Stratford begins building softball Hall of Fame

Updated: 11/28/2009 08:00:58 PM EST

STRATFORD -- When the town of Stratford beats its chest and says that it's "the softball capital of the world," it's not kidding.

From its creation in 1947 as the Raybestos Girls All-Stars until now, in its present form as the Stratford Brakettes, the program has won 28 ASA Major Fast-Pitch championships -- more titles than the New York Yankees (27), more than the Montreal Canadiens (24), more than the Boston Celtics (17) -- more than any sports team, professional or amateur.

And it's not just the Brakettes. On the men's side, the Raybestos and later the Franklin Cardinals captured another seven ASA men's Major Fast-Pitch titles over their lifespan and were national runners-up three times.

There have been 20 Brakettes who have been elected into the National ASA Hall of Fame, along with 13 Cardinals.

But that's not all. Avco Lycoming and Sikorsky won another 21 ASA Major Industrial and Class A Industrial national titles in their slow-pitch heyday.

That's 56 national championships, for those scoring at home.

Softball capital of the world, indeed.

Well, plans are now in motion to permanently display much of that history and tradition of Stratford softball with the creation of a Connecticut Softball Hall of Fame and Brakettes Museum building next to DeLuca field. The Connecticut ASA is going to put up a minimum donation of $1,000 to get the project started, according to Tom Chiappetta of the Fairfield County Sports Commission.

"People have been talking about this for a long time now and it's time to get the ball rolling," said Chiappetta, who made the formal announcement about the creation of the softball hall at the recent annual Hall of Fame dinner. "The timing is right for this. We're going to go slowly with this but it was time to stop talking and start doing."

So, thanks to state commissioner Ed Austin, the Connecticut ASA is getting the project rolling with its donation. In addition, another several hundred dollars were raised at the dinner. "It's great. All of a sudden, this project has got some legs," said Pat Patusky, superintendent of the Stratford Recreation Department and a member of the board of directors for Stratford Softball Tournaments, Inc. "Tom has brought a lot of energy and spirit to the project, which has been very helpful. (Mayor-elect John) Harkins has always been supportive of the (DeLuca) field and Ed Austin really stepped up to the plate with the donation, because to get any project started, you have to have money. This gets us going."

The idea is to renovate the old trailer that currently sits on the DeLuca Field site before expanding to a larger building of some kind, Chiappetta said. In addition, there would be a walkway with benches and a bike trail from the beach to the softball facility that would be created as part of the town's Greenway Development plan.

The hope is that the softball Hall would become a statewide tourist attraction, with old championship trophies, photos, newspaper clips and other memorabilia on display. Of course, the main focus would be on the Brakettes, since they still play at DeLuca Field.

"When the plans were drawn up a decade ago to upgrade DeLuca Field, there was a plan in place to build a Hall of Fame too," Chiappetta said. "It was going to be done in phases, but the money never really materialized and it was halted. But there's a lot of support for this now, especially with the town hosting another major tournament next summer."

On Aug. 5-8, 2010, Stratford will host three events simultaneously: the ASA Major, Class A and Class B women's fast-pitch tournaments. Patusky is hoping that the Brakettes, who hosted their own major fast-pitch tournament last August, will return to the ASA field.

In the meantime, planning will begin on the permanent placement and clean-up of the trailer, which sits down the right field side of the facility. Steps need to be reattached to the building so cleanup inside can take place, and electricity needs to be wired to the trailer. And while both Chiappetta and Patusky know that it will be difficult for the town of Stratford to contribute financially, the two say that any kind of public service -- such as positioning of the trailer -- would be a great help.

"All of this is going to be done with donations and help from volunteers," said Chiappetta, who added that one person has already come forward with a pledge to contribute a new roof to the building. "The building's in pretty rough shape and we're going to need people's help to get this thing fixed up. We want to get the word out to people that we're doing this."

The hope is that once the project gets going, people are going to jump on the bandwagon.

If you'd like to make a donation or volunteer to help, contact the Stratford Recreation Department at (203) 385-4052.

Contact Chris Elsberry at [email protected]