Good morning!
The Greenfield High School softball team’s state championship comes at a time when the city needs a dose of good news. The entire police department is being condemned over a seven-year-old lawsuit, an out-of-towner went on the op-ed page and demanded the mayor resign for backing the chief, and the city council is the angry parent who pulled the kids’ allowance.
Enter the GHS softball team and freshman MacKenzie Paulin, who pitched the Wave to a 6-2 win in the title game against West Boylston on June 17. “I never played T-ball and I didn’t want to play softball,” says Paulin, “but my dad pushed me and I’m glad he did. It’s good for the school, and it’s good for women’s sports.”
MacKenzie’s father Marcus is a veteran Greenfield police officer who, like every Green Wave parent, has given his daughter the time and encouragement she needs to prosper. Serious softball begins at Murphy Park and continues with travel ball in the summer and softball clinics at Westfield State in the winter.
Not everyone’s up for it, says GHS coach John Hickey. “Times have changed. I teach middle school phys-ed and kids’ basic skills are nonexistent. I don’t know if it’s video games or what it is.”
Hickey was a three-sport athlete at GHS and played baseball at Plymouth State University in New Hampshire. After college he worked for Northeast Utilities, but when he was 30 years old he was laid off. “I had a teachers degree and started at Greenfield in 1996, went to Mohawk for ten years and came back to Greenfield in 2010. Twenty-five years of coaching and I finally got it done,” he laughs.
Hickey told the Recorder’s Thomas Johnston that assistant coach Andy Rup was essential to the Green Wave’s success, and Paulin concurs: “He’s helpful, funny, positive… he deflects the negative things that happen throughout the season.”
Paulin also credited her personal pitching coach Steve Putnam, who’s been mentoring her since she was nine years old. “He made me fall in love with pitching,” she says.
The championship season wasn’t roll wave roll. It won 20 games but lost to Westfield and Agawam, and twice to Wahconah and Hampshire. “Those losses made us stronger,” said Hickey, who credited GHS athletic director Mike Kuchieski for leaving out the cupcakes. “Kuch got me a good schedule. He asked me who I wanted to play. I said give me the best, and he went out and found them. All those teams went far in the tournament.”
Indeed, Westfield won the Division 2 state title and Wahconah made it to the Final Four of the Div. 4 tourney. Hampshire was the No. 1 seed in Div. 4 but got upset in the Round of 16.
Unbeknownst to most, Hickey underwent a battery of tests this spring to determine unexplained physical symptoms. “The day I got diagnosed was the day we played Hampshire. We lost to them last year, and when I handed the lineup card to their coach my hands were shaking. He probably thought I was nervous.”
It wasn’t the jitters, it was Parkinson’s Disease. It is the most prevalent neurodegenerative disease in the world, but Hickey is undeterred. “I’m planning on coming back,” he says. “It’s good for me.”
The late Supreme Court justice Earl Warren once said he goes to the sports section first because it rewards peoples’ accomplishments, and a week ago yesterday the GHS girls proved him right.
After UMass hockey coach Greg Carvel’s first season, his friend Jack Arena called from Amherst College and asked if he wanted to meet for lunch. “I can’t,” said Carvel. “I’m in Canada looking at a kid you would pay to watch.”
That “kid” was teenager Cale Makar, who honored his commitment by coming to UMass. He stayed two seasons and notched 78 points in 75 games. He won the Hobey Baker Award as college hockey’s best player, went to the NHL and won the Calder Trophy for rookie of the year, and this week won the Norris Trophy as the league’s top defenseman.
Count yourself fortunate if you were at the Mullins Center and saw the second coming of Bobby Orr.
BASEBALL NOTES: Blue Jays hitting coach Guillermo Martinez got tossed before the first pitch on Wednesday when he brought out the lineup card and ripped the umps for missing 28 balls and strikes the previous night. … The Red Sox might rue letting Martin Perez go to the Rangers. The 31-year-old southpaw is 5-2 with a 1.96 ERA and leads the league in starts. … Tigers broadcaster Dan Dickerson on Boston’s yellow-and-blue uniforms: “They take some getting used to.” Will Fleming’s father suggested they’re to support Ukraine. … Former Red Sox shortstop Jose Iglesias is batting .303 for the Rockies, the seventh best average in the NL. Colorado got him to replace Trevor Story at shortstop. … The Rays may have pulled off another Randy Arozarena-like heist when they got Isaac Paredes from Detroit for Austin Meadows. Paredes hit four home runs in two games against the Yankees, while Meadows has no HRs in his first 128 ABs for the Motor City. … Detroit phenom Riley Greene got the call-up last week and is 6-for-16 with five walks and has a .525 on base percentage. Crosby Hunt writes if Greene and the aforementioned Austin Meadows “play the same day, they will have a Greene Meadows outfield.” … The Yankees were 10-1 to win the World Series in April, but the regular season means little in that regard. … The first game of the Fall Classic isn’t until Oct. 30, the same night Buffalo hosts Green Bay. …. Albert Pujols’ four strikeouts in four at-bats against Boston shows he doesn’t know when it’s time to leave. He has four home runs and is up to 683. … Max Scherzer’s off the injured list and will be to the Mets what Curt Schilling was to the Red Sox in 2004. … NY Post headline after Don Mattingly’s son Jordan was arrested for DUI: Mattingly’s son hits .291 (on breathalyzer).
SQUIBBERS: Davidson coach Bob McKillop retired this week after 33 seasons and a career 634-380 record. McKillop was 7-1 against UMass after Davidson entered the A-10 in 2014-15. … On Chris Russo’s show this week former PGA golfer Billy Andrade said of Saudi-sponsored LIV: “It’s a glorified member-guest, a 54-hole shotgun start. This whole play is a gambling play.” … Congrats to Jim Hickey, brother of GHS coach John Hickey, for being named the new veep of marketing at Florence Savings Bank. … Former NASCAR driver Clint Bowyer struck and killed a woman last week in Osage Beach, Mo., close to where the Netflix series Ozark was filmed. … You love oldies (and are an oldie) if you know why troubadour Steve Earle named his group Steve Earle and the Dukes. … Congrats to Hatfield icon Sherry Webb for a flawless job in the PA booth during the state finals at Sortino Field. … Faces in the crowd included TFHS players Madi Liimatainen and Cady Wozniak. Julie and Mike Cadran sat two rows up. Mike actually yelled “Go Green!” but don’t tell Stash. … Bumper sticker spotted on I-91: “Cars pollute Mt. Washington.”… The NY Post’s Phil Mushnick: “MLB saves a ton of time with its automatic intentional walk rule, roughly three minutes per season.” … NBC picked up Jordan Spieth ranting at himself during the U.S. Open. “Oh man, that is such a BAD shot! Shot after shot, just garbage!” Spieth tied for 37th and collected $75,916. Plenty of golfers would settle for such garbage. … Bob Diamond was at the 1988 Open and saw Jack Nicklaus’s caddy hand him something wrapped in foil as he came out from the trees between holes. He took it over to the ropes and opened it. “It was a banana he shared with his wife. Some mystery huh?”
Chip Ainsworth is an award-winning columnist who has penned his observations about sports for four decades in the Pioneer Valley. He can be reached at chipjet715@icloud.com