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BERLIN — The moustache is gone. For the first time in 28 years, Berlin baseball coach Leo Veleas’ upper lip is clean shaven.
“I think it makes him look younger,” said Bert Veleas, his bride of 51 years. “A lot of people are saying that, too.”
“The beginning of the season he comes up to me and he says, “Fourteen, Gomesy, and you get to keep my moustache,’” senior first baseman Will Gomes said. “I didn’t know what he meant. Was it in a paper bag or something?’”
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He meant his 600th win meant an appointment with a razor.
Veleas didn’t have a moustache when he and Bert were married a half century ago. He wasn’t quite sure when he first grew it. Bert figures it was sometime in the Seventies when sideburns were long, moustaches were bushy, and Leo played for powerhouse Gartenhaus of the National Slow-Pitch Conference.
Berlin athletic director Dave Francalangia certainly knew the date of the only other time that led to Veleas shaving it.
“June 9, 1995,” he said.
Francalangia played on the Class M state champions that year. Veleas resisted betting his players on shaving his moustache during his first decade. Bad bet, Veleas said. The teams were too good.
He did acquiesce in 1995.
“My moustache and hair were a lot darker then,” he said.
In all Veleas has won five state titles and made 12 state final appearances in either Class M or L in 37 years at Berlin. He surpassed Jim Penders this past week as the fourth winningest coach in state baseball history. Veleas, 12-7 this year, is 602-196 in his career.
“He has had so many successes on the field,” Francalangia said. “But the successes in life, kids coming back, reaching out to him, that’s what is most meaningful to coach.”
“It was made possible by these guys and all the kids who went before these guys,” Veleas said. “I was just lucky I didn’t screw them up.”
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Veleas had figured he needed 14 wins to reach 600. He figured wrong.
On Monday, Tyler Bergstrom’s game-winning hit in extra innings gave Berlin an exciting 2-1 victory over Enfield. Veleas was in the diner the next morning when his phone rang. It was Francalangia.
“I’m thinking, ‘What did I do wrong now?’” said Veleas, breaking into a laugh.
Instead, it was Francalangia offering his congratulations for No. 600.
Everybody involved counted. And recounted. Yes, 600 was Monday. No. 601 was Wednesday against Windsor and No. 602 was Friday, Senior Night, when both Veleas’ graduating players and the 74-year-old coach were honored.
“I went home Tuesday and shaved it,” Veleas said. “Since everybody is telling me I look a lot younger, I’m thinking about keeping it off.”
Veleas had been the Berlin junior varsity coach for two years before head coach Paul Baretta left to become a scout for the New York Mets. He interviewed for the opening before a panel that included former athletic director George Hall.
Veleas was asked if he’d still coach the junior varsity if he didn’t get the job.
“I said, ‘Sure. I just love baseball,’” Veleas answered.
He was named varsity coach in 1987 and promptly guided Berlin to the Class M state finals his first season. The varsity played at Percival Field in those days. Junior varsity played at the current spot at Sage Park. There were a couple of benches then. No lights. There were no dugouts. Only a four-foot high outfield fence 350 feet from home plate.
“I can’t believe how far we’ve come,” Veleas said. “I can’t believe I’m at this point.”
“It’s amazing, amazing,” Bert said. “We want to thank the players. The players make the coach. Their dedication and talent have been phenomenal.”
Veleas was a three-sport athlete at Newington High. He played for Porky Vieira at New Haven and went to the 1970 NAIA World Series in Phoenix. Drafted that year in the 14th round by the Red Sox, he played two seasons in their minor league system in Jamestown, N.Y., Winter Haven, Fla., and Key West, Fla.
“I always wanted to be a ballplayer,” Veleas said. “I got married, had a kid and couldn’t live on $600 a month and $5 a day meal money on the road. Let me tell you, Key West was something else. It would rain so hard that you couldn’t see your hand in front of your face. The water just went through the ground and you’d play that night.”
He worked his entire life, but he was never a classroom teacher. His lessons were on the field.
Veleas’ first seven years at Berlin, he lost a total of 12 games. He had 11 teams that won at least 20 games. Over his 37 years, his Berlin teams have never missed the state tournament. Only the COVD-19 season, slowed down his chase of 600.
“I never dreamed of 600,” Veleas said. “I did have 500 wins in my head.”
That came in 2016 in a walk-off as Berlin rallied for five runs in the bottom of the seventh to beat Wethersfield.
“Oh, my goodness,’ Veleas said, “so many memories. I got to coach my son and two of his sons. My son played on my first state championship in 1989 and his youngest son Daniel got to the finals (in 2019).
“You can’t write a story like that.”
We’re going to try.
North Haven coach Bob DeMayo won 936 games, a mark that may never be broken. Haddam-Killingworth coach Mark Brookes, still active, has won 737. The late John Fontana won 668 at Southington, and former East Catholic coach Jim Penders (whose son coaches UConn) won 600.
Veleas knows these men.
“Jim Penders, when we played them, he’d come over from his dugout and we’d just talk baseball,” Veleas said. “Cut from the same cloth. John Fontana, he coached Southington when I played for Newington.”
A favorite Veleas saying is you can’t win with bad players. Well, one day he was sitting at a wedding reception with Bill Detrick and said exactly that to the legendary Central Connecticut basketball coach.
“Without missing a beat — cutting his steak — Bill goes, ‘You’re absolutely right, coach, but you can lose with good ones,’” Veleas said. “That went like a thunderbolt in my head. He was absolutely right. Don’t mess it up.”
Veleas believes in pitching and defense. He believes in fundamentals. He does not believe in over-coaching. If the players learn their craft in practice and if they play games the way they practice, he said, things will work out.
“When I first started coaching, they did call me crazy, Crazy Leo,” he said. “I was old school.”
Yes, he has mellowed some.
“Coach demands the best out of us every day,” Gomes said, “but inside he is such a good guy.”
“You never want it to end,” Veleas said. “Even though we didn’t have a real good year last year, I feel in my heart that I still have something to offer. I have friends now that coach that I coached. I had two kids make it to the big leagues, a bunch play pro ball and a ton go play in college. It’s something special.
“I’m still standing. I can’t believe it.”
As he looked out from the dugout, he said his high school coach, the late Bob Davis, would have gotten a big kick of the pre-game ceremony where he received a commemorative bat. Davis remained a close friend over the years and was a big Red Sox fan.
“When I got drafted by the Red Sox,” Veleas said, “he was so proud of me. His chest must have stuck out a foot.”
How long will he keep coaching? Veleas didn’t directly answer the question.
“I’m going to say as long as he can,” his wife Bert said.
Moustache or no moustache.
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