Brakettes’ Stratton selected for national Hall of Fame
For his lifetime in the game, the Stratford Brakettes tried a few times to get manager John Stratton named to USA Softball’s National Hall of Fame.
On Saturday, the call came.
“It means kind of a lot,” Stratton said.
“No one respects the game more than I do. They may respect it as much, but not more.”
There’s typically a waiting period, Stratton said, “but I’m 85 years old.”
He has been part of the Brakettes organization for over half his lifetime and around it for much longer, first as a fan, then as a player, then as a coach and manager.
Stratton said he got a call ahead of the announcement from Kathy Gage, who’d led the organization’s push to get Stratton recognized.
“Kathy worked very hard,” Stratton said. “She made a booklet like three inches thick. It was unbelievable.
“A lot of people worked hard. There were letters from players, (longtime general manager) Bob Baird. It’s nice.”
From around 4 or 5 years old, Stratton was going to fastpitch games with his father. He remembered watching the Stratford Roofers 1947 men’s regional
champions, many of whom soon became part of the Raybestos Cardinals that were, like the Brakettes, one of the nation’s top teams.
“I worked as a bat boy and ball-chaser at Raybestos Field for the Brakettes and Cardinals games, since I was 10-years old,” Stratton said. “Johnny Pekar (Hall of Fame groundskeeper), for pay, would give me a ball.
“My mother said ‘I’ve got to use the drawers in the kitchen, and they’re full of softballs.’ ”
He took lessons from legendary pitcher John Spring, meeting Waterbury teenager Joan Joyce at one of those lessons and beginning a lifelong friendship. Joyce, who grew up to be a multisport legend and arguably among the greatest athletes ever, eventually brought
Stratton to be her pitching coach at Florida Atlantic University.
He married a Brakettes catcher; the late Micki Stratton is a Hall of Famer herself.
As Brakettes manager, he has a record of 1,492-141, guiding the team to five of the old Amateur Softball Association women’s majors championships and 12 out of 14 Women’s Majors Softball championships.
Retired from a long career as a physical education teacher at East Elementary School in New Canaan, he’s still devoted to the game.
“I’ve worked long and hard,” Stratton said. “I didn’t do it just for this, but I’ve worked long and hard.”