Valley Blue Sox to induct new class into Hall of FameDate: 3/15/2021 HOLYOKE – The Valley Blue Sox will host the eighth annual Western Massachusetts Baseball Hall of Fame Induction Ceremony later this month.
General manager of the Blue Sox, Kate Avard, said the ceremony began in 2014, as a way to recognize the history of baseball in Western Massachusetts. “The Hall of Fame is run through the Western Massachusetts Baseball Committee, it’s also run in conjunction with the Valley Blue Sox. Back in 2014, the owners at the time wanted to do something that basically honored the history of baseball in the area. There’s tons of it, and people don’t know much of it,” she said.
Avard said in addition to paying homage to the history of baseball, the annual event became a fundraiser for the Blue Sox. She said in a non-COVID-19 year, community members and other individuals would buy tickets to the banquet-style event with a dinner and raffles.
Another part of the event that has remained the same, she said, has been the size of the induction class. “Usually we do a class of about six or seven people that have been influential,” she said. Inductees into the hall of fame class, Avard explained, ranged from local leaders in the baseball community to major and minor league players from the area.
“It ranges from local people that have been successful in the majors or minors, local community leaders that have been impactful at the youth level or adult level. Anyone that has contributed to the baseball community,” she said. “People that have been influential in continuing the over 30 baseball league, people that have been influential in creating youth leagues.” She added that over the years they have even honored teams.
She said while the event has remained relatively the same, this year would be slightly different due to the gathering restriction surrounding the COVID-19 pandemic. In addition to the ceremony being an online, free live-streamed event, Avard said they also went a slightly different route when choosing the inductees for this year’s class.
“This year we went kind of a different route when selecting inductees. All our inductees have passed away. We wanted to take the opportunity to focus on people who we may not have thought of for an in-person ceremony,” she said. “That’s the theme of this year, honoring people who wouldn’t be able to attend an in-person ceremony. This year is a little different, so we thought it’d be cool to do more of a history lesson.”
Included in this year’s inductees are the Holyoke High School baseball teams from 1950 and 1953, who Avard said “both had very successful seasons and went on to win state titles.” Also included in 2021 inductees are:
• 14-season Major League Baseball (MLB) veteran, Adonis Terry
• Negro League Star with the Cuban Giants, Ulysses “Frank” Grant
• MLB American League record setter, Jack Chesbro
• Pioneer and leader of Springfield Youth Sports, Romeo Cyr
• 16-season MLB veteran, Stuart Miller
• New York Mets, Montreal Expos and Detroit Tigers infielder, Kevin Collins
Avard explained that last year during the 2020 Hall of Fame ceremony a new tradition was included in the ceremony, one that will carry on in this year’s ceremony: the Ryan Doyle Courage Award. Ryan Doyle, she explained, was a former student athlete at the Minnechaug Regional High School in Wilbraham. “He was an athlete at Minnechaug, he was diagnosed with cancer, but continued to be a very active participant throughout the athletics program at Minnechaug,” she said. “We started this award in order to honor him and his battle, and how he was a very successful athlete and teammate.”
Unfortunately, Avard said Doyle passed from his battle with cancer and the award was presented to his family during the 2020 ceremony. This year she said the 2021 award honoring Doyle will be presented to former 2011 Blue Sox alum and Baltimore Orioles MLB player, Trey Mancini. Avard said Mancini was being presented the award in light of his recent battle with colon cancer. She said, “Thankfully he has been cleared and is back playing with the Orioles.”
While the Blue Sox is unable to host the fundraising aspect of the event this year, Avard said they are hosting an online fundraiser throughout the month of March with the event ending on March 28. “We’re just asking for donations at this point,” she said.
Avard said she was excited to see a special segment that was currently being put together that featured players of all ages from the area. “We’re asking local athletes from t-ball to college to summit five to 10 second videos saying ‘We’re ready to play’ dressed in their uniform or Blue Sox apparel,” she said. “We’re excited to have that, we have quite a few submissions. We’re excited to find a way to incorporate athletes.”
She added that they were hopeful and excited to be able to get back to hosting the in-person event next year. This year’s event will be live streamed on both the Blue Sox Facebook page and the team’s website (valleybluesox.com), and takes place on March 25 at 7 p.m. The fundraiser can be found at https://www.snap-raise.com/v2/fundraisers/valley-blue-sox-2021#/ and will go until March 28
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