Norwich — Baseball in some form will continue, but the 25-year run of professional ball with major league ties has ended at the Thomas J. Dodd Memorial Stadium.

What a ride it was. Long-time fans, employees and city leaders recalled their special times at the ballpark. Dozens sent photos for a photo gallery on www.theday.com.

The Sorensens of Mystic arrived early each game to watch players stretch and do batting practice. In the early years, young Michael chased foul balls. Years later, Jim Sorensen introduced their grandchildren, Brian and Chloe Lockwood, to pro baseball at Dodd.

“We followed them right to the end, up until COVID got in the way,” Sorensen said. “It was exciting baseball.”

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Baseball arrived with great fanfare in 1995 with the AA New York Yankees’ Norwich Navigators. The 2002 season was a highlight reel. Huge crowds flocked to the All-Star game, as well as rehab games for star pitchers Andy Pettitte and Roger Clemens, Legends Night with Hall of Famers Carlton Fisk, Johnny Bench, Gary Carter, Mike Schmidt, Dave Winfield and George Brett. It ended with the Eastern League championship.

Then the Yankees departed for Trenton.

The AA San Francisco Giants AA affiliate came next, becoming the Connecticut Defenders. Legend Willie Mays visited, and the team featured several future Giants World Series champs.

The Defenders moved away in 2009, and the Connecticut Tigers, the Short-Season A Detroit Tigers team arrived in 2010. Hall of Famer Al Kaline came one night to see his grandson, Colin Kaline, play. The line to meet him ran the length of the stadium.

In 2020, the newly named Norwich Sea Unicorns were poised to celebrate a new 10-year lease with the city. But COVID-19 "got in the way."

Last fall, Major League Baseball shut Norwich out in its minor league contraction, ending 25 years of affiliated minor league ball at Dodd Stadium.

Sea Unicorns general manager Dave Schermerhorn said the team continues to explore options. The Sea Unicorns could become an independent pro team or join a summer collegiate league, such as the Futures League.

“Our ownership group is doing everything possible to keep baseball in Norwich for as long as possible,” Schermerhorn said.

Home to high school and college games, for now

Dodd Stadium won’t be dark come spring. Norwich Free Academy and St. Thomas More will play home games there. Schermerhorn hopes to host the Northeast Conference college baseball tournament. Other high school and college games are likely, and summer concerts are planned.

Fan John Hannon of Manchester has been combing baseball websites all winter to see what other left-out teams are doing and sending ideas to Sea Unicorns staff.

He is optimistic enough to accept the Sea Unicorns' offer of future discounts if he let the team hold onto his 2020 season-ticket deposit.

"I went to the first game, and I went to the last one and I went to a whole bunch in between," Hannon said.

Diehard fans and those who loved affordable family nights at the ballpark have memories, photos, balls and bobbleheads. Several fans sent The Day photos of still-full 1995 Coke bottles printed with the Navigators logo.

“I found them downstairs,” said Roberta Vincent of Norwich. “Those have been down there for a long time.”

Vincent's family rented skyboxes for family occasions, and enjoyed talking to people on the concourse.

"The team was always very gracious about tickets for fundraisers," Vincent said. "And once you go there, you go back, because it's such a great place."

Tony Orsini of Norwich co-founded the booster club in 1995 with several other Yankees fans. The club fed the players, helped set up host families and got players settled.

“In a lot of ways, it did lose the enthusiasm when the Yankees left,” Orsini said. “But it was great baseball up there, with the prospects."

Bill and Carol Zeilman gave away baseball memorabilia to prepare to move to Florida. A Mets fan, Zeilman will keep his photo of “Doc” Gooden's rehab start at Dodd.

“It’s the little things you remember,” Zeilman said. His wife, Carol, added that their son, Ryan, loved summer baseball camp with the players.

Opening day, 1995

Several fans, including current state Rep. Holly Cheeseman, R-East Lyme, got stuck in the hourslong traffic jam on Opening Day 1995. Her sons, David and Douglas, then 8 and 6, became batboys. The family often sat behind home plate to chat with the pitchers working the radar gun.

