John Forcelli, 81, baseball star

John Patrick Forcelli, a star baseball player who was once offered a contract to play with the St. Louis Cardinals’ organization, died Monday evening, Dec. 20, 2004, at Danbury Hospital. A lifelong resident of Branchville, he was 81 years old and the husband of Norma Forcelli.

As did most of his contemporaries in Branchville, Mr. Forcelli loved baseball and as a youth in the summers, played from dawn until dusk. He was a member of the 1940 championship Ridgefield High School baseball team and later starred at Henry Abbott Technical School in Danbury.

After high school he tried out with the New York Yankees in Yankee Stadium. During World War II, he played with and against several major league baseball players on U.S. Army teams.

Scouts had noticed his prowess and upon returning from the service, Mr. Forcelli was offered a contract to play with the St. Louis Cardinals organization in the Appalachian League. However, according to his old friend, Paul Baker, “the pay scale to play in the minors back in the 1940s was barely enough to make a living and offered less security than steady employment.”

Instead, he played local ball, starring as shortstop with the Ridgefield Motors and Branchville Civics team, and also with the powerful Hoffman Fuel team in the Danbury City League. He was also hired to play ball in Norwalk.

Mr. Forcelli was “a stellar defensive player,” said Mr. Baker. He “carried an outstanding batting average and was particularly noted as a line-drive hitter.”

Last October, Mr. Forcelli was honored at the annual Ridgefield Old Timers Association banquet.

Mr. Forcelli was also a lifetime Boston Red Sox fan, and was elated this fall when the Sox won their first World Series of his lifetime.

John Forcelli was born on April 26, 1923 in the family home in Branchville, a son of Antonio and Antoinetta Diberardino Forcelli, who had come here from Corvara, Pescara, Italy. Along with his six brothers and sisters, he attended the one-room schoolhouse on Old Branchville Road.

He later attended Ridgefield High School and Abbott Tech in Danbury.

During World War II he served in the 34th Infantry of the U.S. Army in the Pacific Islands and in Japan during the occupation. He vividly recalled the devastation of Hiroshima, where he was stationed a few months after the atomic bomb blast.

Mr. Forcelli worked for 25 years for Perkin-Elmer Corporation in Danbury.

He had lived at the Laurel Ridge Health center for the past two years.

Besides his wife, Mr. Forcelli is survived by a son, Tony Forcelli and his wife Jeanette of Ridgefield; a daughter, Linda Mihaley and her husband Gary of South Salem, N.Y.; his sister, Anna Frulla of Washington; five grandchildren, Patrick, Robin and Timothy Forcelli, and Gregory and James Mihaley; and nine nieces and nephews. A sister, Edith, and two brothers, Peter and Joseph, died before him.

A Mass of Christian Burial will be celebrated on Monday, Dec. 27, at 10 a.m. in Sacred Heart Church, Georgetown.

Burial will follow in St. Mary’s Cemetery, Ridgefield.

Friends may call at the Bouton Funeral Home, 31 West Church Street, Georgetown on Sunday, Dec. 26, from 5 to 8 p.m.

Contributions in his memory may be made to the Juvenile Diabies Research Foundation, 200 Connecticut Ave. Ste 5H, Norwalk CT 06854.