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Slow Pitch Softball Hall of Fame set for Nov. 19th
by John Cardullo, sportswriter
The 5th Annual Rhode Island Slow Pitch Softball Hall of Fame induction dinner will be taking place on Saturday, November 19th at the Crowne Plaza in Warwick RI.
The time is running out for anyone who wants to attend the 2022 the Rhode Island Slow Pitch Softball Hall of Fame Induction dinner, as the event is expected to sell out. The annual dinner event began inducting the state’s best of the best who played the game back in 2018, and over the last five years the event has seen 107 men, women players, directors, umpires, sponsors and coaches get the call to the hall.
This November another 23 inductees will be inducted raising the number of inductees to 130 total members. “This event has become bigger and better than the previous one,” said Hall of Fame Board member and Treasurer Kirby Murphy. “The event has grown from a dinner of 290 people squeezed into the Cranston Country Club in 2018 to an event in 2021 where 500 people attended and tickets were very hard to come by. This year with another 23 inductees set to be enshrined, we expect it to be another sold out event,” Murphy concluded.
The organization’s Vice President Bob Berard explained, “When we began in 2018, we had a committee of four people that first year. Since then, the committee has grown to 7 members who only accept candidates that are nominated by application, then each nominee’s application is reviewed and gone over with a fine-tooth comb before being voted on.” He added “if a candidate doesn’t make it the first year, their name remains on the ballot for five full years before being removed.” He adds, “the whole process of being voted on can take weeks or even months. A lot of fact checking and cross referencing goes into each candidate before they get elected to the Hall of Fame”. It is not an easy process to get into the hall of fame, and the candidates must meet the criteria set for each of the six categories. When the process is completed, the candidates that do not get voted in will have five years to be on the ballot for their chance to get into the Hall of Fame.
The Hall of Fame induction dinner has now become a softball tradition this time of year. It begins when the much-anticipated announcement for the year’s new class of Hall of Famers is made. The 2022 Rhode Island Slow Pitch Softball Hall of Fame members are: Scott Carlson and umpire whose career has been entirely in Warwick, RI. The Sponsors that were voted in are Henry “Curly” Antoch of Mary’s Restaurant of South County, George Haddad of the Blarney Stone Pub, Leonard “Lenny” Baggesen of the Rhode Island Invaders and father and son combination John and Jack Calvino of Calvino Law. The Coaches category had two members elected, the late Steve Thomas of Foxwoods, whose teams played in South County and Hadley DuPrey who was the longtime coach of Mary’s Restaurant.
The women who will be inducted in November will be Nellie Gray, Tori Carbone, Denise George, Wendy Boothman, Donna Koncoh and Cindy Mascio. On the Men’s side of the ledger were Junior Butler, Jeff Butler (no relation), Frank Pallotta, Dale O’Dell, Robert Kenneally Jr., John Pagano, Steve “Sky-Lo” Marcott, Joe Grennan, Tom “Pee Wee” DeAngelis and Tom Mooney.
This annual event has become a “must attend” event each year and tickets get harder to come by. Tickets for the Induction dinner are on a first come, first served basis with the family and friends of the inductees getting a month in advance to procure their tickets before tickets go on sale to the general public.
Tickets for November 19th are on sale now, but selling out fast. If interested in attending the event, please contact RISPSHOF Vice President Bob Berard at 401-286-2185.
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