‘A Great Feeling’: Paladino Construction Wins New Canaan Rec Softball Title 

Joe Paladino hadn’t played softball in 10 years when he attended a friend’s party in 1999 and heard about New Canaan’s Rec Department summer league.

He signed up, and five years later launched his own Paladino Construction team, working through some difficult and even winless early seasons before finally getting to .500 mark and consistently making the finals.

“We considered ourselves the Buffalo Bills of New Canaan softball,” Paladino recalled. “We always got to dance but could never make the magic happen.”

Until recently.

Last week, Paladino Construction bested a team called “The Firm” by a combined three-game score of 34-11 to capture its second straight league championship.

“It was a great feeling,” Paladino said of the win.

The 2-1 series victory and title bookended an especially challenging season for Paladino, who has been partially sidelined with heart trouble, and marks personal and team milestones in one of New Canaan’s most cherished summer traditions. 

Dating to 1965 as the Men’s Softball League and re-branded two years ago as the Adult Softball League after opening up to women, the New Canaan pastime is more than just a sport to its dozens of players, drawing multiple generations of local athletes to summer nights at Waveny for camaraderie, competition, exercise and fun.

One member of the two-time reigning champs that Paladino himself identified as a key figure in turning the team around is player/manager Michael Chen. 

Chen, 59, has been playing in the league for 31 years and identifies himself as “the oldest guy in the league.” He said he now finds himself trotting out to the field with players he’d coached when they were part of 10- and 11-year-old New Canaan Baseball teams.

“Some of them still call me ‘Mr. Chen’ because I was coaching them,” he said. “It’s kind of weird playing with guys that call me ‘Mr Chen.’ ”

Winning the championship brings with it “a little bit of pride” and bragging rights, Chen said, though socialization is the biggest payoff from playing Rec Softball.

“Some of these guys are my friends for life,” Chen said.

The league’s great teams, players and figures of the past—Chicken Street, Dennis Paglialunga, Mark “2-5-0” Rearick, Arco, Gates, Robert Jones, Cherry Street East, Don Souden, Lamakers, Star Flooring—form a living local history that is shared and passed down to new generations of players.

Chen, who has played or currently plays in Ridgefield, Wilton, Westport and Norwalk leagues, called New Canaan Rec Softball “very competitive.”

“Some of the best players who played baseball are playing in this league now,” he said.

Yet the number of players participating in the league is down in recent years, from a height of 20-plus teams to just seven in 2021, the players said. (There’s a maximum of 20 players per roster, and rules of eligibility are spelled out in a the league’s detailed bylaws.)

Chen said he’s planning to retire after his 30th season in 2022.

“At a certain point you want to go out on top,” he said. “I don’t want to go out where they will kick me off the team.”

Paladino said although he had hoped to play more regularly himself for the past two seasons, that he’s “still involved” and “when we are looking for that ninth player, I am still out there.”

“If I can play, I will play,” he said.

“I have more limitations than ever, it’s been hard, but I’m getting past that and feeling better and so I’m happy to be out there with a good group of guys and to be able to contribute,” Paladino added. “There have been games where I have actually hit the ball well and felt good doing it and contributed. If I go maybe 3-for-4 it makes me feel terrific that I’m still playing at a competitive level even if though I’m not quite there health-wise.”

Paladino said he doesn’t envision ever completely walking away from the league.

“When I do decide to hang the cleats up completely, I will be holding the clipboard and hanging out with the guys and I’ll still be a part of the team,” he said. 

“They usually have to take us out free first,” Paladino said.