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From the Bench: How Robert Shields' Historic Run Played Out at Boston's Historic Fenway Park

By Jeff Toquinto on July 22, 2018 from Sports Blog via Connect-Bridgeport.com

When you’ve won seven state baseball championships, including a state record five straight, are a member of the hall of fame for your sport while still coaching and have received accolades statewide,  regionally and locally, it’s likely hard to get too excited about anything touting that success.
 
Such is the case with Robert Shields. Don’t get me wrong, the long-time Bridgeport High School baseball coach is always appreciative of when he’s recognized because he knows it’s a reflection on the efforts of his kids.
 
Even with that in mind, it takes something special on the baseball front that would make Shields a bit giddy over something where he’s either earning praise or seeing it. It appears that happened this past week.
 
Perhaps not surprisingly, it required being in one of the few remaining meccas for baseball in the country for it to happen. Before getting to what happened, it’s important to know how things got set up.
 
Shields has been vacationing in Boston with his wife Tarra and family. Others along for the ride include Tarra’s mother Cathy and her stepfather Bob Jones. Shields’ also had stepson Austin Sponaugle and stepdaughter Savanna Sherrard along for the trip to Beantown.
 
“We were talking this winter about where to go on vacation and I really didn’t want to go down south so I asked Tarra about Boston or Cape Cod … We ended up planning this trip to Boston,” said Shields.
 
Of course, Shields definitely wanted to take in a game – or perhaps two – at Boston’s historic Fenway Park. He wasn’t alone as Sponaugle also wanted in on the festivities, which wasn’t exactly the way Shields said his wife wanted to do with some vacation time.
 
A week ago today, however, the whole group gathered at Fenway. Had it just been that, Shields said it would have been an amazing day.
 
“I love baseball and have been to a ton of places, but to be in that place was just amazing,” said Shields. “The place is nothing but baseball history.”
 
This is coming from a guy that’s been to a few historic and not-so-historic venues in his day. He’s been to Yankees Stadium, Tiger Stadium, Comiskey Park, Fulton County, Shea Stadium, Veteran’s Stadium in Philadelphia and too many other new and old to mention.
 
“I was really enjoying the atmosphere and Tarra told me to pay attention to the scoreboard between the second and third inning,” Shields said. “There was nothing and I didn’t really think anything about it, but I eventually saw what she wanted me to see.”
 
In the fourth inning, in front of nearly 30,000 Red Sox fans, there it was, Just over the center field wall and on the big scoreboard was a message directed at the man that’s wore the red and white of Bridgeport for more than three decades.
 
For everyone to see was the following message:
 
“Congrats Robert Shields on Your WV 5Peat State Champs & Mideast Coach of the year.”
 
Shields said for the first time in a long time, he was taken aback.
 
“I was stunned. I mean, this is Fenway Park so just had I saw my name there it would have been something,” he said. “This was really special.”
 
What made it surprising in the aftermath, said Shields, was that Tarra’s stepfather Bob was the one that got it done. And he managed to get it done relatively fast in a manner Shields said he still doesn’t know about.
 
“I was touched and really thought it was impressive Bob would do that for me,” said Shields, who pondered that it may have been Bob’s connections through his insurance work that turned the trick as a guess. “Just being there was good enough, but to be in that venue and to see that was really icing on the cake.”
 
He got an added bonus in what turned out to be a 7-4 win against the Royals, too. For arguably the biggest baseball junkie in the state, not too bad of a day.
 
“I guess being with family, being at a baseball event and being at Fenway just made it incredible,” said Shields. “I didn’t think anyone could make me feel like that with something like that, but it was just like a game-winning hit.”
 
At a minimum, it was a grand slam.
 
Editor's Note: Top photo shows Robert Shields, far right, with family at Fenway Park. Middle photo is from this past year's championship season, while a view of what all of Fenway Park got to see is below.


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