Valley Baseball Fans Celebrate Milestone

DERBY – For the past 18 years, scores of Valley baseball fans have bonded over their love of America’s favorite pastime from their homebase at the Derby Public Library.

The Silver Sluggers, led by baseball guru Rich Marazzi, formed in the spring of 2006. That’s when former library director Cathy Williams asked Marazzi if he would facilitate a four-week, one-hour session sports talk program.

Marazzi agreed but said the program would have to be about his obsession: baseball.

A dozen baseball fans, mostly older fellas with silver hair (which inspired the group’s name) gathered on the library’s second floor for the Sluggers’ first official meeting in 2006.

Fast forward to Thursday (June 20) where the Sluggers, about 75 of them, celebrated their 500th meeting. 

Marazzi and the group marked the milestone with a tribute to the legendary Willie Mays, who passed away Tuesday at age 93, and a visit from former Red Sox outfielder Joe Lahoud.

As each of the Sluggers, sporting an array of Yankees, Red Sox and their own Silver Sluggers T‑shirts and hats, filed into the meeting room, they were greeted with bags of peanuts and Cracker Jax.

The group sang ​“Take Me Out to the Ballgame” to start the meeting while Marazzi prepared a video tribute to Mays.

Silver Slugger Jeff Lownds shared memories.

“I was very fortunate to see him play at the Polo Grounds as a Met, and I remember how everyone was very excited to see him every time he stepped up to the plate,” Lownds recalled.

Another player who made it to the big leagues was the program’s guest speaker Lahoud, who played as an outfielder for the Red Sox from 1968 – 1971, Milwaukee Brewers (1971 – 1973), California Angels (1974 – 1976), Texas Rangers (1976) and Kansas City Royals (1977 – 1978). 

Lahoud, a Danbury native, played with Red Sox legends such as Carl Yastrzemski, but admitted to being a diehard Yankees fan. He talked about meeting Mickey Mantle when Lahoud and the Red Sox were playing the Yankees.

“Mick, who was retired, was sitting at the first base dugout when I walked and got on first base,” Lahoud said. ​“Joe Pepitone was playing first base, and all of a sudden I see Mantle, staring at me. I was in awe. Next thing I know Pepitone says to me, ​‘You know, when you’re off the bag and I have the ball in my hand, you’re out.’”

When asked by his coach why he made the mistake of stepping off the bag, Lahoud could only utter – ​“Mantle.”

Jay Fredlund, of Thomaston, attended his first Sluggers meeting Thursday, knowing Lahoud would be on hand. Fredlund, who played for the Red Sox in the minor leagues in the early 1980s, brought a Lahoud baseball card from a collection he started as a kid.

One of the original Sluggers at the first meeting in 2006, Bill Pucci, a hardcore Yankees fan and veteran sportswriter for the former Evening Sentinel from 1967 – 1993, was also on hand to mark the group’s milestone meeting.

“I was on a radio show with Rich (Marazzi), ​“Inside Yankee Baseball,” and Rich and I have known each other since high school,” Pucci said. ​“I keep coming (to all the meetings) because of all the conversations we have; you learn from everyone and it’s amazing how knowledgeable all the guys are.”

Marazzi, who serves as the baseball rules consultant for the Yankees (hired by Yankees general manager Brian Cashman in 2004) and 15 other MLB teams, as well as for TV networks, including ESPN, YES and FOX, said he’s proud to have led the Sluggers all these years.

“It’s a group of people that just love baseball, it’s our passion, we all get along and we just talk baseball,” Marazzi said. ​“We have the greatest baseball fans in the world right here.”

Over the past 18 years, the Sluggers have welcomed many guests, including Babe Ruth’s granddaughter Linda Ruth Tossetti. They’ve taken field trips to Yankee Stadium and the Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, NY.

During the pandemic they met outdoors and played catch at Nolan Field in Ansonia.

Marazzi recently had his eighth book about baseball published via McFarlane Publishers. The book, dubbed ​“Yankee Stories Untold: An Insider’s Memoir from Ruth to Jeter,” delves into Marazzi’s long career filled with insider experiences with the Yankees. 

It includes stories of how the Yankees longtime announcer PA announcer, Bob Sheppard, trained Marazzi to be a backup; what it was like to be Babe Ruth’s bat boy; how Joe DiMaggio met Marilyn Monroe; the inside scoop on Micky Mantle’s complicated life and more.

Fans can get copies of Marazzi’s book at Amazon and at bookstores.