Good morning!
Bill Togneri doesn’t want you to forget what happened in 1942. On June 20 of that year, coach Earl Lorden’s Turners Falls High School baseball team beat Arlington High School, 5-4, in front of 2,000 fans at Fenway Park. It was Hoosiers before there was Hoosiers; a tiny town in the hicks had toppled a mighty opponent that could see Boston from its backyard.

Togneri doesn’t want the moment to slip into irrelevance because his father, John Togneri, was the starting first baseman that afternoon. Consequently he’s pushing to have the Boys of ’42 inducted into the Western Mass. Baseball Hall of Fame.

A few weeks ago, Togneri and Powertown native John Demko met with HOF co-founders Mark DiFranco and Dan Genovese. “I gave them the nomination form and press clippings, photos, a scrapbook, pages of documents… anything we thought helped.”

Asked for the meeting’s whereabouts Togneri said, “Some bar in Holyoke. It’s not a brick and mortar type of thing.” Seeking answers I left a message for DiFranco on his voicemail, but he didn’t return the call.

The WMass Baseball HOF was formed in 2014 under the auspices of the Valley Blue Sox of the New England Collegiate Baseball League. Its first class of inductees included Springfield native Mike Trombley who pitched for the Twins, Amherst College baseball coach Bill Thurston, and Springfield sportswriter Garry Brown.

Over the years only three Franklin County icons have been inducted — GHS coach Tom Suchanek, UMass baseball coach Dick Bergquist of Orange and former Montreal Expos outfielder Peter Bergeron of Greenfield.

Another, Jack Chesbro, was born in North Adams but is buried in Conway where his tombstone resembles a baseball. Chesbro won 198 games including 28 with the Pirates in 1902 and 41 with the Yankees in 1904 and was inducted into Cooperstown in 1946.

There are others from the county who are worthy. Some but not all include West County’s Larry Rancourt and Dave Wissman, Greenfield’s Stan Benjamin, and Post 81’s Bill Phelps.

Their induction would underscore their own and Franklin County’s place in local baseball lore.

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The Sgt. Gregory Belanger Scholarship Benefit is a week from today from 2 p.m. to 7 p.m. at Camp Apex off Peckville Road in Shelburne. A Deerfield resident and Frontier Regional wrestling captain, Belanger signed up for the Army Reserves before 9/11 to help pay for college. He was called to duty after the 9/11 terrorist attacks, was killed south of Baghdad on August 27, 2003, and is buried in Laurel Hill Cemetery near Eaglebrook School.

Friends are asked to donate cash for the Belanger Scholarship Fund and bring gift cards for homeless vets who live at the VA Medical Center in Leeds. The family will provide dinner and there will be raffles, swimming, yard games and a bounce house.

For more information call Kathy Belanger at 413-775-3781 or contact Allison at 413-265-9137 or at allisonburnham@comcast.net.

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UMass football tickets cost $23 in person and $31 online because of surcharges that include a $3 ticket fee and $5 order fee, otherwise known as junk fees. 

But wait, there’s more. “UMass Athletics anticipates the parking lots surrounding McGuirk will reach capacity.” 

Right-o, just like last year when pigeons paid to park. Hold onto your wallet and park in the retail shops south of the stadium on University Drive.

The home opener is Sept. 9 when the Minutemen host Miami of Ohio. The RedHawks finished 6-7 last year including a four-point loss to Alabama-Birmingham in the Bahamas Bowl.

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Bud Kingsley was a charter hockey dad from the years when the Greenfield rink was new and the sport changed the town. Last week on Country Club Road, family and friends came to celebrate his 80th birthday.

His daughter Michele came from Erving and son Steve from North Andover, but Chris was the long distance traveler arriving from SoCal where he’s the LA Kings’ head athletic trainer.

Other attendees included Greenfield’s John Richardson, Buckland’s Paul and Mark Amstein and Bernardston’s Doug Weiss.

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The Yankees suffered two dagger-to-the-heart, defeat-snatched-from-the-jaws-of-victory losses to the Rockies and Marlins in recent weeks by identical 8-7 scores and the beneficiary was the New York Post headline writer who came up with “Rocky Horror Picture Show” and “Sleeping wi  th the Fishes.”

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ESPN’s four-part documentary on the Mets (Once Upon a Time in Queens) was a tough watch for Red Sox and Dwight Gooden fans. We know about Boston’s heartache after game six — Roger Clemens went into the clubhouse and shaved so he’d look good — but what happened to Gooden after the seventh game was tragic.

Gooden made two calls from the trainer’s room, one to his father and the other to his dealer. “My intention was to go see [my dealer] and meet my teammates at the club, but I never made it to the club. I was stuck in the projects with people I didn’t know but for the moment they was my best friends, and it went from the best day of my life to the worst day of my life in four hours, watching the parade from a drug house and seeing my teammates celebrate… I’ve never been able to describe it, even in therapy.”

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SQUIBBERS: The winners of tomorrow’s Women’s World Cup final will each get $230,000, and all the other players from every team will get $30,000. … Fox analyst Alexi Lalas, at halftime of the women’s quarterfinal between England and Columbia: “This is a barroom brawl, it’s not a soccer game.” … Orioles owner Peter Angelos’s suspension of Kevin Brown was nothing compared to when Tigers’ owner Tom Monahan told team president Bo Schembechler to fire Ernie Harwell. The following year, Monahan fired Schembechler and re-hired Harwell, who was elected to the Hall of Fame in 1981 while he was still active.  … Greenfield isn’t exactly the gourmet capital of the world these days, is it? … Page Six cites a source who says Russian model Irina Shayk is avoiding loose-lipped friends because she’s “afraid any weird rumors might scare (Tom Brady) off. Brady is her white whale. He’s an all-American nice guy.” …  MLB Radio’s Chris Gimenez says O’s hitters “are doing it against the other teams’ best reliever. That is the perfect way to prepare yourself for October.” …. Cowboys legend DeMarcus Ware reserved three empty seats at his Hall of Fame induction for his three deceased teammates and friends — Marion Barber (heat stroke), Ronnie Hillman (cancer) and Demaryius Thomas (CTE). … Boomer Esiason’s takes after the first week of exhibition games: “Zach Wilson looked indecisive but didn’t do anything stupid, Bryce Young looked like he’s overwhelmed and Anthony Richardson looked like he was overwhelmed.” …. Rafael Devers and Washington’s CJ Abrams went head-to-head this week and at this writing Abrams still held the lead with 15 errors to Raffie’s 14, and old friend Kike Hernandez led the pack with 18. …  One more tidbit from the ESPN documentary: Game of Thrones creator George Martin was at Game Six presumably putting a spell on Bill Buckner. … PFT’s Chris Simms on observing other peoples’ bad driving habits: “If you’re in the left lane, your head’s going down and you’re looking at the phone, you’re going to get Crazy Chris.” … Go Lionesses, Rule Brittania!

Chip Ainsworth is an award-winning columnist who has penned his observations about sports for decades in the Pioneer Valley. He can be reached at chipjet715@icloud.com