Prior Award Recipients:
1980 HENRY ROCHE
1981 ANTHONY "PEACHES" LOMBARDOZZI
1982 JOSEPH MURRAY
1983 FRED GHIRARDINI
1984 JOHN SUSKI
1985 JACK GARRITY
1986 GEORGE KLIVAK
1987 PAUL SWORDS
1988 RUDY RAFFONE
1989 EDWARD RAPUANO, SR.
1990 WILLIAM MAHON
1991 ANTHONY F. MENTONE
1992 ARNOLD MANN
2008 WENDELL GOLDSMITH
2009 EDWIN KLINKHAMMER
2010 RICHARD ALTIERI
2011 BILL RICCIO
2012 John "Buddy" Chernovetz
2013 Fred Norman
2014 Tony Ginnetti
2015 - Ralph Bernardini
2016 - Elmer Deschaine
2017 - Stan Konesky
2018 - John Adamovich
2019 - Larry DeLeo
2021 - Frank Mohr
2022 - Dave Pittman
2023 - Kathleen Morrison
2024 Recipient is:
Frank Pallone of Shelton will be presented the Gassira Award. A 30-year member and past president of the Greater New Haven Baseball Umpires Association, Pallone chairs the Fairfield County Chapter of Approved Baseball Umpires’ Better Officiating Committee. He is a graduate of Bunnell High of Stratford and attended Central Connecticut State University.
About the award:
Members who receive this award are considered part of the Diamond Club Hall of Fame. It is awarded annually to a local umpire who exibits the passion, sportsmanship and teachings of Gassira.
Andrew Gassira was a lifelong resident of the New Haven area, who passed away in October, 1979.
Despite the fact that he had no sons, he spent evenings and Saturdays each year fulfilling his role as League Commissione r, Umpire in Chief, coach and teacher for the 83 teams making up the Hamden Fathers' Baseball Association.
He would line up umpires, keep their payroll records, conduct training clinics, attend games, keep performance ratings on his staff and supervise the entire program.
Born in 1922, Gassira graduated from Commercial High School, entered the U.S. Army was discharged, and then entered J.C.C. College under the G.I. Bill. He graduated from the Baseball Umpiring School in Bartow, Florida in 1948 and worked with the New York Yankees. He umpired in the AAA Baseball System in Georgia and upstate New York. He then got married and went to work for G & O Radiators where he became a draftsman and worked there for 31 years.
Gassira was a basketball coach for the Trowbridge Rec Center in New Haven and also refereed high school and college basketball.
He umpired American Legion and the Babe Ruth Leagues. He was a member of the Greater New Haven Baseball Umpires Association, the Connecticut College Baseball Association, and the Hamden Fathers' Baseball Association.