By Michael Letendre
The weather has played absolute havoc for the Bristol American Legion baseball team in 2023.
Rain has already suspended a couple games and darkness KO ’ed another for Post 2.
So, without any new game stories to report currently, how about a look back at Legion baseball in Bristol over the years?
Let’s take a look at the good old days of Post 2 competing in Zone 1 during the year 2001.
Zone 1 gets an upgrade
Before the 2023 campaign, Post 2 competed in Zone 1 and played in that division year after year.
But twenty-two years ago, in 2001, Zone 1 got a bit of a boost.
Connecticut redid the zone formats and Bristol’s zone had some new challengers.
The new alignment consisted of nine squads as American Legion Baseball in Connecticut was realigned to cut down on travel (too bad no one considered trips from Bristol to Marlborough and Ellington when stashing Post 2 in Zone 3 in 2023. Where’s my check for all that gas money?!?).
But the ‘new’ Zone 1 in 2001 consisted of Avon, Burlington, Farmington, Simsbury, Southington, Torrington, Winsted, Wolcott and Bristol.
It was Burlington’s first season of American Legion ball and fit in well with the Zone 1 mix.
Post 2 ended up winning the zone behind a stellar 25-2 record while runner up Southington was 22-5 – three games back.
That was the 74th year of American Legion Baseball in Connecticut as 73 teams were playing in the state at the time, the most ever.
At the same time, Junior American Legion Baseball was on the rise in the state and 10 years later, in 2011, the squad from Bristol – under then coach Jerry LaPenta – won the Connecticut State Championship and went to the Eastern Regional in New Bedford, Massachusetts.
Almost all gone
Fast forward to 2023 in 19U play, only Simsbury, Torrington and Bristol are left from that Zone 1 format.
The rest of those squads have folded or compete at a different level.
Bristol’s standouts from the 2001 Zone 1 champions included Chad Martineau, Matt and Kyle Hackney, Mike Massey, Eric Carlson, Chris Marsh, Frank Rossi, Kyle Gravlin, Josh Nightingale, Cory Parker, Aaron Seibert, Kevin Kowalchuk, Mel Davis, Justin Wolfradt, Tom Holtz and Ben Strahowski under head coach Jim Ziogas.
And some of those players ended up competing for the Bristol Merchants of the Greater Hartford Twilight Baseball League over its debut campaign in the Mum City.
Post 2 was an amazing 24-0 against all the teams in Zone 1 that season except Southington (Bristol was 1-2 against that squad).
Bristol lost to Milford 14-5 in its final state tournament game (double elimination format) as the locals finished at 35-8 overall.
Random Game from 2001: Bristol 13, Burlington 2 (June 13)
Bristol wrangled up 15 hits, scoring 13 runs over the first three innings, to snare an 11-run victory over Burlington from Muzzy Field in Bristol.
Matt Hackney (3-for-4, two runs, five RBI) smacked out a two-run home run to lead Post 2.
Davis also had four hits to go along with four RBI as Bristol led by a 6-1 push through one completed frame.
Post 2 scored three runs in the second stanza and four more in the third to ice the game at 13-1.
Carlson, Nightingale, Mullins, and Strahowski combined for eight hits and six runs against Burlington.
Wolfradt won the game for Bristol on the mound, going seven strong innings.
He allowed nine hits, two earned runs while fanning a half-dozen batters.
“I think we did a great job,” said then assistant coach Hal Kilby to Michael Letendre of the Bristol Press. “We had a lot of good quality at bats from top to bottom.”
NOTES…In one of my stories in the Bristol Press that year, I spelled Hal Kilby’s name Hal Kirby. The long-time coach told me the following day that his last name was Kilby and that he did not sell vacuum cleaners…That season, Bristol American Legion stories were also printed in Dave Fortier’s Bristol Today’s weekly newspaper.
