Deluca Field press box to be named in memory of PA announcer Hal Baird
STRATFORD — For more than three decades, Hal Baird could be found in the press box at Deluca Field announcing for the Brakettes and other softball games.
Next week it will officially bear his name.
The Town Council will vote Monday to bestow the honor in memory of Baird, who died in December at 73.
Tom Galatie, who worked at WNAB- AM with Baird, asked the council to name the press box in Baird’s honor in January.
“For well over the past 30 years, Hal spent many spring and summer nights and weekends in that booth at Deluca Field, whether it was broadcasting for the Brakettes, Stratford High softball or national tournaments,” Galatie told the council.
Baird had a career in radio and was an on- air presence at several stations in the area, and later worked for SNET and at Sterling House Community Center in Stratford.
In addition to the Brakettes, he also served as public address announcer for the New Haven Nighthawks and New Haven Knights hockey teams, the Connecticut Coasters roller hockey team, and the Connecticut Classics softball team.
“Hal’s voice was heard all over the place,” Galatie said. “The people who came to the field knew his distinctive voice. This is going to be a big loss for everybody that goes there and I think it would just be fitting to his legacy to have the press box named in his legacy and his honor.”
Monday’s resolution is sponsored by Town Council Chairman Chris Pia of the 1st District and Bill O’Brien of the 9th District.
“It’s a great thing for a great person who truly gave back to the community and the town,” Pia said.
O’Brien said he came to know Baird from Sterling House, where O’Brien worked as athletic director.
“Hal was a part- time receptionist at Sterling House after he retired from the phone company,” O’Brien said Friday. “He also worked for us as a scorekeeper in the basketball program. When I started the high school basketball division in 1996 he came on as the head scorekeeper and continued until 2020 when the season was cut short by COVID- 19.”
O’Brien recalled Brakettes General Manager Bob Baird — no relation — introduce Hal as the team’s “legendary voice” during games at Deluca Field.
“And that he was!” O’Brien said.
Baird’s distinctive voice could also be heard for years on the Sterling House’s telephone system, as well as at Stratford United Methodist Church, where he worshiped and served as music chairman.
O’Brien said Baird was always volunteering time for others.
“Hal’s obituarymentions the many broadcasting experiences of his life,” he said. “One not mentioned that impressed me and says a lot about his character was reading on a program for the blind. I seem to remember he told me he did this every Friday morning, after he retired.
“Hal Baird was a special person with a unique and gifted voice,” O’Brien said.