A super-utility player, Rome's Angelo "Archi" Cianfrocco was first an 11th-round draft pick out of Onondaga Community College in 1986 by the Pittsburgh Pirates. Instead of signing, Cianfrocco decided to continue his collegiate career at Purdue University. He played one season for the Boilermakers and earned a higher draft selection in 1987 from the Montreal Expos.

His professional career was off and running. Plugging along 4 1/2  seasons in the minors, with stops in Jamestown (New York-Penn League), Rockford (Midwest League), Jacksonville (Appalachian League), Harrisburg (Eastern League), and Indianapolis (American Association), Cianfrocco improved at every stop. With Harrisburg, he batted .316 with nine home runs and 77 runs batted in to go along with 21 doubles, 10 triples, and 71 runs scored. He followed up that season hitting .305 in Indianapolis before earning a callup to the Montreal Expos.

Cianfrocco got his first major league hit, a three-run single, in the Expos' 9-2 win over the New York Mets on April 11, 1992. During his rookie campaign, Cianfrocco hit .241 with six homers and 30 runs batted in. In 1998, he split time between the Expos and the minor league Ottawa Lynx, and despite hitting .298 in Ottawa, the Expos traded him to the San Diego Padres on June 23, 1993. In San Diego, he quickly became a fan favorite as they created both "Archi's Army" and "CianfoCrew" fan clubs. Cianfrocco played parts of five seasons with the Padres and helped them make the 1996 playoffs when they were the National League West champions.

With San Diego, he played all four infield positions and even caught one game. His statistics were not spectacular, though he did bat .260 while he was there, but the fans loved his heart and the way he played the game. Cianfrocco finished his tenure with the Padres with 248 hits and 108 runs scored. He hit 53 doubles, five triples and 27 home runs while driving in 154.

During Cianfrocco's first two seasons and his last with the Padres, he spent time in Triple-A Las Vegas of the Pacific Coast League. He batted over .300 twice there, and cumulatively had 39 doubles, four triples, 17 home runs and 95 runs batted in. Known for its ability to make hitters better, the Pacific Coast League helped Cianfrocco find his swing.

Cianfrocco finished his playing career with the Seibu Lions of the Japanese Baseball League. He batted .163 in 15 games with two home runs and five runs batted in. He hung up his spikes after leaving Japan.

Over the course of his 10-year minor league career, Cianfrocco appeared in 738 games, batted .275 and hit 63 home runs with 386 runs batted in. He even stole 35 bases. Known more for his fielding, Cianfrocco had a career .978 fielding percentage with only 41 total errors in nearly 3,000 innings in the field. Cianfrocco had two nice highlights in his baseball career. One was on July 21, 1995 when he entered the game against the Atlanta Braves as a pinch hitter in the eighth

inning He smashed a grand slam, and when he came to bat again in the ninth inning, he hit a two-run single making him the first player since 1914 to have had six runs batted in during a nine-inning game despite not having entered it until after the seventh inning. In 1997, when the Padres played in the Annual National Baseball Hall of Fame exhibition game at Doubleday Field in Cooperstown, Cianfrocco won the Home Run Derby in front of a contingent of friends and family.