Longtime East Granby Coach Receives Lifetime Contributor Award

EAST GRANBY, CT — A longtime baseball coach at East Granby High School who was never afraid to let game officials know his feelings was recently honored by the Hartford umpires board for his outstanding 54-year career coaching high school teams in northern Connecticut.

Bob Bromage received the 2019 Contributor to the Game Award from the Connecticut Board of Approved Baseball Umpires, Hartford Chapter at its annual dinner Oct. 11. Founded in 1924, the state's largest umpire board provides services to 78 public, parochial and private high schools and middle schools in 34 towns in the greater central Connecticut area.

Bromage coached at Enfield High School for 39 years, taking the Raiders to the Class L championship game in 2001, the best finish by any baseball squad in school history. That team was inducted into the Enfield Athletic Hall of Fame last month; Bromage had been elected as an individual in 2001, joining his wife, Cookie, who was a charter member in 1996.

After retiring from Enfield in 2005, he immediately signed on to help rebuild a struggling baseball program at East Granby High School. The Crusaders qualified for the Class S state tournament 10 times in an 11-year span, with a peak season of 14-6 in 2008. That year, East Granby was seeded fourth in the class, and made it to the quarterfinal round.

Bromage left East Granby in June, after 15 years with the program. The Crusaders won playoff games eight times and compiled more than 145 victories under his guidance.

In accepting the award from the umpires board, Bromage reminisced about his days in baseball, from young player to seasoned coach, in a speech entitled, "Where Baseball Has Taken Me."

As a freshman left-handed pitcher at Berlin High School, Bromage was part of a state championship team in 1958. The following year, with future Boston Red Sox World Series starting pitcher Gary Waslewski also on the staff, the Redcoats advanced to the state semifinals, and Bromage drew considerable interest from a Red Sox scout.

After graduation, he spent a year at Wilbraham Academy before enrolling at Springfield College, becoming the first freshman to go on the college's Southern trip. He pitched in a summer league in Alma, Quebec, Canada, pitching five games in seven days and blowing out his arm.

Following his sophomore year, he began coaching, helming the Berlin American Legion team for three years before being hired as an assistant coach in Enfield. He took over as head coach due to the illness of longtime skipper Carl Angelica, and stayed with the program for 39 years.

On a brief sabbatical in 1977, he helped coach Springfield College, and his former coach asked if he was interested in coaching a team in Holland.

"I went and established a great relationship with the Kinheim Club in Haarlem, Netherlands," he recalled. We finished second, the highest they had ever finished. We subsequently hosted two of their junior teams at Enfield, and traveled to Holland with our high school team two years. My wife Cookie also brought her field hockey team."

Bromage said he had been fortunate through the years to have great assistant coaches and athletic directors during his decades in Enfield. He also thanked retired East Granby athletic director Bob Paskiewicz for bringing him on board and quickly ending his brief retirement.

"Bob Paskiewicz brought me to East Granby and was superb," he said. "We went on a Florida trip for 24 years, which was a highlight for many of our athletes. We were lucky to coach in the age of 'respect is earned, not given.' People worked for what they had, and were not the entitled generation. Baseball was always the great equalizer, and when the spring came along, it renewed your faith in baseball - the greatest game there is."

Bob Bromage as a pitcher at Berlin High School in 1961. (Berlin-Peck Memorial Library via archive.org)

The most successful baseball team in Enfield High School history, earning Class L runner-up honors in 2001. (Enfield Historical Society via archive.org)

Bromage in 2012 with his wife Cookie and Brad Tweedlie, the first of his players to be selected in the major league baseball draft in 1990 out of Enfield High School. (Tim Jensen/Patch Media Corp.)