AMID HUGE CHANGES IN SOFTBALL, BRAKETTES SOLDIER ON

By Al Mattei

Founder, TopOfTheCircle.com

It is a sultry summer afternoon in Linden, N.J. Warinanco Park, tucked in among the sprawl of suburban New York City, is a green oasis and a shelter away from the cars and asphalt of the surrounding area.

Colors are splashed everywhere: soccer teams wearing red shirts similar to the Chilean national team and the red and black stripes of Lazio are scrimmaging on a field whose lines have been burned in by repeated application of lime.

Over the hill, white-clad cricket players participate in their ancient ritual between the stumps. In another part of the park, a game of Frisbee soccer (unlike Ultimate, the disc has to actually be thrown into a goal cage) is being organized. Puerto Rican flags adorn several picnics.

An American Legion baseball game, in all of its star-spangled splendor, is underway on a nearby diamond.

But in the center of the park, near the shimmering lake, one unmistakable color scheme is at play on the softball field: the cherry red and white of the Brakettes.

The Brakettes, the Major-A softball team out of Stratford, Conn., defines the word "dynasty," even as an overzealous news media can give a pro sports team that moniker after as few as three championships in four years.

The Brakettes, since beginning play in 1947, have assembled a championship heritage rivaling the Montreal Canadiens, the New York Yankees, and the Soviet Red Army hockey team. Brakette teams have won 23 national amateur championships in the major division of ASA play, and three world titles. The team has compiled more than 2,700 wins.

And John Stratton has been there for just about every one of them. A batboy when the automotive division of the Raybestos company began the team just after the Second World War, Stratton has been on the team's coaching staff since 1980. Since then, he has seen perhaps the most shifts and changes in softball than perhaps he would have liked.

One is the fact that the vascillating economy has caused a shrinkage in participation of major softball. Sponsorship of teams is far, far down, whether it is in fastpitch or even some of the major slo-pitch leagues in the Northeast and Midwest. It was easy to note the product placement when the old Raybestos Brakettes took on, for example, the Budweiser Belles.

''The thing that changes everything is the money,'' Stratton says. ''Around 1990, everyone started going down; you don't find good men's fastpitch softball teams anymore.''

The Brakettes lost Raybestos backing in the mid-80s, then were sponsored by a construction company until 1990. Raybestos came back on board, only to climb back off a couple of years later. These days the only vestiges of the old sponsorship is the winged R logo on a couple of the team's red batting helmets.

''I don't see major corporations coming across with the big bucks,'' Stratton says. ''The sponsorships is what transports the kids to the tournament -- umpires aren't cheap, bats aren't cheap, balls aren't cheap. It takes a lot of money.''

Under this economic backdrop, the Brakettes have entered the modern age of softball. Knee-length shimmering shorts replace white baseball pants. Some players choose to wear white visors and do not wear traditional wool caps. The bats are space-age aluminum, the ball is canary yellow.

But the team is still winning. On this day, the Brakettes swept the New Jersey Divas 8-1 and 8-0 in the away doubleheader. Over the course of the game, the usual combination of factors applied for the team's success: decent and timely hitting, good fielding, and a "chucker" -- Stratton's term for a dominating pitcher.

The Brakettes won their last national title in 1992. Since then, however, the fortunes of perhaps the greatest women's athletic team of all time have soured.

In the mid-1990s, Stratton saw USA Softball pick up many of the franchise's best players, including Sheila Cornell-Douty, Lisa Fernandez, and Dot Richardson. They and several others decided to train with teams out west, near the Olympic training center in Colorado.

"I looked up to them when I was a rookie," says utility player Donna McLean, who has been a Brakette since the mid-80s. "I give them a lot of credit."

Also in the early 1990s, the presence of the Colorado Silver Bullets baseball team lured players away. Shortstop-outfielder Pat Dufficy and Fernandez were amongst those who chose to tour with the baseball team; one of the oddest sights was seeing Fernandez pitch a baseball underhanded from off the top of a mound in Silver Bullets livery.

Raybestos pulled its sponsorship of the team, and the Women's Professional Softball League (WPSL) began play, adding to the roster pressure.

''I think that the WPSL is good if they can find the places to play,'' Stratton says. ''I don't think you can drop teams and then expand; it's going to be hard.''

Stratton has done his best to keep the Brakettes competitive in this new environment. The Brakettes are now backed by John Carpenter, who also owns a baseball team, the Northern League's Waterbury Spirit. He had also owned the league's Thunder Bay franchise, but sold it to devote resources to the Spirit and to the Brakettes.

''He had never even heard of us before, but he thought he'd give us a shot,'' Stratton says. ''He loves to watch us play, and comes to see us any chance he gets.''

Thanks to Carpenter's backing, the team has begun to recruit better players. Stratton has gone to several WPSL and USA Softball combines to scout talent. He has taken the post of assistant coach at Florida International University, under Joan Joyce, in a further attempt to find good amateur players willing to make the trek to Connecticut for the summer.

He has found talent, only to see the national team pluck it away; such was the case with Brakette signee Danielle Henderson.

''She's the best chucker in the United States,'' Stratton says. ''We had to go and find another pitcher, and you don't replace the best overnight.''

There are, however, enough members of his team that could become stars of the future, like outfielder Kellie Wilkerson.

"I think she could get on the next Olympic team," Stratton says. "Also, our catcher, Keri McCallum. She was on the junior national team, and I think she's just as good as some of the big players they picked up from UCLA."

"It's an honor being on this team," says Wilkerson, whose coach at Mississippi State is former Brakette great Kathy Aaronson. "Coach 'A' told me about this team my freshman year, and all about the traditions."

"Each year, we're getting better ballplayers, and we're improving," McLean says. "I think we're as good as the professional league. We don't get paid, and we don't care if we get paid, which is why we get along so well."

"It's been a great show for a lot of years," Stratton says. ''We're just happy to be in existence.''