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Cooney, Tiani, Rossiter Round Out NECBL Hall of Fame Class

A World Series champion.  A six-time All-Star.  And a Rookie of the Year.  While Craig Breslow, Joe Nathan and Andrew Bailey generated the headlines in the NECBL’s Hall of Fame induction Thanksgiving weekend, the New England League was proud to also induct three former officers.

The late Joel Cooney, Mario Tiani and Richard Rossiter all served the League honorably and diligently.  Here is a little more about the three members of the NECBL Hall of Fame class- men who never played in the Majors, but who made the opportunities in the NECBL possible.

Joel Cooney

Joel Cooney, one of the NECBL’s pioneers and men most pivotal in getting the fledgling League off of the ground, was battling a severe illness.  In November 2012, the NECBL delivered his Hall of Fame plaque to a grateful Cooney.

Cooney, sadly, lost his battle and passed away this January at the age of 67.  But his legacy and influence on the NECBL will live for many years to come.

He served as the League’s original statistician, and later held the posts of President, Commissioner, Executive Vice President and Treasurer.

“From the League’s beginning, Joel Cooney was indispensable to the birth and growth of the NECBL,” declares his Hall of Fame plaque.

“I first met Joel in 1994,” remembered fellow Hall of Famer Mario Tiani.  “He was so dedicated to this league's start and success. He was extremely organized and had a clear vision of what he hoped this league would become. 

“His dedication, vision and leadership, set the foundation of a league that was to become one of the premier leagues in the country.  Joel Cooney is so deserving of this honor.  It is very meaningful to me to enter with two people I have the utmost respect for,” Tiani concluded, “Joel Cooney and Richard Rossiter.”

Cooney was elected President of the League in 1995.  At the time, The New England League played in just two states.  That year, Cooney led a successful delegation to the American Baseball Coaches Association meeting in Nashville, where the NECBL received NCAA sanctioning and Major League Baseball funding-two enormous steps in giving the League viability and prominence.

Cooney also presided over expansion into a third state- Rhode Island- in 1996 and later added the Torrington Twisters (now New Bedford Bay Sox) into the League in 1997.  That same year, Cooney became Commissioner as the Presidency of the League was transferred to Fay Vincent, the former Commissioner of Major League Baseball.  Bringing Vincent on board gave the NECBL additional national headlines.

“The NECBL would not be here today without his strong leadership and perseverance during its nascent years,” remarked fellow Hall of Famer Richard Rossiter.  “If the league were a home, (founder) Joe Consentino would be the architect and Joel the concrete foundation.

“We all used to joke that we'd have to bring a hand truck to board meetings to take home the volumes of invaluable information Joel supplied.”

Cooney served as commissioner until 2003, by which time every single New England state had an NECBL team.  They are still the only League to hold that claim.

While the NECBL knows Cooney in the context of a leader and a visionary in baseball, he was many other things to many other people.  Cooney worked as an Aerospace Engineer, retiring from GE Aviation in 2012.  The Glastonbury, CT resident was an avid boater and fisherman, besides being a huge baseball fan.

His son Kyle played in the NECBL in 1994, the year it was founded.  It still remains his 14-year old grandson Brayden’s dream to play in the League that his granddad was so instrumental in establishing and getting off the ground.

This season, the NECBL’s Manager of the Year was re-christened the Joel Cooney Award.  Kevin Winterrowd, of the League champion Keene Swamp Bats, became the first man to claim the re-named award.

The NECBL gratefully thanks Joel for his lifetime of service to the League, and is privileged to induct him into our Hall of Fame.

“If he were here with us tonight,” said Rossiter, “no one would have a bigger smile or be prouder.”

Mario Tiani

Before Brian Bogusevic became a first round pick…

Before Matt Joyce made an American League All-Star team…

Before Joe Thatcher became one of the most used relievers in the Majors this year…

Someone had to give them a chance.  And that someone was Mario Tiani.  

Tiani, the GM of the Danbury Westerners for 10 years and the commissioner of the NECBL for six, had an incredible eye for talent.  18 of his Westerners- including those aforementioned names- went on to reach the Big Leagues

In Tiani’s six drafts as commissioner, Major League baseball selected eight first rounders and over 500 players total.

What is all the more impressive is that Tiani was not a college coach or scout with an abundance of free time.  He spent his career with IBM, a reminder that so much of the NECBL is driven by dedicated volunteers.

Tiani’s history in the League started after the NECBL’s first season.

“Then Danbury Mayor Gene Eriquez was actively pursuing a Danbury baseball franchise in the NECBL.  He brought together a group of about 30 business and sports people in the Danbury community to meet with Joel Cooney, Joe Consentino and George Foster at Danbury City Hall on December 14th,” Tiani recalled.  

