Family values still part of how Torrington’s Mike Fabiaschi approaches baseball in Tri-State League

“My grandfather is a much better story than I am,” Fabiaschi said when setting the date. “He (Gino Fabiaschi) is 93 years old and sharp as a tack. He was an All-State basketball player for Torrington in 1949. He once played at the Boston Garden,” Fabiaschi said. On this day, at 35, the younger Fabiaschi finished playing a Rec League Men’s Basketball Championship game at the Torrington Armory with friends.  Grandfather Gino, father John, mother Julie and sons with wife Aly, Gino, 5 and Luca, 3, were Mike’s biggest fans as usual.

Down the street at Fuessenich, Gino, John and Mike settled in at a table to talk sports with a Torrington American Legion P38 game in progress. Mike was a key player on a 2005 Legion team that came one game away from a state championship. “Old history,” Mike might have said, much more interested in his grandfather’s older basketball glory. “(Torrington High School was) playing for the New England Championship,” Gino began. “The top two teams from each state were invited and we were the state runners-up. “We stayed at the Manger Hotel and took the elevator down to the Garden. We beat Concord, New Hampshire 33-25,” said Gino, then a 6-foot-1 star forward for the Raiders. “I went to Marianapolis Prep; then Fairfield University offered me a four-year scholarship, but I was drafted first and went into the Marines.

“I was a radio operator and almost got court martialed for sending a message I should never have sent to ‘All ships at sea’ about a pilotless airplane. “But I also played basketball at Camp Pendleton (Calif.) and the base commander came personally to get me off with the camp championship trophy we won.” “It pays to play good basketball,” laughed John, one of Gino’s five kids and one of three Fabiaschi Torrington basketball team captains over the years. “I was a defensive role player,” said John about his 1979 team, losing to Villanova star John Pinone’s South Catholic High School in the state semifinals. Still, there was never any Fabiaschi who made it further in sports, despite their stardom, than Mike. And his family has always been his biggest fans. “I never felt any pressure when I was a kid,” says Mike, with the groundwork for that laid by one more story from Gino. “I was pitching against Crosby and I got bombed,” says Gino about his foray into baseball. “I went into the dugout, threw down my glove and said, ‘This game isn’t for me.’”

Despite his own baseball stardom, Mike could relate, even after the A’s drafted him (38th round, 2010). “I got to spring training and saw there were good reasons why other players were drafted higher,” he says. “At first I wondered if I could succeed; then I said, ‘If you give up, it’s never going to happen. If you don’t try, you don’t have a chance.’ “Growing up, I learned perspective on how to handle tough situations from my Dad, Mom and Gramps. I came out with a natural belief in myself. “There were guys who were a lot faster than I was, but my game instincts were better than theirs. “I told myself, ‘This is truly a once-in-a-lifetime experience,’ but, at the same time, I started seeing baseball as a business with lots of decisions based on investments in players drafted much higher than I was. “Being mad doesn’t change anything,” Mike says. “I could be miserable or enjoy the experience and see what happens. How you react is more important.”