A Path to the Big Leagues for Aspiring Ball Players

In 1994, Bob Hetu and Dan Kennedy created Team Connecticut Baseball and the Connecticut Baseball Academy with a vision, aiming to offer aspiring ball players a different option for training and competition. They wanted players interested in taking their careers to the maximum to have an opportunity to get more intense, high-level instruction and a chance to play more games than scheduled for teams in time-honored leagues already in place.

Their goal has been met over the years, with a slew of players making it to big-time college baseball, the minor leagues and even into the Major League Draft. Their teams have captured an impressive number of championships, including nine national titles, from AAU to the Sandlott World Series.

Players, ranging from ages 10 to 18, really do get better and reach their potential within Team Connecticut Baseball (TCB) competition and the year-round drills from the two Connecticut Baseball Academy (CBA) sites in East Hartford and Berlin. Twelve players selected in this year’s MLB Draft have connections to the programs; five were drafted in 2010, 10 in 2009 and 12 the year before. In all, it’s 45 players that have gone through the academy that have been picked in the MLB draft. Scouts and coaches have taken notice of the programs’ accomplishments and the players’ abilities and potential.

Three former Connecticut Baseball Academy players were picked in the first round of the 2011 alone, including former University of Connecticut players George Springer (New Britain, taken 11th overall by the Houston Astros), Matt Barnes (Bethel, taken 19th overall by the Boston Red Sox), and Tyler Beede (Auburn, MA, taken 21 overall by the Toronto Blue Jays).

The appeal has resonated in the area. Plenty of players from the North Central Connecticut region – Manchester, Windsor, Vernon, Windsor Locks, East Windsor, Ellington, Somers, Tolland, Enfield, Suffield, Storrs and Mansfield – have enrolled and grown as players by receiving year-round training and playing close to 60 games a year, featuring many tournaments and double-headers and games against older players.

“Our goal is to develop players and get them to quality coaches,” said Kennedy, a Massachusetts native now living in Manchester. “If you have a win-first approach, it doesn’t pan out. One hundred percent of our goal is quality [instruction and competition].

“We were looking to get players extra games and high-end competition day in and day out. We started with a U13 [13 years old and younger] team in 1994. We didn’t want them to play just 20 to 25 games [in the summer]. Our players really want to improve more.”

The philosophy works. Kennedy, who was in the Red Sox and Orioles minor league systems, points out that 97 percent of TCB players continue their careers in college or professional baseball. Kennedy is not critical of the American Legion, Babe Ruth and the Senior Babe Ruth experiences. But those seasons contain fewer games and not all of the coaches have extensive training to deliver meaningful instruction in the finer points of the game. When compared with TCB, some of the coaches from the traditional programs have limited experience as ball players, with less time invested in coaching at high levels and without much expertise at all.

There are four TCB age-group teams in three geographic locations throughout the state (north-central Connecticut, central Connecticut and southern Connecticut) for a total of 10 to 14 teams, depending on the year; this season there were 14. Cost of participation pushes affordability, ranging from $1,800 to $3,200, but is not out of line when compared with travel teams for other sports.

Players seek it out because of its reputation. One player new to the TCB/CBA instructional and competitive programs is quick to say that he has improved because of his involvement. Brandon Fox, 14, who will be a freshman at Manchester High School, wants to make it to the big leagues, and if he cannot, then he’d like to play in college.

“The coaching at the camps and clinics notice the small stuff and that makes a difference,” said Fox, who played for the Illing Middle School team this spring and followed up with a Babe Ruth team in town and with the TCB Blaze U13.

“They know what they’re talking about and they know how to get everyone better," said Fox. 

Fox believes his pitching has improved through the extra innings he’s had this season and his baseball academy training – there are 10 batting cages and six mounds in the East Hartford facility. He has received sound advice on his follow-through, on how to hold runners on base, particularly at first, more effectively and, perhaps most important, in his body language.

“That’s how you handle bad situations, how you react to a bad call by an umpire and how you bounce back from that,” said Fox (5-2), who started pitching at age 5. “I’ve worked on the mechanics of everything."

Fox calls TCB Blaze manager Eric Rosario the best coach he has played for by far. “He’s hard on us when he needs to be,” Fox said. “But he jokes around and makes us laugh. He’s gotten us a lot better. He’s the most knowledgeable coach I’ve had.”

Rosario, 26, who grew up in Windsor Locks, has been with TCB/CBA for 13 years. “Our expectation level is a little higher than other town teams,” Rosario said. “It’s not just fielding, it’s the right technique, it’s where to put the glove. Our coaching is a more in-depth approach.”

Here are the 31 local players, by town, who are with Team Connecticut Baseball teams this season: Ellington – Winston Chow, Kyle Kirby, Shaun Lavey, Joe Leslie, Anthony Mozzicato; Enfield – Josh LaJoie; Manchester – K.C. Carone, Chris Dibble, Kezlin Douglas, Adam Hahn, Brandon Fox, Danny Kennedy, Brendan Reilly, Evan Rodrigue, Kelvin Sims; Somers – Mike Casciano, Evan Kastauskas, Payton Stinson; Storrs – Cody Kozin, John Nollet, Tim Watson; Tolland – Zach Dionne, Harrison Eklund, Robert Gagnon, Trey Gonzalez, Jack Johnson, Matthew Neznayko; Windsor – Cole McLean, Anthony Gozzo, Alex Simon, Christian Smoolca.