Joe Paolucci is going to move over one seat in the administrative offices of the Cranberry Baseball League.
The Weymouth resident has been involved in the Cranberry League for nearly two decades as a player, manager and general manager. For the past 10 years, he’s served as the CBL president. He played for the Weymouth Titans, Hingham Phillies and Weymouth Phillies. He managed the Weymouth Phillies to a Northeast Stan Musial Championship in 2004.
He became the President of the CBL in October of 2007 and his first full season was 2008.
For the past three years he has coached high school baseball at his alma mater, Weymouth High, and wanted to put more time into that.
He will relinquish the duties as league president to his former player Nate Charette, who has run the Bourne Braves the past three years. Paolucci will still be involved in the league as it commissioner.
“My goal when I took over was to put 10 years into the job of being president,” Paolucci said. “This role needs new blood and new ideas or things will fall flat.
“I am putting a lot of energy into building the Weymouth High School program now and I don’t feel like I am giving the Cranberry League the attention that it deserves. It is such a great league with a rich history and the men that run the teams in our league need a president that will continue to evolve the league. Nate (Charette) and PJ (Thompson) are the right guys for that role now.”
Thompson, who has had great success running the Braintree White Sox including winning the Stan Musial Eastern Mass World Series in three of the last four years, stays on in his vice president role.
Paolucci has been a part of the growth of the league during his 10 years, but he will still be involved in a different capacity as commissioner.
“Now, I said I was stepping aside, not down,” Paolucci said. “This role has been vacant since Louie DiTullio passed away in 2014. The role of the commissioner is basically an advisory role and a behind the scenes administrative job.
“I will continue to pay the bills, handle the insurance, order the baseballs, and manage the 501(c)3. I will also oversee the Hall of Fame Dinner (every two years) and enforce the bylaws as needed. I am also going to continue to work behind the scenes in the offseason with the other leagues to try and find a way to effectively implement interleague competition. I think we are getting closer and closer to that being a reality.”
The league’s Hall of Fame will names its list of candidates for this year shortly according to Paolucci.
The league has been involved with interleague competition for a while in Paolucci’s term in office.
They have run an All-Star venture at a different site during the middle of the season with Park League Yawkey and Intercity Leagues.
The outgoing president has also updated the punishment system for the league as well.
“The EMass Amateur Baseball Classic,” Paolucci said, “I think we are into our sixth season with this game and it gets better each year. The trophy was named after Louie DiTullio to honor his memory.
“In 2008, we implemented a more strict disciplinary policy which included fining players up to $50 for ejections. This was a way we could clean up the league and hold players accountable for their actions. We went from 35 ejections in 2007 to 1 ejection in 2008. Now we are around four or five a season, but it is still much better than before we put those guidelines in.”
