The Register Citizen (Torrington, CT)
Reunited again
Manager battling cancer, former ace team up with Bees
NEW BRITAIN — When Ray Guarino took over as New Britain Bees manager back in midFebruary, he had little choice of what his roster would look like. It had already been set.
Then came COVID-19, throwing everything out of whack. Surprisingly, while more prominent college summer leagues canceled their seasons, the Futures Collegiate Baseball League decided to play.
The Bees had survived. But since there would be no host families for players from out of town, about 15 players had to be re-assigned and the Bees needed to fill roster spots.
There was at least one player that Guarino, the West Haven product and longtime assistant at Yale, had on his radar.
“I knew I wanted B.K. with me one more time,” Guarino said. “I’ve always told him, any team I’m coaching, he always has a spot.”
“B.K.” is Brendan Kirck, the former Notre Dame-West Haven standout who now pitches at Springfield College. Kirck pitched for Guarino the past three summers with the Hamden American Legion Post 88 team. His first season, Kirck split time
between Hamden’s junior and senior teams. By last summer, he was the senior team’s ace.
“You look at him — 6foot, maybe 150 pounds, but he plays with passion,” said Guarino. “He’s not intimidated by any situation. He gets on the mound, throws strikes, competes, and I can’t ask for anything more from him. That’s what I’ve come to expect from him.”
Last summer was a tough one for Guarino. In May, he learned he had multiple myeloma, a disease that causes cancer cells to accumulate in the bone marrow, crowding out healthy blood cells. Fatigue and bone pain are common symptoms.
It was a struggle for Guarino to get to every Hamden Legion game last summer, but he did so. Frequent chemotherapy treatments had him exhausted after each game, and he sometimes skipped the second game of a doubleheader. But he was there every day.
“He toughed it out,” Kirck recalled. “It was his getaway. That gave us the motivation we needed last year. Him coming out to every game, after all he’s gone through, the least we could do is go out there and try to win every game we could.”
Hamden came pretty close, going 20-6 before bowing in the Super Regionals
in Meriden.
Kirck only got to make one start for Springfield this past spring before the college baseball season was canceled. He began this summer playing for the Hamden Miners, who play out of DiamondZone in North Haven in the Connecticut Collegiate Baseball League. But when the Bees came buzzing a little over a week into their season, Kirck was granted a release so he could pitch for Guarino once again.
Guarino has known Kirck’s family for over 30 years. He grew up in West Haven with Kirck’s uncle, Jason. He was a basketball official with Brendan’s father and grandfather, Steve Jr. and Sr. But welcoming him to the Bees was hardly some family favor.
So far, B.K. has been more than O.K. He’s been the Bees’ best pitcher.
In three starts, Kirck has gone 2-0 with a miniscule 1.06 ERA. In his second start, on July 22, Kirck allowed just two hits over six scoreless innings in a 14-0 romp over the Brockton Rox and was named the FCBL’s “Pitcher of the Night.”
On Wednesday, Kirck was even better. With some 30 family and friends cheering him on (“We made the Bees a lot of money that night,” his dad quipped), Kirck limited the Worcester Bravehearts to just one hit over six scoreless frames (though he did walk five) in the Bees’ 6-1 victory at New Britain Stadium.
“It’s gone well,” Kirck understated. “I’m getting the feel of things in New Britain. It’s great to play for Coach Ray again. It’s just great to get on the mound again and be able to play this summer, when a lot of kids aren’t.”
‘FOR THE MOST PART, IT’S BASEBALL AS USUAL’
Indeed, as COVID-19 was canceling or postponing sports seasons — professional and college — left and right last spring, it didn’t appear likely that the Futures League would be one of the few left standing.
“I thought I was just gonna be hanging out at home and finding ways to get to fields around me,” admitted Mike Caruso, a Wallingford product who caught Kirck’s second start.
But the Bees, which operated as a professional, independent team in the Atlantic League the prior four seasons, made it work in their first season as a summer collegiate league affiliate. Working in conjunction with the New Britain Health Department and city health director Sergio Lupo, they have developed a protocol that has allowed the season to go off without a hitch so far. And unlike Major League Baseball, the NBA or NHL, the Bees are actually playing in front of fans.
Only 25 percent capacity, a maximum of 1,500 fans in the 6,000-seat New Britain Stadium, are allowed for each game. The Bees hit
that number on Opening Night on July 2 and have been averaging about 700 per night since then.
That may not sound like a lot, but Bees fans certainly can sound like a lot more than 700.
“Even with 700 a night, the atmosphere for the players on the field, they can feel it,” said Bees general manager Brad Smith. “It’s actually quite electric for them.”
In fact, New Britain is one of the only teams in the six-team FCBL that allows fans. Most of the Massachusetts teams aren’t allowed to, except a pair (Worcester and Westfield) that play at public parks.
“It’s weird looking out at a stadium and not seeing a face, just seeing red seats at (Brockton’s) Campanelli Stadium,” said Guarino. “It’s bizarre. You hear everything — talk in the other dugout, talk on the field. Hopefully that’s not how things will be moving forward, but the more you do it, the more you get used to it, I guess.”
Indeed, that’s how Guarino and the rest of the Bees have approached this strange season in a strange new world. Players and coaches have their temperatures taken each day they arrive at the ballpark. Only a small number of players can be in the clubhouse at any time. For road trips, there are no buses. Players have to drive to the away games themselves and bring their own equipment, just like back in travel ball.
“At first it was a little different,” said Guarino. “But now, I think it’s basically second-nature. The guys have adjusted well to it, the coaches have adjusted well to it. Things happen so fast in the course of a game. If you are arguing with an umpire and don’t get the mask on in time, it looks bad. But, other than keeping the mask on the entire game — which I don’t think I’d be able to do — it’s a big learning process.”
“For the most part,” he added, “it’s baseball as usual.”
The league is a lot more competitive than it might have been in a normal summer, since it’s attracted players who typically would have played in the Cape Cod or New England Collegiate Baseball leagues, both of which canceled their seasons. With no host families available, the vast majority of Bees players are from Connecticut. That includes Ben Casparius, the former Gatorade State Player of the Year at Staples High who played two seasons at North Carolina and will play next spring at UConn.
When the season started, Casparius’s arm wasn’t quite in game shape. But out of the blue a couple of weeks ago, he told Guarino, “I’m ready.”
“It’s not something you’re gonna say ‘no’ to,” Guarino said. “If I have a spot, he’s gonna help us.”
In his first start on July 24, in front of a bevy of
major-league scouts, Casparius hurled three scoreless innings, allowing one hit, striking out five and walking one.
Among the other locals on the roster are Caruso, who plays at Fairfield; Darien’s Emmet Sheehan and Fairfield’s Joe Mancini, both of whom play at Boston College; Newtown’s Ben Talbot (Holy Cross) and Todd Peterson (UConn); Guilford’s Matt Donlan (Stonehill); Wallingford’s Kyle Brennan (Endicott) and Trumbull’s Tony Socci (Farleigh Dickinson).
Guarino is a tough, nononsense baseball guy. But when asked about his own health on Wednesday, he choked up a bit.
“I’m OK, a day at a time,” Guarino said, his voice cracking. “It’s been a long year. I’m ready to put it all behind me. I definitely want it to be over, get back to my normal self.”
Guarino received test results on Thursday that were among the best he’s received since he was first diagnosed with cancer.
“At the end of the day, I’m tired, sore,” he said. “For the most part, I feel good. Baseball puts everything into perspective. Last year with Legion, and this summer, I definitely need it. It’s a good mental and physical release for me.”
And it’s good to be coaching his old family friend for at least one more summer.