Longtime sportswriter dies of cancer

Chip Malafronte, a longtime sportswriter and columnist for Hearst Connecticut Media Group’s New Haven Register, died Wednesday after a long and courageous battle with cancer, his family said.

Malafronte, 48, worked in several capacities at the Register, where he started in 1996.

Chip covered many beats during his time with the Register, including high school sports, the New Haven Ravens, Minor League baseball, UConn football, Yale football and college hockey.

“Our newsrooms are devastated by this heartbreaking loss. Chip was not only a tremendous colleague, he was incredibly valued by readers and the sports community as a whole,” said Wendy Metcalfe, Hearst Connecticut Media Group Vice President of Content & Editor-in-Chief. “Our thoughts are with his family, friends and the many who both admired him as a person, but also as the talented journalist he was.”

From 2011-2018, Malafronte served as the Register’s sports columnist, writing a popular weekly column called ‘Sunday Gravy.’ The column featured observations about sports and anecdotes about life with his son, John Paul.

“He was an exceptional writer,” Hearst Connecticut Media Group Sports Editor Sean Barker said. “The stories he filed were always clean, a copy editor’s dream. Never did a copy editor worry about getting Chip’s work late on deadline because they knew they were getting a well-written, concise story.”

A graduate of Amity (1989) and Central Connecticut State (1993), Malafronte was also a fine athlete, playing baseball both in high school and as a centerfielder for the West Haven Twilight League. He was presented with a Gold Bat by the West Haven Twilight League in 2007, representing induction into their Hall of Fame.

“He owned me,” said SCC commissioner Al Carbone, who pitched at Trinity and against Malafronte in the WHTL. “I don’t think I ever got him out. Seriously. And I always told him that.”

“Each year when Vin DiLauro and Bob Greenwood would stop by to present a check to the Register Fresh Air Fund on behalf of the league, they would always rave how good of a player Chip was,” Barker said. “If Chip was in the office when they arrived he would just shake his head and smile. He never bragged about the type of player he was.”

Malafronte, who started writing for the Milford Citizen out of college in 1993, played a major role in the Register’s 200 At 200 series in 2012, a celebration of sports history in Greater New Haven to commemorate the Register’s 200th anniversary.