Military Museum to host benefit baseball game

MIDDLETOWN — The Greater Middletown Military Museum is hosting the 11th annual Norm Way Memorial Baseball Game Saturday at 10 a.m. at Palmer Field, 59 Bernie O’Rourke Drive.

The event is a fundraiser for the museum, slated to formally open later this year.

Way was a charter member of the museum committee and a World War II veteran who landed in Normandy on D-Day Plus 1, according to a press release.

The game between the Middletown and Cheshire American legion posts will be played in the Bill Pomfert Stadium. Pre-game ceremonies will be held at 9:45 p.m., but volunteers are needed for set up tasks beginning at 9 a.m. Anyone who can assist is asked to call 860-346-5100 and leave a message.

Plans for the museum were originally conceived of in 2002 as a tribute to all veterans and to preserve the rich military history of local veterans, their units and the military history of the Greater Middletown area, according to the release.

In 2015, the museum committee signed a lease agreement with the city for six acres of land in Veterans Park on Old Mill Road. In 2016, the city and the committee agreed to locate the museum in Veterans Park next to the Connecticut Trees of Honor, dedicated to those who gave their lives in Afghanistan and Iraq.

The Greater Middletown Military Museum committee meets on the third Tuesday of the month at the American Legion at 7 p.m.

File photo Rocky Hill, Cromwell and Portland catcher Kevin Radziewicz chases down a wild pitch by Jake Regula in the bottom of the seventh inning, allowing Middletown Post 75 center fielder Anthony Marino to score the tying run in the American Legion's Norm Way...