The Register Citizen (Torrington, CT)
Hall of Fame welcomes five new inductees
TORRINGTON — Five new honorees entered the Tri-State Baseball League’s Hall of Fame last week in the midst of a three-game championship thriller between the Tri-Town Trojans and the Terryville Black Sox.
Marc DiDominzio, Darren Gould, Ryan McDonald, Jim Mischke and Kyle Weaver relived their own glories before the Trojans took their third title while Terryville made its first finals appearance in a league that traces its area history to the 1930s.
MARC DIDOMINZIO
DiDominzio was a Waterbury All-City shortstop at Sacred Heart and a fouryear player for Post University before enterimg the Tri-State record books for Waterbury’s Brass City Brew/Blasius Chevrolet in 2003.
Like most of the pure baseball players in the league, a single field position no longer describes him, as testified by the Tri-State Silver Slugger batting award in 2005 and its Cy Young pitching award in 2008, along with a league championship in 2009.
The flexibility is part of his role as baseball coach at Manchester High School for the past eight years, leading the Indians to a CCC North championship in 2014 and two Class LL state tournament quarterfinal appearances.
DARREN GOULD
Gould took a long route to Connecticut and TriState’s Torrington Rebels, beginning with pure talent in California. It brought him to a 1989 San Francisco Giants/Seattle Mariners tryout camp and a free agent offer by the Giants, despite not playing in high school or college.
The third baseman turned down the offer, then tore up amateur leagues in the west for a total of 14 championships, including three with the NABA National Champions.
Landing in Connecticut, Gould won a state championship with the Canton Reds, then joined the Rebels for three Tri-State titles,
in 2004, 2006 and 2007. He was the league’s Most Valuable Player in 2004 and a member of a 2007 Tri-State All-Star team that hosted the Russian National team.
RYAN MCDONALD
McDonald was an All-Berkshire League third baseman at Litchfield High School, leading the Cowboys to a Berkshire League title in 2001 and a Class S State Tournament semi-final appearance as captain in 2002.
His other, and perhaps more important, credentials came off the field or in the dugout.
Off the field, he was heavily involved in Tri-Town Little League, serving as chief umpire and coordinator of the regional tournaments from 2001-2004.
In the dugout, McDonald’s star shone as organizer and manager of Trojans in 2005, then coaching them to three straight tournament finals and back-to-back Tri-State championships before retiring in 2015.
In 2013, McDonald’s Trojans won both the league title and the Stan Musial State Tournament.
JIM MISCHKE
Mischke is one of the league’s legions of players who may never stop playing baseball somewhere. Now in the Over-40 League, the premiere catcher began his baseball training with legendary coach Gregg Hunt at Terryville High School.
Making it to the Class S state finals that year, Mischke began playing with another fiery legend, Tri-State’s Dave Post, in 1994. Their Thomaston Spoilers won the league championship in 2003.
The Spoilers broke up, so Mischke and George Newsome started the Terryville Black Sox, reveling in this year’s first league finals appearance for the team they began.
KYLE WEAVER
Like almost everyone in the league — and certainly its playing Hall-ofFamers — Weaver represents the sheer athleticism of its players.
He was an all-state shortstop and three-time All-Berkshire League player at Litchfield High School, where he’s now athletic director, then a fouryear starter at Division I University of Vermont.
He anchored Tri-State’s Cowboys for 19 years, through championship seasons in 2011, 2012 and 2015.
Like Mischke and most of the others, his only real reason to leave the Tri-State League in favor of the over-40 league is to give the next generation a chance.
Need proof?
Weaver went 4-for-4 in his final Tri-State game, the 2015 league championship.