The Tri-State Baseball League opens its 79th season of play on Sunday May 20th
with all eighteen teams in action. Each team will play a 20 game
regular season with the ‘Top Twelve’ teams qualifying for post-season
play in August to determine a league champion. In addition, five teams
will qualify for the AABC Stan Musial ‘State’ tournament to be held the
last week of July to determine a state champion. One Tri-State team will
also qualify for the AABC ‘Regional’ tournament in Wallingford, CT
beginning on Thursday August 2nd with a chance to qualify for the AABC
World Series to be held in Port St. Lucie, Florida beginning August 9th.
Tri-State
has also joined the National Amateur Baseball Federation for the 2012
season and will send one team to the NABF Regional tournament held in
West Haven, CT beginning Thursday August 9th with a chance to advance to the NABF World Series in Buffalo, NY beginning on August 16th. There is no state tournament for the NABF.
Parity
is the name of the game in the Tri-State Baseball League as there have
been five different league champions in the past five seasons. The
Litchfield Cowboys (2011) are the defending league champions while the
Bethlehem Plowboys (2010), Brass City Brew (2009), Winsted Whalers
(2008), and Torrington Rebels (2007) will all be gunning for another
championship. Equally impressive are the Tri-Town Trojans whom have
advanced to the Tri-State World Series each of the last two years and
the 2011 AABC state tournament champion Naugatuck Dogs. The Wolcott
Scrappers and Watertown Blaze, who finished in the top 5 rankings in
each of the last two seasons are also in the hunt for their first league
title as well as the Waterbury Wild whom qualified for last year’s AABC
Regional tournament.
The
Ansonia Valley Vikings will be playing their inaugural season in 2012
as the eighteenth member of the league and will be coached by Mark
Georgia. Rounding out the league will be the Bristol Greeners,
Terryville Black Sox, Amenia Monarchs, Thomaston Threshers, Prospect
Chargers, Burlington Hunters, and Lakeville Outlaws.
For
the second year in a row, the Tri-State all-stars will take on the
Torrington Titans in a ‘Fourth of July’ game at Fuessenich Park – game
time is 7pm. The mid-summer classic will be filled with festivities
including a pre-game skydiver carrying the American Flag and a Home Run
Derby. A Public Home Run Derby will begin at 3pm sharp with the winner
joining the Tri-State stars and Titans players in the Main Home Run
Derby beginning at 4:15pm. More announcements will be forthcoming on the
day-long events.
Tri-State will host a Campership Fundraiser on Saturday July 14th
with three games being played at Fuessenich Park – game times will be
10am, 1pm, and 4pm. Admission will be FREE at the door but donations
will be accepted all day long to benefit the Glen E. Winn Campership
Fund. The Torrington Rebels will host the Sandy Hooks Vintage Baseball
team on Saturday July 28th at Fuessenich Park. Game time is 1pm. The baseball game will be played under 1867 rules. The
Easton Banjo Society Band will provide old fashioned entertainment
during the game featuring music from the 1860-1880’s era. Admission will be FREE but donations will be accepted at the door for the Campership Fund.
The 2012 Old Timers Day game and Hall-Of-Fame ceremony will be held on Sunday June 3rd
at Community Field in Litchfield. Batting practice will begin for the
Old-Timers at 11am sharp followed by the Hall-Of-Fame ceremony at 12noon
and the start of the Old Timers game at 12:30pm. The Litchfield Cowboys
will host the Amenia Monarchs in a Tri-State regular season game at
3:00pm to round out the day’s events. This year’s Hall-Of-Fame class
includes Rich Blazek, Fred Bunnell, Jeff Merchant, Mark Murphy, Bob
Clinch, Don Rhynhart, sportswriter Rick Wilson, and umpire Jim Shove.
Tri-State
will also participate in the first annual CT Classic Showdown which
will showcase 2011 league champion teams from (Tri-State, Wallingford,
Housatonic, and Bridgeport) in a ‘friendship’ fundraiser for charity on
Saturday June 16th to be held in Danbury. A Breast Cancer
Awareness fundraiser is also being planned in Mid-August in Wallingford,
CT which would feature ‘all-star’ teams from the ‘four’ regions as
well.