Fan forever
Shannon Kinsella, 31, of Brockton, is a lifelong sports fan, particularly Red Sox baseball. So when the Brockton Rox, a member of the Canadian-American Association of Professional Baseball, came to town in 2002, she was a booster from the get-go.
Kinsella, who has cerebral palsy, never missed a Rox home game and made many friends, including former Rox coach Ed Nottle, who one rainy night a few years ago gave her his team jacket to stay dry.
Nottle later went to the Ottawa Rapidz, but returned to Brockton for a game recently - bearing gifts for the loyal fan.
"Ed's a great guy," said Kinsella's father, Robert Kinsella. "He brought her all sorts of Ottawa gear, including a team jersey and bat engraved with his name." And she got a bobblehead doll - no surprise, given that it was the official "Ed Nottle Bobblehead Doll Night."
Shannon Kinsella's love for baseball extends beyond the Rox. She and her family were instrumental in getting Challenger Baseball initiated as part of the Little League system.
What started with a few dozen disabled young ballplayers - including Kinsella - has grown in to a national program that draws more than 100,000 athletes in it nationwide.
"She's a huge, huge Rox fan, and Red Sox, too, she can rattle off stats like you can't believe," said her proud dad, whose son, Robert Kinsella Jr., is a scout for the New York Islanders in the National Hockey League. "She wraps up in her Sox blanket and listens or watches every single game."
Rox general manager Brian Voelkel has taken advantage of Kinsella's knowledge about a pitcher who'd played for the Rox at one time.
"He'd asked her when the pitcher pitched for us and she knew, dates, his record, everything," her father said. "She hasn't missed a home game in seven years."
SING A SONG OF SCITUATE: Two new Scituate songs are available on CD - "Songs of Scituate" - courtesy of singer/songwriter Greg Cherone, who worked with the Scituate Historical Society to produce them. The first song, "Army of Two," is about the Bates sisters tricking the British into thinking the local militia was ready to meet them if they tried a second invasion of Scituate Harbor. The other is "Old Oaken Bucket," a contemporary version of Samuel Woodworth's famous poem. The historical society's fund-raising CD fetches $5 and is available at the Maritime & Irish Mossing Museum and the Little Red Schoolhouse, both in Scituate.
HINGHAM HUMORIST: Dan Perrault of Hingham recently took first place in Rooftop Comedy's National College Comedy Competition for his short film, "Carphone," at the finals held in Aspen, Colo. Perrault, a 2004 Hingham High School graduate, is working toward a degree in acting at Emerson College in Boston, where he heads up the comedy troupe Chocolate Cake City.
The Rooftop Comedy Competition reviewed submissions from thousands of students representing 32 colleges and universities nationwide, and Perrault was one of four finalists flown to Aspen. In addition to a trophy, Perrault took home $1,500.
Perrault also recently won two Evvy Awards for best original writing and best comedy ensemble performance at Emerson.
BUSINESS BRIEFS: Barbara Watkins of Hingham, a real estate agent with Century 21 in Quincy, has been awarded the Century 21 Centurion Producer Award for being in the top percentage of Century 21 sales associates through the country in 2007. This is the third year she's taken the award, the highest ranking in the Century 21 system. Watkins, a cancer survivor, said she has donated a percentage of every sales commission in 2008 to the American Cancer Society.
Annalee Bundy, executive director of the Ames Free Library in Easton, is retiring effective Monday after 14 years with the library. Replacing her will be Madeline Miele Holt, who has been at Ames since 1998 and is the assistant director. Moving into Holt's position will be Uma Hiremath, who was most recently assistant director at the Thayer Public Library in Braintree.
Linda Edmonds Turner of Milton, president of Urban College of Boston, has been elected treasurer/secretary of the executive committee of college and university presidents in the Association of Independent Colleges and Universities in Massachusetts. Turner has been Urban's president since 2002, and had been vice president and chief marketing officer of Dean College.
Paul E. Kandarian can be reached at kandarian@globe.com.
