In June of 1999, the FLL honored Robert “Bobby” Watson for his long commitment to Forestville LL and little league in general. The Bristol teams were made up of players from Forestville, McCabe Waters and Edgewood LL. In 2002, the Bristol Seniors were state and regional champs and advanced to the Senior Softball World Series in Louisville, Kentucky. In 2001, 20, the Bristol Juniors were state champs. In recent years, Bristol Softball teams have also found success in All-Stars. After losing their first game, they won their next three to finish fifth in the world. The highlight of the FLL came in 1976 when the FLL All-Stars advanced to the LL World Series in Williamsport, PA. This new field helped tremendously by providing a much-needed playing field for our youngest participants and softball. In 1993, Field 4 was officially dedicated with a grand opening ceremony attended by numerous city officials and hundreds of players and fans. In 1991, the league sought permission from neighboring Peck Park to build a new field to be used exclusively for T-Ball and softball. In 1990, the league had over 50 teams and over 600 youngsters’ aged 6-12 playing organized little league. Softball was started and proved to be very successful as well as T-Ball for youngster’s aged six and seven. The league was expanding at a tremendous rate. Also around this time, the league made significant improvements to all three fields and built a new concession stand and bathroom facilities. In 1986, the league built its third little league field at Greene-Hills Schools where a regulation field was used for many years to help keep up with an expanding league. The first Auxiliary President in 1970 was Marsha Baker. A small concession stand was built to help raise funds for the league and was operated by the auxiliary. There were two little league fields to accommodate eight major and minor league teams. In the early 1960’s, the league moved to its present location behind Greene-Hills School. John Gerzanick also served three terms as president and the following also served multiple terms: Roger Martin 1962-1965, Henry Puskarz, 1967-1976, Charles Roach, 1977-1978, Donald Waite, 1980-1981, Harold “Bud” Kilduff, 1983-1991, Richard Duprey, 1995-1997, John Fredericks, 1998-2001 and Marty Vibert, 2002-2004. Other founding fathers were John Gerzanick, George Milbrandt, Fred Jennings, Mit Komanetsky, Frank Owsianko and Bill Carpenter. The person most responsible and credited with founding the league was William “Woody” Silverio who also served as the first president and president from 1958-1961. Probably the most famous person to play in the FLL was NBC Sports Commentator, Bob Costas who played for the Giants in the league in 19 with such standouts as Billy McCabe, Bob McCabe and Jack Hamilton. Others included Dave Cichon, Dave “Yogi” Eckstrom, Gary Palladino and Billy Gregor. Those early years of the league featured some outstanding players such as Tom Shopay who played a number of years in the major leagues. known as Wilson Field, which was named after a top executive from the Bristol Brass Corporation that donated the land to the city of Bristol. Matthew Church.The following year, in 1955, the league moved to the site on King St. The Forestville Little League (FLL) started in 1954 with the first game being played at the site of the former Sarah E, Reynolds School, now occupied by St. History of Forestville Little League (text from Bristol Sports Hall of Fame)
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