Meet Some Local Ex-Pro Ballplayers: Ray Fagnant, East Granby

EAST GRANBY, CT — The only one of our featured subjects in this periodic baseball series who was not raised in Hartford County is Ray Fagnant. However, since moving to East Granby more than two decades ago, the former minor league catcher has been inducted into two halls of fame, seen one of his sons drafted by the Baltimore Orioles, and accumulated four World Series rings as northeast regional scouting supervisor for the Boston Red Sox.

Growing up a mere 11 miles north of the Connecticut border in Chicopee, Mass., Fagnant was a standout player at Holyoke Catholic High School, then enrolled at Assumption College in Worcester. Despite missing his sophomore year with a hand injury, he finished his tenure with the Greyhounds in 1987 as the school's all-time leader with 23 home runs (currently tied for fifth) and a .643 slugging percentage (now seventh).

He signed with the Pittsburgh Pirates as an undrafted free agent, but spent most of the 1988 season in extended spring training, appearing in about 75 games. He got into one game as a late-inning defensive replacement with the club's Rookie League team in the Gulf Coast League. After being released, he signed with the Red Sox in 1989, but struggled at the plate with a cumulative .119 batting average in 42 at-bats at three different minor league levels. He did, however, hit his lone professional home run that year for Class-A Winter Haven of the Florida State League, and it was a blast to remember.

"I hit one out against Jack Morris, who was on a rehabilitation assignment with Lakeland," he recalled in a prior interview with Patch. Morris wound up with 254 big league victories, was the winningest major league pitcher during the 1980s, and was inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame in 2018.

Back at Winter Haven in 1990, Fagnant appeared in 47 games, batting .179 with 11 runs batted in; he also recorded his only pro triple and stolen base.

"I don't remember the stolen base, but I remember the triple like it was yesterday," he laughed. "I hit a line drive over the center fielder's head and it hit the base of the fence. [Former Red Sox third base coach] Eddie Popowski was a coach with the Gulf Coast League team, and we shared the complex. Pops said, 'The way you run, the center fielder must have fallen down and died.'"

The following year, Fagnant advanced to Double-A New Britain, compiling 46 at-bats as backup catcher to eventual 14-year big leaguer John Flaherty. He was released following that season and returned to the actuarial department at CIGNA, where he had worked for the previous five off-seasons.

His tenure in the office world did not last long after receiving a call from Bill Enos, the senior member of the Red Sox scouting department with more than half a century in the game.

"Bill was retiring and he asked me if I was interested in taking his spot," Fagnant recalled. "It was early in the spring and I was waiting to hear from a couple of teams, but I knew that it was what I wanted to do because it was a chance for me to stay in baseball."

His scouting career officially began on Jan. 1, 1993, covering a territory including New England, New York, New Jersey and eastern Canada. His initial assignment was a college game between Holy Cross and Providence.

"The leadoff batter was Lou Merloni. To scout him and sign him was wonderful," Fagnant said. The Framingham, Mass. native wound up being his first-ever signee, and enjoyed a 9-year big league career with five teams, including two stints with his hometown Red Sox.

Fagnant was put in charge of the northeast region in 1994, and has remained since; notable signees have included pitchers Manny Delcarmen and Matt Barnes. He also signed Carl Pavano of Southington, who never pitched for Boston, but was one of two players traded to the Montreal Expos in 1997 in exchange for future Hall of Fame hurler Pedro Martinez.

Boston hosted the 1999 Major League Baseball All-Star Game, a star-studded affair which included introduction of many of the game's All-Century players, as well as a rare appearance by Red Sox legend Ted Williams, among the last of his life.

"I was the bullpen catcher for the American League and caught the Home Run Derby, with Mark McGwire, Ken Griffey and Sammy Sosa," he remembered. "I was leaning on the bullpen fence as Pedro was about to start warming up, and they drove Ted Williams right by me. It was a perfect, beautiful night at Fenway, and the whole thing was just surreal."

Like the rest of Red Sox Nation, Fagnant got the thrill of watching the franchise end an 86-year drought by winning the 2004 World Series. They also took it all in 2007, 2013 and 2018.

"I'm in a unique position - I work for the team I've been a lifelong fan of," he said. "So many people had lived through so much misery before we finally won it."

Upon receiving his first World Series ring, Fagnant was promptly offered a handsome 6-figure amount for it by a New Jersey memorabilia dealer. Of course, he turned it down.

He was the first two-time recipient of the George Digby Award as Red Sox Scout of the Year in 2002 and 2006. He was inducted into the Holyoke Catholic High School Hall of Fame in 2012, and became the first person honored primarily for scouting by the Western Massachusetts Baseball Hall of Fame in 2016.

Fagnant has worked on the Team USA staff at four World Baseball Classic tournaments, and served as bullpen catcher for the U.S. national team under Jim Leyland.

Following graduation from East Granby High School in 2019, Fagnant's oldest son Christian was drafted in the 39th round by the Baltimore Orioles. He opted to attend Amherst College instead, and has spent the past two summers playing in his dad's old stomping grounds, with the New Britain Bees of the Futures Collegiate Baseball League.

The college season was canceled in 2020 due to the coronavirus pandemic, and Christian sat out the abbreviated 2021 campaign. He spent last April and May as bullpen catcher for the Red Sox Triple-A team in Worcester, then following the Bees' season, he returned to the WooSox before being surprised by a call from the big league team. He spent September as a bullpen catcher at Fenway Park.

He is slated to play his first college game March 13 in Auburndale, Fla. Four days later, Amherst will play Franklin and Marshall College at another one of his father's former homes - Chain O' Lakes Park in Winter Haven.

Fagnant's middle son Matthew, a senior on the East Granby High School team, has committed to attend Marywood University in Scranton, Pa., where the aspiring pilot will combine his two passions, for baseball and aviation. Not to be outdone, the youngest son, James, batted .500 in his freshman year at East Granby.

Other stories in this series:

• Brad Tweedlie, Enfield
• Gary Burnham, South Windsor
• Mike Schweighoffer, Farmington
• Mauro Gozzo, Berlin