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Ross Gload warming up for the Kansas City Royals at Yankee Stadium in 2007.
East Hampton graduate Ross Gload will be inducted into the Suffolk County Sports Hall of Fame this Thursday, May 18, at East Wind in Wading River.
The Hall of Fame announced that Gload is included in one of its biggest classes ever with 23 individuals along with three “historic inductees.” Some of the headliners joining Gload include Olympic athlete and Central Islip native Dawn Ellerbe, NFL front office exec and NFL analyst and former St. Anthony’s coach Pat Kirwan and former NHL player Pat LaFontaine, who currently resides in Huntington.
Gload played four years of varsity baseball at East Hampton High School, culminating with his best season in 1994 when he earned Suffolk County’s Carl Yastrzemski Player of the Year Award. He led the Bonackers to a Suffolk County title that season, thanks to three homers off his bat in the championship game. His 41 career home runs, and 20 in the 1994 season alone, are New York State high school records. Gload and the Bonackers eventually lost to a Wally Szczerbiak-led Cold Spring Harbor team in the Long Island Championship after winning the county title — Szczerbiak went on to enjoy a very successful 10-year career in the NBA.
After playing college ball at the University of South Florida, where he is also a member of its Athletic Hall of Fame, Gload was drafted by the Florida Marlins in the 13th round of the 1997 MLB June Amateur Draft. He eventually broke into the Major Leagues on August 31, 2000, with the Chicago Cubs. He played for six different teams during his 10-year career, including the team that originally drafted him in the Marlins, and he won a World Series ring with the Chicago White Sox in 2005. Widely known around the majors as one of the best pinch hitters of his time, Gload batted .281 and hit 34 home runs and drove in 222 RBI during his career.
Gload was among the first athletes inducted into the East Hampton Athletic Hall of Fame when it was established in 2012. In February 2020, a group led by current varsity baseball head coach Vinny Alversa and assistant coach Henry Meyer pushed to have their former teammate’s number 22 retired, but the pandemic never allowed that ceremony, which was set to happen in May of that season coinciding with a varsity baseball game.
Gload could not be reached for comment regarding his upcoming induction, nor could his former coach, Jim Nicoletti.
