Thank you!
Your support is sustaining the future of local news in our communities.

Summer softball squad keeps on swinging at Community Field

Summer softball squad keeps on swinging at Community Field

The Salisbury summer softball team of years past took a group photo near the Yankee Stadium dugout. Softball on Sundays has been a summertime tradition at Community Field since 1983.

Provided

LAKEVILLE — On summer Sunday mornings, around 10 a.m., a group of softball players gathers at Community Field in Lakeville for a game.

The players are a mixed bag in terms of age and physical condition.

What they all have in common is the desire to get out, play ball and have fun.

And to wrap it up before the transfer station closes at 1 p.m., according to Dr. Andrew Schwartz, aka “Doc” and “The Commissioner.”

“It’s good to have someone in charge,” mused Bill Riiska of Lakeville.

On Sunday, Aug. 3 at about 9:30 a.m. Jeff Bauman of Salisbury was attending to the groundskeeping at home plate. He referred to the ongoing game as being part of the Everybody Get Together League.

“We’ve got doctors, lawyers, kids. We’ve got all the decades covered. One guy is 80.”

Jim Saunders of Sharon was around at the beginning in 1983.

He said there were a lot of New York people with second homes in the area involved, including media types such as Tom Brokaw of NBC News.

Other names that came up in conversations with players were CNN’s Jeff Greenfield, author Jim Bouton and one of the Baldwin group of actors and brothers.They weren’t sure which one it was.

Saunders said back in the Gotham-centric days, the group was able to play a charity game at Yankee Stadium.

Over the decades the game became more of a local affair, and prior to the Covid-19 pandemic attendance started to drop.

But the game continued even during the pandemic, albeit with as few as six players.

Saunders credited The Commissioner, Schwartz, with keeping the game going.

Now the game attracts 18-24 people on average, plus spectators and dogs.

A newcomer came to the plate, a young woman in bare feet, batting right-handed.

Someone said she had never played before, and it showed during her first couple of swings.

Then she pulled a solid line drive into left field and wound up on third, having driven in two runs.

Nobody found this unusual. Instead they said things like “nice hit” to the young woman and focused on the next batter.

Deron Bayer of Lakeville was in right field. He divulged his fielding secret.

“I wear my cap backwards to keep the sun off my neck. When I wear it backwards, it repels the ball.”

Latest News

Motorcycle crash near Route 7 prompts Life Star landing at HVRHS

Motorcycle crash near Route 7 prompts Life Star landing at HVRHS

A Life Star helicopter lands on the front lawn of Housatonic Valley Regional High School on Saturday, May 16, to transport a motorcycle crash victim to a hospital.

Aly Morrissey

LIME ROCK — A motorcycle crash involving a car temporarily shut down a section of Route 112 near the intersection with Route 7 on Saturday afternoon, drawing a large emergency response and prompting a Life Star helicopter landing at Housatonic Valley Regional High School.

Emergency responders at the scene confirmed the incident involved a motorcycle and passenger vehicle. Route 7 was closed from Dugway Road to the intersection of Routes 7 and 112 while crews responded.

Keep ReadingShow less
Van strikes utility pole, closes Route 112 for hours

Traffic was diverted near Wells Hill Road after a crash closed part of Route 112 Friday afternoon.

By James H. Clark

A van crashed into a utility pole on Route 112 near Wells Hill Road Friday afternoon, leaving the driver hospitalized in serious condition and forcing the highway to close for several hours.

The crash was reported at approximately 3:20 p.m., according to Connecticut State Police Troop B.

Keep ReadingShow less
Voices from our Salisbury community about the housing we need for a healthy, economically vibrant future

Renee Wilcox

If you’ve ever wandered through Paley’s Farm Market, you probably know Renee Wilcox. For thirty years, she has been greeting you with unmistakable warmth—always ready with a smile. Renee grew up in Millerton, but it was in Salisbury that her family found something they’d never had before: a true sense of home. In 2003, she and her husband Bill were living in Millerton, but Bill—a volunteer with the Lakeville Hose Company—was already part of Salisbury life. When the Salisbury Housing Trust finished eight new homes on East Main Street (Dunham Drive), Renee and Bill were the first to sign on.

The story of those houses is really a story about the best parts of our community. Richard Dunham and his wife, Inge, along with the Housing Trust board, poured years of energy and hope into the project. Renee can’t help but light up when she talks about the people who helped her family settle in. Digby Brown came by to install appliances and bathroom cabinets; Barbara Niles spent hours painting; Carl Williams assembled bunk beds for the kids. Rick Cantele, at Salisbury Bank, helped them with their finances so they could qualify for a mortgage, while neighbors arrived at their door with fruit baskets and welcoming words.

Keep ReadingShow less
google preferred source

Want more of our stories on Google? Click here to make us a Preferred Source.

Trade Secrets: a glamorous garden event with a deeper mission

Heavy stone garden ornaments, a specialty of Judy Milne Antiques from Kingston, at Trade Secrets 2025.

Christine Bates

Tucked away on Porter Street in downtown Lakeville, Project SAGE is an unassuming building from a street view. But cross the threshold a week before Trade Secrets — one of the region’s biggest gardening events, long associated with Martha Stewart and glamorous plants of all varieties — and you’ll find a bustling world of employees and volunteers getting ready for the organization’s most important event of the year.

“It’s not usually like this,’ laughed Project SAGE director Kristen van Ginhoven. “But with Trade Secrets just around the corner, it’s definitely like this.”

Keep ReadingShow less
Two artists, two Hartford stages, one shared life

Caroline Kinsolving and Gary Capozzielo at home in Salisbury with their dogs, Petruchio and Beatrice

Provided
"He played his violin, I worked on my lines, we walked the dog, and suddenly we were circling each other perfectly."
Caroline Kinsolving

Actor Caroline Kinsolving and violinist Gary Capozziello enjoy their quiet life with their two dogs in Salisbury, yet are often pulled apart to perform on distant stages in far-flung cities. Currently, the planets have aligned, and both are working in Hartford, across Bushnell Park from one another. Bridgewater native Kinsolving is starring in “Circus Fire,” the current production of TheaterWorks Hartford, while Capozziello is a violinist and assistant concertmaster of the Hartford Symphony Orchestra. While Kinsolving hates being away from home, she feels the distance nourishes their relationship.

“We are guardians of each other’s confidence and self-esteem,” she said.

Keep ReadingShow less
Local filmmaker turns spotlight back on Hollywood’s Mermaid

Esther Williams in “Million Dollar Mermaid” (1952).

Provided

For decades, Esther Williams was one of Hollywood’s brightest stars, but the swimming sensation of the silver screen has largely faded from public memory — a disappearance that intrigued Millerton filmmaker Brian Gersten and inspired him to revisit her legacy.

As a millennial, Gersten grew up largely unaware of Williams’ influential career. His teen years in Chicago were spent with friends who obsessed over movies, spending hours at their local independent video store,and watching anything that caught their eye. Somehow, though, they never ventured into the glossy world of synchronized-swimming musicals of the 1940s and ‘50s.

Keep ReadingShow less
google preferred source

Want more of our stories on Google? Click here to make us a Preferred Source.

google preferred source

Want more of our stories on Google? Click here to make us a Preferred Source.