Summer baseball heats up in league’s 90th year

Sam Foley pitches for the Amenia Monarchs in a Tri-State Baseball League game against the Tri-Town Trojans on June 15.

Riley Klein

Summer baseball heats up in league’s 90th year

LITCHFIELD, Conn. — The Tri-State Baseball League is back for its 90th year.

Since 1934, when it was called the Interstate Baseball League, teams of players aged 16 and up have faced off in New York, Connecticut and Massachusetts. Each team is comprised of mostly local players, but four out-of-towners are permitted on each team to balance the rosters.

The Tri-State league of 12 teams includes many retired college athletes, some of whom went on to be drafted into the Major League. Bold high schoolers and current college players take part as well to stay active in the off-season.

The full nine-inning games are played with wooden bats at town parks and are free for spectators. On Saturday, June 15, the Amenia Monarchs matched up against the Tri-Town Trojans at Community Field in Litchfield.

The Trojans, featuring players from Northwest Connecticut, defeated the Monarchs in decisive fashion with a final score of 22-0.

Sammy Rigolino, a rising senior at Pine Plans High School, started the game on the mound for the Monarchs. The youngest player on the team, Rigolino got reps in against top talent in the region.

The Amenia Monarchs date back to the 1890s and were once a semi-pro team. Future and former big leaguers played over the years, including Jim Bouton, who played for several MLB teams between 1962 at 1970. He retired to Amenia and liked the team so much he decided to join at the age of 50.

Some ex-Monarchs have been inducted into the Dutchess County Baseball Hall of Fame. The team’s storied legacy continues today with a summer full of games.

For the schedule of upcoming league games, visit tristatebaseballct.com.

Latest News

Millerton’s Festival of Lights ushers in the holiday season

The Grinch Mobile was part of the procession of the Festival of Lights in Millerton on Friday, Nov. 29.

Photo by Olivia Valentine

MILLERTON — Holiday cheer was in abundance in Millerton at the annual Festival of Lights this past weekend, a celebration of the spirit of the season, which appropriately began following a brief but seasonal snowfall.

Starting with the lighting of the holiday tree, and featuring an array of festively decorated vehicles, onlookers enjoyed a brightly illuminated steady procession of participants from various regional fire departments, local businesses and houses of worship.

Keep ReadingShow less
Getting the upper hand on mighty phragmites

Phragmites australis australis in North Canaan.

John Coston

Finally rain. For weeks, the only place there had been moisture was in the marsh and even there, areas that usually catch my boots in the mud were dry. I could not see the footprints of the bear (or is it deer?) that have been digging up and eating the underground skunk cabbage flowers. Not that I could do anything to stop it. A layer of snow that actually sticks around for a while seems like wishful thinking these days.

Masses of skunk cabbage, Symplocarpus foetidus, appeared one spring, like magic, after we hired a team to remove the barberry from about an acre of the marsh adjacent to the driveway. Of course, it had been there all along, waiting patiently underground or hiding in the barberry’s thorny shrub-cages, but we had not seen it. That was about eight years ago; after the barberry’s removal there have been successive infestations of invasives but also, as with the skunk cabbage, some welcome new sightings of native plants.

Keep ReadingShow less
'Cornwall reads Cornwall' returns

Roxana Robinson reads Cornwall, Nov. 30.

Natalia Zukerman

Bob Meyers, President and Publisher of the Cornwall Chronicle, kicked off the 5th annual Cornwall Reads Cornwall event at the UCC in Cornwall on Nov. 30 with a warm welcome and a gentle reminder to silence cell phones. Over the next hour, the audience was transported back in time as local writers, editors, luminaries, and students brought the Chronicle’s archives to life.

“This reading has become an annual event,” said Meyers, “as well as a welcome distraction from Thanksgiving leftovers.” He then noted that the event “was the original brainchild of Roxana Robinson.” Meyers added, “She also arranged to have this take place on the day of her birth,” at which point the audience wished the celebrated local author a happy birthday.

Keep ReadingShow less