Hopedale
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Vol. 1 No. 7
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September 1, 2015
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Hopedale Baseball Player Creates One of Hopedale’s Best National Stir on SportsCenter is Now 98 Years Strong By Timothy Davis
Hopedale’s own Ian Strom has been garnering a lot of attention from across the state from Governor Baker to television sets across America. Strom was first showcased on ESPN SportsCenter’s ‘Top Plays’ in 2014, for an acrobatic catch in centerfield.
Ian Strom
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One year later, and the accolades keep piling up as Strom has made two additional wizardry catches in centerfield to land him back on ‘Top Plays’. Strom was then honored by The Future College Baseball League with Massachusetts Governor Charlie Baker, as the ‘Defensive Player of the Year’ and ‘Top Pro Prospect.’ The FCBL Worcester Bravehearts’ leadoff hitter and centerfielder, batted .353 with 26 runs scored and 48 overall hits over the summer. The ‘underdog’ Bravehearts may have finished the regular season, only four games below .500, however the team got hot at the right time, and won eight of their last ten games to reach the playoffs. “It’s the underdog story and we believed as a team, we had to win seven to eight of our last ten games to even get a shot at the playoffs. We jelled at the right time and got hot, going through it last year, I knew exactly what
to expect,” Strom said. What Strom expected was a second consecutive FCBL Championship Title, which he and his teammates earned by winning the 2015 post-season tournament with a (4-1) record as the 6th seed. “Honestly, the owners of the Bravehearts’ organization are the hardest workers on the team, sweating their butts off. I am so proud to be a part of the team, and put my name on back-toback trophies,” Strom said. While Strom may have been just a regular high school baseball player for the Blue Raiders in Hopedale, today he carries his expanded talent to UMass-Lowell to play Division 1 baseball for the River Hawks. “I never thought in my wildest dreams, I’d end up playing Division 1 baseball. It’s a real honor and I’m blessed for the
STROM
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piece describes in full, his life, as his parents immigrated to this country at the start of the 20th century. His document has been edited, to save space. Yet these are his own words, as a lifelong resident of the community and Town. My parents came to this country from Italy about 1911. My father, along with his father, had been here earlier and worked at Draper’s (Industrial Complex). [My parents] bought an old farmhouse on the Mendon side of Hopedale on Route 16.
LEONCINI
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For many of us who remember a time when kids or young people were filled in our town streets or neighborhoods riding bikes and playing ball freely, before eventually growing up and prospering in our own towns and community without the hazards of worrying about tomorrow. Those were the ‘boys of summer’ and they were a congregation of kids that played ball in the park, learned right from wrong, and proved their bravery to us all with how they handled themselves as they matured and got older. Joseph Leoncini represents all those attributes that made our country strong in the past century. He is now the oldest resident of Hopedale, holding on to all the right and the best of our wonderful past for not only our community, but also for our country as a wholesome reminder of what it should be. In the summer of 2012, Mr. Leoncini wrote an historic piece to Hopedale’s Council of Aging. The
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