Mario Cuomo was born in the back of a mom and pop grocery store in South Jamaica, Queens.

He went on to become "the governor of the greatest state in the greatest nation in the world."

Cuomo attended local public schools and eventually graduated from St. John’s University Law School.

A beanball ended his career as a fledgling centerfielder for the Pittsburgh Pirates organization, baseball having been something Cuomo learned to play on the south Queens playing fields coached by local legend Joe Austin.

In the late 50’s he began a career in law … which serendipitously catapulted him into political life when he won a landmark case in Queens.

Cuomo was hired to by a group of rag tag junkyard owners in Willets point to fight legendary Queens developing magnate Robert Moses, who wanted to sweep the place clean and make way for his 1964 World’s Fair. Bulldozing the eyesore and covering up the scar with a nice, new park would have made visitors smile, but it would been a trail of tears for the business owners in the area, and a forced exodus for the 69 households set to be scrapped in the redevelopment plans.

Cuomo, a little known attorney, who had recently jettisoned his professional baseball dreams and settled on a law career, was an underdog of David and Goliath proportions. No one thought he had a chance of winning. He did.

In 1977, Cuomo was persuaded to run for mayor in a bitter election he lost to Ed Koch but in 1982, the tables turned and Cuomo beat Koch in a primary for governor.