By Ron P. Coderre

This week’s RPC column is dedicated to John Foucault, an energetic individual always ready to help whenever it involves young people.  Foucault is a coach of the Putnam Clippers and the TriTown American Legion Baseball programs.  He recently celebrated a birthday but claims he’s still young enough to stay actively involved in baseball. 

Next Up Recruits Post Grad rankings, which are updated once per month, came out with its latest rating of prep schools from around the nation and the Putnam Science Academy Mustangs are still in the Top 10.  The Tom Espinosa-coached Mustangs are currently ranked #6 in the country despite suffering through a rough spell in which they dropped four games in a three-week period.  They are 25-7 going into The Big 5 Conference Tournament.

The Scientists have beaten three of the teams that are ranked ahead of them in the poll.  Standing on top of the poll is Brewster Academy at #1, a team that recently dropped the Mustangs.  The #2, #3 and #5 teams, Notre Dame Prep, Northfield Mount Hermon and Hargrave Military Academy are all teams that have succumbed to the Mustangs.  PSA also has a win over the #7 team, IMG Academy of Florida but has been victimized by #8 St. Thomas More and #9 Tilton Academy.   

The team was recently notified it was selected once again for the National Championships, which begin on Tuesday, March 10 at Connecticut College in New London.  The Mustangs open play in an 11:45 a.m. contest against Hargrave Military Academy a team they defeated 99-87 in the Best Western Caisson Shootout in Virginia in December.  Should the team emerge victorious they’ll face IMG Academy of Florida another team they’ve beaten this season.  PSA played IMG in November in the National Prep Showcase and won 82-71.  

Hamidou Diallo is the leading scorer for the Mustangs at 15.4 points per game.  He’s followed by slick ball handling point guard Kealen Ives at 15.0 and Josh “The Igniter” Wallace at 14.2.  Ives is the team’s assist leader with 7.8 per contest, while Wallace is averaging three assists a contest and Diallo 2.1.  Mamadou Diarra, the 6-foot,, 8-inch center/forward is the team’s leading rebounder with 6.9 caroms per contest.  He’s followed by Andrew Robinson with 5.3 boards a game and Vincent “The Big” Eze at 5.2.  Andrew Robinson and Ives lead the team in three-point baskets with 68 and 58 respectively.  Wallace has 47 from beyond the arc.

Next Up Recruits is run by Taylor Hicks, who has a master’s degree in sports management from Eastern Kentucky University.  The poll committee consists of various post grad prep school coaches from across the country with input from credible scouts who follow prep school basketball closely.

Dear Old Alma Mater

Putnam Town Administrator Doug Cutler is a 1974 graduate of American University in Washington, D.C.  On a recent trip to the nation’s capital Cutler had the opportunity to take in the Eagles game against the University of Loyola – Baltimore on Wednesday, February 4.  The trip to his alma mater’s campus was worthwhile for Cutler as American won the Patriot League contest, making his flight home to Putnam most pleasurable.

Local Whistle Blowers Selected for State Games

Three members of the Eastern Board #8 Approved Basketball Officials were selected to officiate in the upcoming CIAC State Tournament.  Two of the three will be seeing State tourney action for the very first time.

Veteran official Christian Sarantopolous of Pomfret was chosen to work tourney contests in the boys’ postseason.  Sarantopoulos, who has been a referee for almost two decades is a dual board official, with status also on the New Haven Board.

Bill Bartholic of Danielson was selected to work in the girls’ postseason tournament, while Putnam resident Peter Vitale will be working in the CIAC boys’ tournament.  Bartholic has been blowing the whistle for approximately six seasons and Vitale is entering his fourth season of officiating.

Baseball Shrine and Standard Falling by the Wayside

They say change in life is inevitable.  Despite preparing ourselves for the events that have an effect on our everyday lives, change is often very difficult to swallow.  This past week an event occurred that affected many baseball traditionalists and will change the baseball face of New England forever.

The news broke that one of baseball’s best bargains for the price, which is played in a venue that many consider a baseball shrine, will be going the way of many of our beloved standards.  The Pawtucket Red Sox, who have been playing their games in venerable McCoy Stadium since 1977 when the team was bought by one of New England’s greatest entrepreneurs, the late Ben Mondor, has been sold to a conglomerate that involves Larry Luchino, president of the Boston Red Sox.

Although there are hundreds of memories of the greats passing through the gates of McCoy on their way to the Majors, some personal memories involve some lesser lights with ties to the greater northeastern Connecticut region.

Holding a place of honor in Cooperstown, N.Y., at the Baseball Hall of Fame is memorabilia of a game that was played on April 18-19, and completed June 23, 1981.  That contest between the beloved PawSox and the Rochester Red Wings, now holds the record as the longest game in professional baseball history.  The contest went 33 innings and took 8 hours and 25 minutes.  It featured two future Hall of Fame players, Wade Boggs of Pawtucket and Cal Ripken of Rochester.

Also in the game was one of Eastern Connecticut’s most beloved athletes Roger LaFrancois.  That evening LaFrancois relieved his good friend Rich Gedman as Pawtucket’s catcher in the seventh inning and caught the next 26 innings.  Remarkable!  He came to the plate eight times and recorded two of Pawtucket’s 21 hits in the game.

Many a summer evening, we’d pack the car with my sons David, Chris and any of the kids in the neighborhood who wanted to tag along, and head to Pawtucket to “see Roger play.”  It was always a thrill.  We still talk about those trips with fervor today.

Then there were the evenings in Pawtucket when Brooklyn resident Joe Voccio would be in the PawSox bullpen performing his duties as the team’s bullpen catcher.  It was always fun to watch the humble Voccio being asked for autographs by the flock of young kids who were always on hand at McCoy.  And he was great to our kids and friends by occasionally tossing them a used baseball.

Of course being greeted by Ben Mondor was always special.  A permanent fixture at the entrance to McCoy, Mondor treated everyone as though he’d known them all their lives.  And then there were Mondor’s two protégés, Mike Tamburro, the president and CEO of the team from Shrewsbury, and Lou Schwechheimer, the vice president, chips off the Mondor block.  Always personable, the pair like Mondor never forgot their patrons.

The team will soon become big time corporate America, moving to a new stadium along the river in Providence.  The setting may be more modern, newer and possess the amenities of some Major League parks but to the baseball traditionalists, it will never match up.

Here’s to the Pawtucket Red Sox, McCoy Stadium, and the City of Pawtucket, the game may be leaving you but the memories will live on forever.

RPC’s Closing Thought For The Day: “Take me out to the ball game, Take me out with the crowd. Buy me some peanuts and cracker jack, I don’t care if I never get back.  Let me root, root, root for the home team, if they don’t win it’s a shame.  For it’s one, two, three strikes you’re out, at the old ball game.”

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