Baseball community showing love for Yale’s Guarino
Ray Guarino had been in pain for two or three months when his wife Jackie finally convinced a stubborn man to go see a doctor. Some lesions would be found on Guarino’s spine.
“He also had three broken ribs and didn’t know how he got them,” Yale baseball coach John Stuper said.
Guarino, one of Stuper’s assistants, underwent surgery on Thursday. It went well, Stuper said, although doctors were still trying to figure out a precise diagnosis. Could be multiple myeloma. Could be testicular cancer.
This much, Stuper said, is for sure.
“Ray is the toughest guy I know,” said the man who once threw a four-hit complete game in Game 6 of the 1982 World Series for the St. Louis Cardinals and has run the Yale program for 27 years. “I’ll tell you what. We love the guy. All the kids who have played for me while he has been an assistant just love that guy.”
Stuper has felt that love. After he sent out word of Guarino’s condition, Stuper was overwhelmed by calls, emails, texts from former players. Guarino, who has spent a decade as a volunteer assistant for Yale, has been a long-time teacher at
St. Francis & St. Rose of Lima School in New Haven. He works with Yale’s infielders and outfielders, is the first base coach. He’s also first in line with stories. A willing mentor and friend.
“I had like five of my former players ask me about a GoFundMe page,” Stuper said. “And, honestly, it took all I could do to convince Ray to let them do it.”
In only one day, nearly
250 people raised more than
$30,000 to help him with myriad expenses.
“That tells you what people think of him,” Stuper said. “I was telling Ray last night, ‘I didn’t realize how much people love you. I don’t even like you that much.’ ”
That was about the only bit of humor Stuper would allow himself on this day. That and a story of how he met Guarino when he was
19.
“Rob Farnen, who was my shortstop and also from West Haven, was working my Little League camp one summer and we had an overflow of kids,” Stuper said. “I asked Rob if he knew somebody who wanted to work the camp. He said, ‘My best friend Ray would.’ ”
Enter Ray Guarino of West Haven and Southern Connecticut into Stuper’s life.
“He’s wearing a backward cap,” Stuper said. “I have rules against backward caps. I look at Farnen and go, ‘Really?’ Everything worked out.”
Long story short, Stuper and Guarino have become lifelong friends. Guarino is now responsible for running Stuper’s World Class Sports baseball summer camp for kids ages 7-12. He also has been the head coach of the Hamden Post
88 Senior American Legion team, turning around the success of that program. Before Yale, he coached at Foran-Milford and West Haven, where he helped guide the school to a 2009 state title and No. 1 state ranking. He has touched so many young lives.
That’s what makes Guarino’s story even more poignant this week, at once difficult and uplifting. While Yale didn’t make the NCAA Tournament this spring, UConn, Central Connecticut and Quinnipiac did. A scan of the three rosters shows a whopping 44 state kids will get to live a dream. There are cool stories like the Winkel brothers from Amity High at UConn. And cousins, Buddy Dewaine and TT Bowens from Montville at Central.
The games start Friday. UConn against Nebraska at Oklahoma City. Central against Arkansas at Fayetteville. Quinnipiac at East Carolina in Greenville. Yes, it is a big day for Connecticut baseball, a community that has produced an impressive number of elite pro players, a community that is tightknit. Baseball people care about each other. This means some of the stories hurt, too, and can lead that community to rally in different ways. Important ways.
“I heard the terrible news about Ray from Bill Decker of Harvard (who previously coached Trinity) when we got off the plane together in Oklahoma City,” UConn coach Jim Penders said. “He is a really good guy. We’re pulling for him. I know Ray is tough. Cancer is picking a fight with the wrong guy.”
Guarino kept pushing through the Yale season. Toward the end, he couldn’t throw a lot of batting practice. He wasn’t hitting a lot of fungoes either. That’s the stuff he loves to do.
“He just wasn’t himself,” Stuper said. “He was in pain. And he wasn’t going to advertise it. I’m like go see a doctor. He’s saying I don’t need to hear what the doctor says. Yeah, right.”
Finally, Guarino made that call.
And now the call from those who love him is to help him.
“He is a terrific guy,” Stuper said. “He has a great work ethic. He has done so much for area baseball. Blue collar. Hard worked. Tough. Committed.
“He has influenced so many young people. Sometimes something like this has to happen before you realize how beloved someone is. Trygg Danforth, who got drafted by the Red Sox and whose own father (Fred) passed away from cancer, texted me last night saying Ray is like his own father. He has had that kind of influence of young people.”
And with that John Stuper and his wife Pam, the Yale field hockey coach, prepared to visit Guarino at Yale New Haven Hospital.
“He’s in great spirits,” Stuper said. “I’m telling you, if anybody can beat this it’s Ray.”