Bruno legacy includes ’Cats
State senator who died Tuesday instrumental in getting team to Troy
The Tri-city Valleycats never would have come to the Capital Region if not for former state Senate majority leader Joseph L. Bruno, team president Rick Murphy said Wednesday.
Bruno, who died late Tuesday at 91 years old, secured the $12 million in state money to build the stadium that lured the minor-league baseball team to the Hudson Valley Community College campus in Troy in 2002.
The stadium was named after Bruno and became known by the nickname “The Joe.”
“I think the senator was instrumental in not only having a conversation with (principal owner) Bill Gladstone about bringing professional baseball back to the Capital Region, but the senator had the vision of where the team should be and his relationship with Hudson Valley Community College and knowing what a great asset that the facility being built on the campus would be, not only for the college, but for the community,” Murphy said.
Gladstone died on April 30 from complications due to COVID -19. He was 88.
Gladstone and Murphy led the group that moved the franchise from Pittsfield, Mass., where they played as the Pittsfield Astros at an antiquated Wahconah Park and were looking for a facility that met the standards of minor league baseball.
The Capital Region was one of the markets they targeted, and Gladstone reached out to Bruno, Murphy recalled.
“We spent a lot of time together during the planning and development of the stadium and obviously when the first shovel went into the ground,” Murphy said. “So there are a lot of great moments between the Valleycats organization and particularly Bill Gladstone, myself and the senator and his staff
over the years. We had a lot of great memories. I know Bill and the senator had a very, very strong friendship and they had a great relationship over the years.”
Bruno threw out the first pitch before the Valleycats’ first home game in 2002, which became almost an annual tradition.
“It was so gratifying to see Joe Bruno at the stadium with a smile on his face on opening day, and he would always say a few words, and Bill would get out on the field and say a few words,” Murphy said. “The friendship they developed over the years, it really all came about through the game of baseball.”
Former Hudson Valley Community College athletic director Drew Marrochello said he recalled the impact the stadium had not only on the Capital Region but in raising the profile of Hudson Valley's athletic department.
The Hudson Valley baseball team also uses the ballpark and has reached the NJCAA Region 3 postseason for five straight seasons.
“I remember that it was due to Joe's influence and it doesn't get done without him," said Marrochello, now the athletic director at Boston University. “The thing about it is, it wasn't just a baseball field. It wasn't just a small-time minor-league park. It was a really tastefully done, family-friendly, wellconstructed, well-designed project. It helped us really bolster our entire athletic department and it's something when you've got a field on campus and people would say, ‘You guys rent that field from the Astros?’ You'd say, ‘No, this is our field.’ It was surprising to people that it was ours.”
The Valleycats attract more than 100,000 fans per season, bringing them on to the Hudson Valley campus. Section II high school baseball tournament games are also played there.
“I think if you're running a college or involved in a campus, just to have that many eyeballs on your campus and have that many visitors, can only pay dividends for the school,” Marrochello said.