This week marks a milestone anniversary in East Hartford. Forty years ago, on Tuesday, January 6th 1981, my third day at WTIC-AM, sports director Arnold Dean introduced me to legendary East Hartford sportsman Frank Benettieri, the owner of the Willow Inn at the corner of Main and Willow streets.

Well known for his friendships in baseball and his work on behalf of the Jimmy Fund, Frank offered to help me line up guests for the upcoming WTIC Jimmy Fund Radiothon.

Having worked at Pratt & Whitney in the late 1960’s and early 1970’s I knew who “Big Frank” was, the Willow having been a frequent post-shift stop. Frank, however, didn’t know me from Adam. On that day a friendship was born that would last for the rest of Frank’s life and would include a long string of annual trips to the Red Sox spring training camp in Winter Haven, Florida.

Two days later Frank asked me to have breakfast with his friend Ray McKenna, another well-known East Hartford sportsman who later became the sports editor of this newspaper. We met at the Triple-A Diner, where Ray inquired about my interest in becoming the EMCEE for his annual East Hartford Explorers Tap off Club Hall of Fame banquet at the Marco Polo restaurant. That day the Willow Inn Hot Stove League was born.

Tuesday at 10 a.m. became our regular time for updating the progress for the next dinner and reviewing the previous one. We sat in a booth in the main room. Frequently the fourth seat was filled by a prominent local resident on his way to work in Hartford, then Connecticut state senate president pro-tem John Larson. On several occasions we were joined by UCONN athletic director Lew Perkins, for whom the Triple-A was a regular coffee stop between his home in Cromwell and his office in Storrs.

As the gathering drew attention and our numbers grew we moved to the dining room and expanded to two round tables accommodating as many as 20 attendees a week who analyzed the sports world over coffee and pastries.

Following Ray’s passing in 2005 the Willow Inn Hot Stove League moved to, of all places, the Willow Inn, where we’re surrounded by Frank’s legendary Wall of Fame and his incomparable collection of memorabilia.

Frank passed away in 2011 but, with his son Frank Jr. laying out the Tuesday morning spread, meetings of the Hot Stove League, with a revolving cast of memorable characters, go on.

Covid-19 has forced several changes in meeting formats, including conference calls and a string of blackouts, but the members maintain the pride in their little club, started by the man often referred to by the great Ted Williams as his “Best friend outside of baseball”, Frank Benettieri. To a member they hold out confidence that, as with everything else, the league that has survived the deaths of two of its three founding members will return to full normalcy in 2021.

Through it all it’s been a great 40-year ride. Happy anniversary Willow Inn Hot Stove League.