“Up until last year, we were still going with my dad, who will be 95,” Cheeseman said.

Whatever new form the team takes, she said: “If it’s baseball, we’ll be there.”

Norwich Mayor Peter Nystrom missed the 1995 opener, a good thing. Then a state representative, he got a panicked call that morning from attorney Glenn Carberry, who had led the effort to bring a minor league team to Norwich. The skybox liquor permit hadn’t been approved yet.

Nystrom turned to then-House Speaker Thomas Ritter to add the permit to a brew pubs bill passed that afternoon, allowing beer to flow in the skybox bar.

Nystrom’s three kids grew up at Dodd Stadium. Daughter Molly was a “Tater Tot” at age 3. His wife, Linda Nystrom, and daughter Kaitlyn were part of an on-field jazzercise demonstration one night. Spooked by mascot Cutter, Kaitlyn turned the wrong way. She laughed it off and got back in line.

“It’s been an amazing part of the community for so many years,” Nystrom said. “And it goes beyond baseball, particularly with the Tigers, opening it up for so much more, for chamber events, the car show, fundraisers.”

Nystrom keeps in contact with team staff on future options. He praised the team for retaining its staff, Schermerhorn, merchandise manager Heather Bartlett and groundskeeper Ryan Lefler during the pandemic.

John Fabrizio of Groton, “a baseball junkie,” had gone to many games at Dodd. So, when he was laid off in 2013 and saw a line around the Levine Distributing Co. for two job openings, Fabrizio went across the street to the stadium.

It was February, so team staff told him to come back in spring. Fabrizio became an usher and loved opening the gates to eager fans and taking care of celebrity guests. "They bailed me out that summer," he said.

Fabrizio had planned to work at Dodd last summer. He and his wife, Colleen, did attend one of the summer concerts there.

“It’s not just for baseball,” he said. “We attended the car shows. I wouldn’t mind seeing a college team there. I live in Groton. I go over to see the Mystic Schooners (a summer college team). If there’s any kind of baseball up there, I’ll try to catch a couple of those games.”

Vernon “Griff” Gray of Plainfield is in pandemic baseball withdrawal. Gray normally goes to about 80 games a year — at Dodd, at colleges and the Newport Gulls summer collegiate team.

Gray, co-owner of Gray Ledge Tree Farm, has housed 11 Connecticut Tigers players since 2011. Three have reached the majors, including Tyler Collins, the Connecticut Tigers all-time home run king. At one game, Gray asked the right fielder to toss him a ball for his niece if he caught one at the end of an inning. But another fan jumped and grabbed it.

Autographed balls and Boy Scouts

Gray's niece, Emily Gray, had a better plan. A few years earlier, Emily, 6, had put on the charm to get an autographed ball from the Defenders’ star catcher, Pablo Sandoval, long before his “Kung Fu Panda” nickname.

Gray's Plainfield Boy Scout troop pitched tents and camped on the Dodd Stadium field on Scout Nights. The troop painted the stadium barbecue picnic tables twice. The Tigers gave a "generous donation" to the troop.

"It was enough to pay the gas for our trip to Gettysburg,” Gray said.

Schermerhorn, 35, a Norwich native, grew up as a fan and professional at Dodd Stadium. He was 10 when he went to the "I Peaked at the Park" preview tour. He went to “hundreds of games."

A business major at Stonehill College in Massachusetts, Schermerhorn secured an internship with the Defenders in 2009 and stayed on with the Tigers. “From there, I have a million memories,” he said.

The biggest crowd of the year was expected one Friday the 13th, but the Tigers' bus broke down in Jamestown, N.Y. Too late to cancel, the staff quickly arranged a fan fest, with contests, giveaways and batting practice. The exhausted team finally arrived about 7, and players hung out and signed autographs.

“It was the ultimate example of making lemonade out of lemons,” Schermerhorn said.

c.bessette@theday.com