The CT Softball Blog

Back in 1971, some guy named Bond … James Bond … was featured in a movie called “Diamonds are Forever.”

For those girls here in Connecticut who pick up a bat, a ball, slip their fingers into a glove, and step onto a softball diamond … well, let’s just say it’s the memories that last forever.

As such, the Connecticut Softball Blog is back.

For now.

Last spring, less than a year after retiring as the co-head softball coach at Greens Farms Academy in Westport, I was dabbled into the territory of my former life as a sportswriter, covering the Trumbull-St. Joseph’s rivalry game for The Ruden Report.

And it hit me like a Julia Bacoulis screwball, up and in!

I needed to do more to give back to this game that in eight short years gave me so much.

After all, the memories from my own days on the diamond will last forever.

To my immediate left, as I type this, are two photos that are literal bookends to my softball coaching career.

The first is a hand-drawn photo of the first softball team I ever coached, drawn by a girl named Kallie Fellows, our lone senior that season.

The other photo is of me getting the proverbial Gatorade (read water) bath after our Dragons won the 2023 Fairchester Athletic Conference championship—the school’s first league softball title since 2006.

So, yes, I had to give back.

The Connecticut Softball Blog was born.

Like a pinch hitter called in cold for a big hit, our first post came on April 14, 2024, at 7:17 p.m., after the season had already started.

The next morning, Bacoulis—the uber-talented pitcher from Masuk—was named the CSBCA’s Player of the Week.

The story appeared here in this space.

We were off and running.

Sixty-eight posts later, we covered every single state championship game plus gave our readers notebooks on each game and photo albums of each game.

One day. Twelve posts.

It was, simply put, the kind of coverage no other media outlet gave the world of softball here in the 203 or 860 or whatever area code might be on your phone.

And I did it all for free.

I was hoping to do a lot over the summer months, but to be honest, life simply got in the way.

Jobs got in the way. Making money got in the way.

But I believe in this project.

I haven’t posted here since June 12, when I put the finishing touches on my story of Bacoulis (there’s that name again) leading Masuk to yet another state title.

Since Post 1 back in April of 2024, the CTSB has had 34,531 page views over those 68 posts.

That’s nearly 508 hits per story, if you’re good at math.

Which I’m not.

Yet those numbers impressed me enough that I wanted to give it another go.

I want to give Connecticut softball players an outlet to get covered in a way they never have before.

Let’s face it. Softball has never been at the top of the newspaper coverage plan.

Trust me. I know. I spent more than 20 years of my 38 years in sports journalism as an editor.

But these girls who lace up their cleats deserve the same coverage as our football players, our basketball players, and most definitely our baseball players.

So, I’m back.

A lot has happened since Masuk recorded the final out of their state championship run up at UConn.

Coaches have come and gone.

Players have made their college decisions.

There are stories to be told.

And I’m going to tell them.

And, if I can get some money (some donations perhaps, some ads perhaps?) then I have somebody—a professional radio broadcaster and longtime friend—ready to go to do an online radio game of the week AND a weekly podcast.

I’ve tried to find help in terms of somebody selling advertising and/or sponsorship to make this a reality.

Unfortunately, I’ve been oh-for … so far.

But I’m going to keep trying.

Not for me.

I’m not here to get rich. I’m here to tell stories.

That’s my wheelhouse, my 2-0 fastball right down the middle.

If I make enough money to do a game of the week, a podcast and put a roast beef sandwich into my pocket for lunch later in the day, then I come out ahead.

I’m going to give it one more season and see what happens.

The college season begins in February. The high school season begins in April.

The travel season? Well, that goes year-round these days because people know they can make money off parents willing to shell it out.

Tell me I’m wrong?

But where the stories are, I am going to go and tell them right here in this space.

The Connecticut Softball Blog is back.

Soon, the softball season will be, as well.

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