Bagwell HOF honor well deserved

Jeff Bagwell’s selection to the National Baseball Hall of Fame is a well-deserved honor. His numbers are certainly HOF worthy. I know there were whispers about Bagwell and performance-enhancing drugs and he hit a lot of home runs in the Steroid Era.

But he never failed a drug test and his name never surfaced on any report, so enough of that. It seems to me that the voters are showing maturity and intelligence by voting in deserving stars over rumor and innuendo.

I’ve told this story before, but Bagwell got his chance at first base through the intervention of the late Ed Buckie of Rocky Hill, who at the time was a scout for the Astros.

Seems that in spring training of his rookie year, Bagwell was buried behind Ken Caminiti at third base. General manager Bob Watson called Buckie into his office one spring training day in Kissimmee and asked if Bagwell ever played first. Buckie lied heroically and said he had and Watson said to get Bagwell and send him to his office.

Buckie got to Bagwell in a heartbeat and told him to say that sure, he had played first base. Buckie said Bagwell did as he was told, the Astros gave him a late spring-training shot at first, he won the job, was named National League Rookie of the Year and the rest, as they say, is history.

I remember sitting in the Florida sunshine at the Astros spring training facility with Bagwelll — OK, I’ll name-drop, Craig Biggio was sitting there, too — the year he got his first million-dollar contract. “Jim, that’s nuts,” he said.

It got millions of times more nutty for one of the great first basemen of our time.

Jeff Bagwell, of Xavier High, Middletown Legion and University of Hartford fame, Way To Go.

Middletown rolling along

Middletown High’s boys basketball team keeps on truckin’. Coach Rick Privott’s Blue Dragons dispatched Wethersfield and Rocky Hill — seven and eight win teams, by the way — last week to improve to 9-2.

DeAaron Lawrence appears to have rounded into basketball shape after football and has

scored 23, 21 and 27 points in his last three games. Markevious Snead and Tyshaun James are ruling the backboards, Ahmod Privott continues to excel in so many aspects of the game and Aveon Woods is coming along at point guard.

Privott is also developing his bench of Charles Sprowl, Jayden Bermudez, Kalil Thomas and Jordan Council. Privott, like most coaches, said his team still can get much better. It will have to for the rigors of the CCC tournament with East Catholic, Windsor, East Hartford, Weaver, South Windsor and the rest waiting in the wings.

The Class L tournament will be no picnic, either, Fun times await.

Middletown is home tonight with Berlin, which is always a fun game as there is a long-standing rivalry between the two. MHS plays at Bristol Central Thursday, then is home with Hartford Public Saturday afternoon at 3 p.m.

Xavier vs. Notre Dame

Xavier, even at 5-5, takes on one of the state’s heavyweights tonight when Notre Dame-West Haven, led by all-world guard Tremont Waters, who is headed to Goergetown, visits the Art Kohs Gymnasium.

I’m told that big crowds follow ND wherever it — and Waters — goes. Former Xavier coach and AD Art Kohs said that Waters is, “The best guard I’ve seen since Calvin Murphy,” which is about as high a compliment as can be handed out.

In the Falcons’ loss to Fairfield Prep, it was just a case of the better team winning. Xavier started out hot, but Prep’s balance wore down the Falcons. Prep is 6-5, but is playing without big man Patrick Harding (6-8). If they get him back, this will be one dangerous team in the loaded Class LL tourney.

Mitch Nappi and Jackson Benigni continue to light up the scoreboard for Xavier, but they need help.

After Notre Dame, the Falcons play three of their next four games on the road. Xavier plays at West Haven, Sheehan and Hamden with Cheshire at home on Jan. 30 to break up the traveling.

Mercy, Middletown girls keep winning

Middletown bounced back nicely from its disappointing — and very winnable — loss to Glastonbury last weekend. With wins over Wethersfield and Rocky Hill, the girls are now 12-1. They play at Berlin tonight — why does the CCC have a school’s boys and girls team play at the same time? It’s so unfair to kids who want to see their classmates play — and are home Thursday with Bristol Central.

Mercy’s loss to Capital Prep was not unexpected, but Mercy was in position to win that game. Both teams didn’t shoot well, but a lot of that was because both played very good defense.

The near capacity crowd was treated to 5-2 point guard Lizaya Morgan dazzle Mercy with her ballhanding and her ability to drain tree-pointers from way downtown. The kid makes the Trailblazers go.

Mercy has an enormous game tonight in Madison against Hand. The Tigers beat Mercy 53-42 in the season opener and are 10-2 and have won seven in a row.

Mercy, at 9-2, will be a very tough out in the Class LL tourney. Could Midldletown and Mercy meet in the tourney? Yes, but both will be very highly ranked and will likely have to advance to the semi-finals in order to meet.

Wouldn’t that be fun?

Kids in college

We mention from time to time area student-athletes performing at college. Here are more.

Area kids making their marks in college include former Cromwell girls basketball players Janelle Harrison at the University of Hartford, Nicole Rojas at Stonehill, Mya Villard at ECSU, Emma Belcourt at WCSU and Araya Lessard at Endicott.

Middletown High girls basketball alums include senior DeAsia Lawrence at Plymouth State (11.9 ppg.) and junior Rajeen Mayo at St. Joseph’s of West Hartford (13.3 ppg, 28 steals, 57 assists, 70 rebounds).

