Tri-State MVP Jonathan Wilson may be small in stature, but big in passion and productivity

By Peter Wallace, Correspondent April 2, 2025 Register-citizen

Star-struck athletic kids who grow up idolizing professional athletes, often supported in their dreams by ambitious parents, might do better closer to home in seeking a role model. For baseball kids and parents, Thomaston native Jonathan Wilson presents a good choice. He’s last year’s MVP in the Tri-State Baseball League, a collection of 12 teams full of premier athletes still ardently following their baseball passions, some after climbing MLB’s minor league trails, many more from college playing ranks.

Any of them might do as a role model, but Wilson stands out, not just because he occupies such an honored spot in the league with the stats to prove it – .457 batting average; 18 doubles; 5 triples; 32 runs scored; 27 RBI; 16 stolen bases; 1.000 fielding percentage in center field in 22 regular-season games – but because he fits none of the physical molds professional sports or even colleges often demand, with the possible exception of speed. “It’s extremely rare for our league to choose a leadoff hitter as its MVP,” says Tri-State Commissioner Eddie Gadomski. “Usually, it’s one of the mashers.” Jon Wilson stands a solid 5-feet-7, 160 pounds in a league full of imposing physiques that look like they might still belong in the minors. A three-sport athlete in Thomaston High School’s 2018 graduating class, he was a Class S All-State center fielder/leadoff hitter in his junior and senior years and the school’s male CIAC scholar/athlete.

He had every right to believe he could be a star in Eastern Connecticut State University’s storied baseball program. Instead, after a freshman year on the bench, he met with then-ECSU Coach Brian Hamm, who told him, “I can make some calls and get you into a program that will give you more playing time.” “By then, I had friends at Eastern and didn’t want to change schools,” says Wilson. In some ways, it was a flashback to his freshman year in high school, where, again, he sat on the bench while his teammates posted a 17-3 regular season record and made it to the Class S quarterfinals. “Baseball was always my favorite sport, but that year, I started thinking I should focus on soccer,” says Wilson. Instead, he stuck with it. After all, with Rick Wilson, a popular sports writer for a Dad who took his son with him to games since he was 10 and Caroline Wilson, a “fantastic athlete who played basketball and field hockey at Southern” for a Mom and coach of most of his youth sports teams, sports were clearly Jon’s destiny. By his junior year in Golden Bear baseball, then-coach Bob McMahon made Wilson his leadoff batter and center fielder. “You know Bobby,” Wilson chuckles. “He told me, ‘If you strike out, you’re out.’ That first game, I went 2-for-4 with two strikeouts, but he stuck with me. “Switching from infield to center field took away a lot of my stress; I didn’t have to think as much in the field so I could concentrate on hitting.” Three days after the Bears’ season ended in Wilson’s senior year, he followed two Thomaston teammates in joining Tri-State’s Betlehem Plowboys. It turned out to be a safety net and ultimate focus for Wilson’s baseball passion. “When your college career ends sooner than you planned on, it was great to have another home,” he says. ”The Plowboys stopped being a developmental step for me and became the place.”

Now, the passion burns even stronger. For the past three years, the Plowboys have finished the season as runners-up to the Tri-Town Trojans, based in Litchfield. Anchored by former minor leaguers Willie Yahn and Mike Fabiaschi in the infield and Tri-State’s perennial Cy Young winner Miles Scribner on the mound, “(Tri-Town) is good at every part of the game,” Wilson says. “When we play them, we have to be just like them. In our league’s World Series, they all step up. “We’re going to keep trying.” Wilson gives Plowboy coach Rich Revere full credit for assembling a group of players who are up to the challenge after Covid cost the Plowboys and the league many of its veterans to retirement in 2020. Meanwhile, the team and its challenges make it worth a two-hour drive every weekend for Wilson to come home from his job as Assistant Director of Athletic Communications and Compliance Coordinator at Emanuel College in Boston. After all, the dream is still alive. Peaks and valleys have simply shaped it in different directions – maybe more realistic, definitely more fun, and every bit as challenging. Scribner, who’s brothers Evan and Troy made it to the major league, might have made it on his own in many people’s minds. “I kid him about being basically a robot,” says Wilson. “He’s going to throw a complete game and he’s going to mix it up. He’s got four or five different pitches, maybe more. “If you’re going to start thinking against him in the batter’s box, you might as well go sit down. I’ve got a tight swing so I just wait for it to come out of his hand. I’ve probably had as many singles as strikeouts against him. “He’s fun to face.” Ask the former minor leaguers. They’re likely to summarize their still-burning passion for the game in the Tri-State League in much the same way as Wilson does. “Having a great group of guys to be around is fun. What’s better than playing high-level baseball with them and sitting around on the first base line for a couple of hours afterwards?” he says.

Role model? Maybe it starts with the passion, then comes down to just having fun – even for an MVP.