“After the meeting, 13 of us decided this would be great for the community and wanted to be a part of this as Gene moved forward. The original 13 (at least 10 of them) thought because of the lateness of our start that we should begin with the 1996 season to give us time to fund raise and put the organization together.... I disagreed and thought we could pull it off in 95. 

“We started in 1995 and made the playoffs.”

Danbury was the NECBL’s first expansion team and they remain the longest tenured ballclub in the New England League.

Tiani did Danbury’s recruiting and in the process developed outstanding relationships with college coaches.  While he greatly missed the recruiting, the NECBL had bigger plans for Tiani after a decade of service to Danbury.  He spent two years as Deputy Commissioner before being named Commissioner of the NECBL in 2006.

During his time as Commissioner, Tiani ushered in a number of technological innovations that helped increase the NECBL’s brand on a national, and even a global scale.  The NECBL became the first summer league to broadcast their games over the internet (audio and video), and transition into a real time environment with our partnership with Pointstreak.

The League played- and beat- Team USA at Fenway Park.  They also hosted Team China, Team Great Britain and other international tours during Tiani’s tenure. 

At the request of Major League Baseball, Tiani introduced the skill competition, which greatly enhanced the quality of the League’s All-Star Game.   He also continued to develop and deepen the League’s valuable relationship with MLB.

“I was also honored and privileged to work with the best front office this league has seen,” Tiani deflected, “and get to work with former MLB Commissioner Fay Vincent. Fay was so helpful to me during my years as Commissioner of the NECBL.”

Now retired, Sharon’s husband, Mac and Erin’s Dad and Madeline’s, Delaney’s, Cal’s  and Cooper’s grandpa “still bleeds the NECBL.”  For helping to build the League from a five-team provincial organization into one of the best in summer baseball, Tiani is a worthy inductee into the NECBL’s Hall of Fame.

Richard Rossiter

Of all of the contributions to the NECBL that Richard Rossiter has made, and there have been many, he is most proud of introducing the Sportsmanship Award.

It’s a perfect symbol of Rossiter’s commitment to the League.

The award doesn’t necessarily go to the flashiest player or biggest name.  Rather, it honors a player who does all of the little things right.

That may be Rossiter’s contribution in a nutshell.  While he was seldom the headliner, Richard was the photographer, the secretary, the webmaster or what have you that made the NECBL run so smoothly as long as he was involved.

An accomplished graphic designer from Fairfield, CT, Rossiter jumped into the League almost on Day One.

“Back in early 1994 I saw a local newspaper article about a new league similar to the Cape that will have a team in Fairfield.  It gave a phone number to call for volunteers,” he remembered.

“I called and volunteered to design a logo and uniforms for them gratis.  They wanted to call the team the Mustangs but I told them that wasn't a good idea since the high school mascot was Mustangs,” he continued.

“So they became the Stallions and I did design the logo and uniforms and became one of only two sponsors in their game program.  They asked my son Jon if he would like to be a bat boy and he was thrilled.  He got to be Joe Nathan's bat boy!” he concluded.

Circumstances led Rossiter to eventually get in touch with NECBL founder Joe Consentino.  Consentino invited Rossiter to the League’s next board meeting in ESPN’s conference room.  When no one else wanted to be Secretary, Rossiter volunteered…and held the position for the next 19 years.  It was the same meeting where a group of Danbury citizens, led by Mario Tiani, made a pitch to place an NECBL team in the Hat City.

That started two decades of full-time service to the NECBL.  Rossiter served as Vice President under Hall of Famer Joel Cooney when Cooney was the League President.  He would also serve the League as Deputy Commissioner when Fay Vincent took over the Presidency and Cooney became Commissioner.

But his administrative acumen aside, Rossiter best left his mark on the League with his artistic flair.  He designed the logos for a dozen NECBL teams, including the Danbury Westerners, Keene Swamp Bats and Newport Gulls.  He also was one of the first visionaries in the League to recognize the power of electronic media.

In the late 1990s, Rossiter put up the League’s first website.  No one had websites in 1997.  The NECBL’s predated most Major League teams, let alone summer ballclubs.  Ever since then, as a supervisor or webmaster, Rossiter had his hands in the League’s gateway to the world until his retirement in early 2013.

He also provided much of the content for the site.  Rossiter could be seen at just about every NECBL ballpark, camera in hand, as the unofficial photographer for the League.  As many then-obscure freshmen became Major League stars, Rossiter’s photos proved to be a crucial piece of the NECBL’s archives.

Those archives have become increasingly valuable.  When Rossiter joined the Board, the NECBL had five teams in two states.  He helped the League grow to be the first, and only one, with teams in every New England state.

A graduate of Cooper Union, Rossiter has been married for 38 years to Diane. They have a granddaughter Ayla from daughter Corey and son-in-law Gaerrick , and another granddaughter due in April from son Jonathan and his wife Jaime.