MHS alum swimmer Jerrod Zimmer is swimming at Bentley and MHS alum Devon Carrillo is undefeated in wrestling at Wesleyan and his brother Cody wrestles for Plymouth State.

Former MHS swimmer freshman Jack Doherty swam the butterfly leg in the winning 200 medley relay, took second in the 100 fly and won the 100 freestyle in his best time of the season in William and Mary’s win over Davidson Saturday.

As they come in, we’ll keep you informed on the area’s athletes performances in college.

City wrestling, hockey soaring

Xavier High’s wrestling team is No. 5 in the most recent Coaches’ poll. Middletown High’s wrestling team, in a so-called rebuilding year, is 14-6 and is getting votes in the statewide poll.

MHS went 3-1 over the weekend, beating Griswold, East Haven and Stratford, but losing to Hand.

Both local hockey teams are having terrific years. Xavier (9-2), after a 3-0 week, moved up to No. 2 in the statewide poll and No. 2 in the CIAC ratings. The Division I Falcons travel to highly-regarded Fairfield Prep Wednesday at 6 p.m.

The cooperative of which Middletown High is a part — along with Wethersfield, Rocky Hill and Plainville — is 7-1 and ranked No. 5 in Division III of the CIAC ratings. The co-op, known as WMRP, hosts E.O. Smith Wednesday at the Newington Arena at 4:45 p.m.

Here and there

One of the most entertaining things about the Mercy vs. Capital Prep game was watching the two coaches, Mercy’s Tim Kohs and Prep’s Tammy Millsaps in action ... both are, to put it mildly, animated ... as one other coach said to me, “Watching those two is worth the price of admission” ... of course, both are very good at what they do.

Vinal Tech’s boys basketball team is 3-6 and needs to win five of its remaining 11 games to qualify for the state tournament ... the Hawks travel to Cheney Tech in Manchester Tuesday.

Xavier Dean Dave Sizemore did a great — and touching — job of MC-ing the Coaches vs. Cancer Night at the Xavier game Friday ... he read names of Xavier-connected folks who are cancer survivors ... and he was careful to say thoughtful things about those who did not survive ... the school was decorated in pink bunting and pink balloons and there was a table of home-baked goodies, much of it pink-colored with proceeds going to fight breast cancer.

And let’s not forget, particularly at an all-boys school like Xavier, the most common solid tumor cancer in guys 15 to 35 is testicular cancer.

The MHS boys swim team has turned things around ... it won its third in a row over Wethersfield 97-87 Friday to improve to 4-3 ... the boys are home for three meets in a row with the Platt/Maloney co-op Tuesday, then Farmington and Berlin ... the program hasn’t had a losing season since Wilson High merged with MHS in 1984.

Xavier’s swim team is 3-4 and is home with Branford/ Guilford Tuesday evening at Wesleyan.

Lots of kids from Middletown, Mercy and Xavier have qualified for the state indoor track championships to be held at the Floyd Little Center at Hillhouse High in New Haven Feb. 10 and 11 ... Xavier is in LL and Middletown and Mercy are in L ... keep on eye on Mercy’s distance runners and Middletown’s outstanding sprinters in both relays and individual events.

If one wishes to sit during the National Anthem, that’s their right ... this is America ... but you do not have a right to move around, make noise and be a jerk while it is playing ... some kids, whom I presumed were Windsor High kids at the Middletown at Windsor game last weekend — it was only a few — need to learn that lesson.

Maybe if they visited Arlington National Cemetery, the Vietnam War Memorial and the Korean War Memorial in DC and had all of that explained to them, it would help ... yeah, I’m a leftie and I defend anyone’s right to protest ... but I am first and always an American and I stand up for the flag that represents this imperfect, but very good nation.

Don’t forget the Middletown Sports Hall of Fame Induction Dinner this Thursday at The Radisson in Cromwell.

WCNXRadio.com, the local Internet station, reported that over 1,400 logged on to the Mercy vs. Capital Prep game ... this week the station is carrying Tuesday’s South Windsor vs. Bulkeley boys game and Friday’s Old Saybrook vs. Cromwell girls game.

It was like old times at the Xavier vs. Prep game Friday night ... the Xavier student section was full, the pep band played and there were 400 to 500 in the gym ... it was a fun night, even though the home team lost ... Xavier is expecting a big crowd tonight to see Notre Dame.

Belated condolences to the family of former Middletown High star athlete Pat Watanabe ,... he passed away on Jan. 7 at the far too young age of 48 ... he was a member of the 1984 state championship MHS football team and the 1985 state runner-up team ... I remember him well.

It was good to see former MHS coach Tom LaBella and wife Kathy at the MHS vs. Wethersfield game ... MHS coach Rick Privott was a guard on LaBella’s three straight state championship teams from 19761978 ... Labella’s teams won 80 in a row, a record that still stands ... the gym at MHS is named in his honor.

Now for the really important stuff ... the pizza at Mercy games is excellent, the hot dogs at Xavier are OK, the dogs at MHS are good ... but lots of concession stand food to sample — and re-sample — before the results are in.

And we’re getting closer. Yankee pitches and catchers report in 21 days.