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Comets soar at charity tourney By Benton Burgess/ Special To The Independent Earlier this month, Tyngsboro's Comets Restaurant sponsored a team of Chelmsford ballplayers which took first place in the Travis Roy Wiffle Ball tournament at Little Fenway Park in Essex, Vt.
The tournament was the idea of Vermont native Patrick O'Connor. Being an extreme Red Sox fanatic, O'Connor decided to build a replica of Fenway Park in his back yard up in Essex, Vt. The field includes a mini-Green Monster, right field bullpens, the same dirt they use for the infield in Boston, and an actual Citgo sign donated from the gasoline company. "Naturally, we couldn't fit an exact duplicate of Fenway in our yard so we decided to make a scaled down version for Wiffle ball." said Little Fenway owner O'Connor. After building his field of dreams, Pat looked at it and felt that he needed to do something with it. He grappled with many different ideas, but nothing stuck. Then he read the book, "Eleven Seconds" by Travis Roy about Travis' life before and after a spinal cord injury. "When I finished reading "Eleven Seconds", I closed the book and knew right then what I wanted to do with Little Fenway," said O'Connor. He wanted to get involved with the Travis Roy Foundation and help raise money for people with spinal cord injuries. That was the day that he started the Wiffle ball tournament. Since then, they have had three tournaments attracting teams from across New England and New York. Chelmsford residents Bob Vecchione and Benton Burgess received an invitation to enter a team in the tournament. Immediately, they saw an opportunity to help a great cause and they assembled a team called, Comets Express. The Comets Express team is comprised of Chelmsford residents, Stephen DeAngelis, Scott and Mark Trahan, Phil Aucoin, Bill Ryder, Bob Vecchione, Benton Burgess, father/son combo Eric and Tom Frank and Burlington, Vt. native Louis DiMassi. "When we first looked at this we thought that it would be good to raise some funds for people with spinal cord injuries, and have a great time doing it!" said Vecchione owner of Comets Restaurant. "We never dreamed that we would win the whole thing." Not only did Comets Express win the tournament, but they raised more money than any other team in the contest. "We had several teams make the trip from Massachusetts and even one from as far away as Staten Island to take part in this, and I can't thank them enough," Travis Roy said. "This event has grown from raising $4,000 in its first year to more than $25,000 this year, and the Comets team from Tyngsboro was a big part of that. The $7,500 in pledges they raised will help us provide grants to spinal cord injury survivors who really need it." Along the way, Comets Express was the only team to hit three home runs in one inning. The insurance agents from Allen Agency of Vermont pledged $250 for every team that reached this achievement. In addition to the money raised by the three home runs in one inning, Key Bank of Vermont pledged $20 for every home run hit during the tournament. The players from Comets Express hit 13 home runs with Phil Aucoin, Eric Frank, and Louis DiMassi hitting three each. The tournament was able to raise over $25,000 for the Travis Roy Foundation. This was more than three times the money raised last year. "We exceeded all expectations and are very pleased with the outcome," said O'Connor. In addition to the bragging rights, the champs get their team name engraved on the Travis Roy Foundation trophy. Like the Stanley Cup, the championship trophy is held by the winning team for the year leading up to the next tournament. Comets Express will have the trophy proudly displayed at the Comets Restaurant on Westford Road in Tyngsboro for anyone who wants to come and see it with their own eyes. Comets Express plans on entering the tournament next year and is hoping for a similar outcome as this past weekend. "This tournament was too much fun and it's such a great cause, that there's no way we could ever miss it," said tournament MVP Scott Trahan. People interested in donating money to the Travis Roy Foundation or would like to see more information and pictures from the tournament can visit the web site www.travisroyfoundation.org. The Travis Roy Foundation was founded in 1997 to help spinal cord injury survivors and to fund research into more effective treatments and an eventual cure. The foundation has distributed more than $1.2 million in individual grants and to institutions across the country to provide research and rehabilitation for spinal cord injuries. Individual grant funds have been used to modify vans, purchase wheelchairs, computers, ramps, shower chairs and other adaptive equipment to help quadriplegics and paraplegics live more independent lives. The foundation is also actively involved in efforts to build a state of the art spinal cord research and treatment center in the Boston area that would treat patients from across the Northeast.
Appeared in the Chelmsford (MA) Independent - August 26, 2004 |
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