Sal Blasi was called “Cyber Sal” by some of his friends and relatives because he started e-mailing when he was almost 90.
Blasi, who died Tuesday at age 97, remembered the days even before radio, but he moved with the times, always ready to try new things, meet new people and keep up on the news.
“He was vibrant, had a tremendous memory and was a happy presence to be around,” said friend Steve Mazzarella of Denver. “He just kept on keeping on.”
Blasi loved to tell about hawking newspapers in downtown Denver and about a two-story-high board The Denver Post had on the side of its building on Champa Street.
The board was built to resemble a baseball diamond with lights for bases.
A person would read, from a telegraph wire, the “broadcast” of a major league baseball game, and as a runner went from home to any of the bases, the light on each base was lighted.
Crowds gathered in the street to “watch and listen” to the games.
The experience led to a lifetime love of baseball for Blasi, who was loyal to the Chicago Cubs until the Colorado Rockies were born.
Blasi also was loyal to friends and family and opened his home every holiday, said his daughter, Roseanne Melcher of Westminster. “It got very complicated” figuring out if guests were friends or relatives, she said.
Blasi liked to cook Italian dishes and grew vegetables and peaches in his yard, but he raised few flowers, saying “You can’t eat them,” his daughter recalled.
Salvatore Blasi was born Aug. 23, 1907, in southern Italy and came to the United States with his family when he was 6, moving almost immediately to Denver because a relative had a job here.
He went to Skinner Junior High and North High School and then served in the Army in World War II.
He was married briefly to Nettie Shutto, and they had a son, Rocco Blasi. Both Rocco Blasi and Rocco’s son, Michael, preceded Sal Blasi in death.
Sal Blasi worked at Carbone Bakery, and he and a relative owned a bar in northwest Denver. Blasi later owned Albert’s Cheese Store on East Colfax Avenue.
It was there he met Mary Padilla, a nursing-school student. He asked her out several times before she agreed to go. They married on April 11, 1951. She survives him.
Blasi owned a corner grocery, the Ideal Market, at West 29th Avenue and Irving Street, retiring from that in 1969.
In addition to his wife and daughter, he is survived by five grandchildren and two great-grandchildren.
Staff writer Virginia Culver can be reached at 303-820-1223 or vculver@denverpost.com.
