .317 with three home runs, 12 RBI and eight extra-base hits. He was selected to the 1988 NCBL All-Star Game (played in Auburn, N.Y.).

However, the SU pass catcher would not finish the NCBL season. He was signed as a non-drafted free agent by the Pittsburgh Pirates on July 1st. Pennyfeather made his Major League debut for the Pirates in 1992 as a replacement for an injured Barry Bonds. He played in 40 games for the Bucs over the next three seasons as he split time between Pittsburgh and Triple-A Buffalo as well as Triple-A Indianapolis after a 1994 trade to Cincinnati. Pennyfeather missed all of 1995 and then caught on with the Triple-A farm clubs of the Angels and Dodgers in 1996 and 1997.

The former SU pass catcher returned home to New Jersey to play for the Atlantic City Surf of the independent Atlantic League in 1998. He played in Atlantic City for three seasons, though he spent part of the 1999 campaign in the Anaheim Angels’ farm system. Pennyfeather played the better part of the final five years of his professional career in the independent Atlantic League with only a brief stint in the Northern League in 2003. During his final professional season in 2006, Pennyfeather was named the Newark Bears Player of the Year and he was an Atlantic League all-star.

Like Will Pennyfeather, Bryon Abraham took to the gridiron for the Syracuse University football team. The 1983 Parade All-American football star from Notre Dame High School in Utica, N.Y., attended the University of Notre Dame in 1983 but would later decide to transfer to Syracuse University. Abraham played three seasons of football for the Orangemen and was a senior on Syracuse’s 11-0-1 team in 1987. Abraham scored a touchdown in S.U.’s season-ending, 32-31, victory over West Virginia at the Carrier Dome to keep the Orange’s unbeaten record intact.

While at Notre Dame, Abraham entered the Northeastern Collegiate Baseball League as a member of the Rome Indians. He played in the 1984 NCBL All-Star Game at MacArthur Stadium and drove in one run as the North all-stars defeated the South all-stars, 8-6. Two seasons later, Abraham was one of the top players on an Indians team that featured future Major Leaguer Archi Cianfrocco and current LeMoyne head baseball coach Steve Owens. According to the Syracuse Herald Journal, the Utica, N.Y., native led the eight-team league with a .400 batting average.

Abraham graduated from Syracuse in 1988. He currently works in Utica, N.Y. and is the head football coach at Utica-Notre Dame High School.

Before Will Pennyfeather and Byron Abraham entered the Carrier Dome, Sonny Spera was knocking down jump shots for the Orangemen under head coach Jim Boeheim. The 6-foot-5 guard spent four seasons at Syracuse and was a team captain during his senior season in 1984-85. Spera’s hoops teams made the NCAA tournament in 1983, 1984 and 1985. Before heading to Syracuse, Spera was a standout high school pitcher at Union-Endicott. A chance meeting in 1982 between Spera and a Syracuse Junior Chiefs staffer at a local restaurant ended up with Spera in the NCBL.

Spera pitched in the Northeastern Collegiate Baseball League for the Syracuse Junior chiefs (1982) and the Syracuse Braves (1984). The 1982 Junior Chiefs made the inaugural NCBL playoffs but did not survive the six-team, round-robin tournament. Spera’s 1984 Syracuse Braves finished 12-21.

The Endicott, N.Y., native was a two-time draft pick of the Milwaukee Brewers. The Brewers tabbed Spera in the 13th round (293rd overall) of the 1983 draft and then again in the 25th round (633rd overall) of the 1984 draft.

Instead of signing a professional contract, Spera retained his amateur status. After graduating in 1985, he attended graduate school at the University of Buffalo. Currently, Spera, a licensed dentist, operates his own practice in the Binghamton, N.Y., area.