The Middletown Press (Middletown, CT)
A labor of love
Brakettes a big part of life for Baird, Stratton families
STRATFORD — There’s nothing like a round of golf or three to get a loving dad in the right frame of mind during Father’s Day weekend. Other dads might prefer to get the grill going in the backyard. For the Baird and Stratton families, however, there is no better place to partake in Father’s Day festivities than DeLuca Field.
The field on Main Street in Stratford has been the home of the softball powerhouse Stratford Brakettes for the last 33 seasons. On any weekend during the summer, John Stratton will be in the home dugout adding to his incredible record as the Brakettes’ manager. Bob Baird, the team’s general manager, will be among the first to arrive to tend to countless details.
The duo has bonded over their love for softball for more than six decades and it should hardly come as a surprise to see their sons following in their footsteps.
Jay Stratton is an assistant coach for the Brakettes who doubles as the third-base coach. Rob Baird is the assistant general manager who for the last 14 years has overseen live streams of Brakettes games. Naturally, both of them married former softball players as well. It would be easier for them to recall a Father’s Day weekend not spent on a softball field rather than how many of them were spent watching the Brakettes play. Naturally, they were there Satur
day night when the 2020 season kicked off with a doubleheader sweep of the Junior Brakettes.
“Our summers, our whole life is built around this basically,” Bob Baird said.
Jay Stratton, 51, made a bit of fast-pitch softball history by piloting the Brakettes to the 2006 Women’s Major Fast Pitch national title while his father was coaching future Olympians Kelly Kretschman and Andrea Duran to the 2006 National Pro Fastpitch championship series. The Strattons made history as the first father-son duo to each be the managers of ASA Women’s Major Fast Pitch national titles.
After stepping away from the daily coaching duties for about six or seven years following the birth of his daughter and son, he returned to work with his father in 2019.
So what is the best part of working side by side with his dad?
“Just getting to spend time with him,” Jay Stratton said. “The guy is a wealth of knowledge, he knows everybody, he knows everything, he is a great person and it is fun to be here with him. The more I can be here with him, the better.
“He has a lot of fun, he enjoys coming out here with the girls, it is all about these guys, teaching them and helping them, making them learn about the past as much as taking it into the future.”
John Stratton and Bob Baird were there when the Brakettes won the first of the 37 national titles in 1958. Hall of Famers Bertha Tickey and Joan Joyce pitched the Brakettes to the title and one of the AllAmerican selections was Micki Macchietto who would not only become the first Brakette inducted into the National Softball Hall of Fame but also was married to John Stratton for 56 years before passing away in 2018 at the age of 80.
It was after his mom’s death that Jay decided to return to the Brakettes dugout.
“I was a Raybestos Field rat and he is becoming a Frank DeLuca Field rat,” John Stratton said with a laugh.
John Stratton followed in the footsteps of Hall of Famer Ralph Raymond as
the Brakettes manager. He developed a reputation of a bit of a pitcher whisperer. After having Tickey and Joyce play together for 10 years with fellow Hall of Famer Donna Lopiano there for many of those seasons, the Brakettes built the pitching staff around Kathy Arendsen and Barb Reinalda who were teammates for 15 years with the Brakettes. Lisa Fernandez arrived on the scene in 1990, Lori Harrigan in 1993.
The mid-1990s caused a shift in the softball world. With softball making its Olympic debut in 1996, the national team program took center stage and the impact could be felt at the women’s major fastpitch level. Within 15 years, a tournament that first crowned a champion in 1933 would no longer exist. The Brakettes created the Women’s Major Softball National Championship tournament in 2009.
The Brakettes had to adjust as well. The days of securing the best players out of softball-crazy California were replaced by a more regional approach. New York native and future Olympian Danielle Henderson, Oxford’s Rachele Fico and former UMass star Brandice Balschmiter thrived under Stratton’s tutelage. This year’s team will rely on Torrington’s Ali Dubois and Shelton’s Kaycee Talcik in the pitching circle.
Jay has watched his dad work not only with future Hall of Famers but local prospects for years and he has tried to take what he has learned to help him as a coach.
“Just being composed, being understanding and knowing that what you can do necessarily doesn’t mean what they can do and just trying to help the players develop, get better and work hard, having a good time with friends and laughing,” Jay Stratton said.
John Stratton and Bob Baird could spend hours spinning tales about the 23 former Brakettes in the Hall of Fame and others who could very well be there as well. Their sons have heard all those stories and have some of their own to tell.
Jay Stratton’s first memory of the Brakettes came at the 1974 ISF World Championship played in Stratford. Rob Baird’s memories began to form a few years after that.
“My first memory of the
Brakettes was of Raybestos Memorial Field, I was helping my father in the concession stand when it was run by the Spillane family, years later the Bairds and Strattons took over the concessions so I remember serving up drinks to Gina Vecchione, she was my favorite player as a kid,” Baird said. “I remember them all from Allyson Rioux to Pat Dufficy and all of those who played at the original field to here and seeing the new generations. I remember back to the early 80s when you had a young cast of future Hall of Famers really just starting their careers, Barb Reinalda, Kathy Arendsen.
“I remember the Brakettes from the early to mid-80s. I remember when the different players would stay with the Stratton family in the summers, we would go over and meet them before the season. We were flipping the burgers over there down the leftfield line with a team that had Sheila Cornell, Dot Richardson, Lisa Fernandez, Jill Justin and the list goes on, Barb Reinalda, Kathy Arendsen and all of them. I remember thinking, why aren’t they pros? They are so much better than anything we get to see up close. You go to a minor league baseball game, I remember thinking that these girls are like the major leagues of softball at a young age and I believed it.”
Rob Baird, much like his brothers, did everything from chasing down foul balls, working in the concession stand, being a part of the grounds crew. In 2006, he ventured into a different area. Still recalling when some Brakette games would air on local radio stations in the 1970s, the Connecticut School of Broadcasting graduate knew what the next step would be.
“Nobody did the Brakettes in years and I said we could do it and internet video is the way to go,” Baird said. “In 2006 I was like, ‘OK, let’s see if there is anything I could really do to help this team move into this technological age.’”
Live video streams began in 2009 and continue to this day.
It’s just the latest chapter in what has been a lifelong passion for the Baird and Stratton families.