The tributes and honors of the life of Bill Gonillo have flown steadily since the late News12 sports director passed away in September. But his mother, Judith, wondered if her son would some day be forgotten.

The Bridgeport Bluefish made sure that would never happen. May 4 was Bill Gonillo Day at the Ballpark at Harbor Yard, and the team renamed the press box in his honor.

“I know that it means a tremendous amount to our family,” said Christine Gonillo, Bill’s sister. “My mom is very emotional and very gratified. She had even mentioned to me that all these events were happening, but she was afraid that after this year, he wouldn’t be remembered. But you just take a look at that press box and I said ‘Mom, he’s going to be remembered for a very, very long time.’”

The day started with Bluefish CEO Mary-Jane Foster reading a tribute to Gonillo, followed by Vito Gonillo, Bill’s 83-year-old father, throwing out the first pitch, and then the unveiling of signage for the Bill Gonillo Press Box which was shown on the ballpark’s Jumbotron.

As the sports director, Bill Gonillo was a fixture at the ballpark since the Bluefish first took the field in 1998. And Gonillo, whose death at the age of 44 was related to a 20-year battle with diabetes, touched the lives of many players, fans, and press during that time.

Whether he was able to stick around for an inning or a whole game, Gionillo’s presence at the ballpark was one that made people’s outlooks of that day change.

“As soon as he walked in [the press box], it was like a breath of fresh air,” said Rich Elliott, a long-time Bluefish beat writer for the Connecticut Post. “Even on the tough nights when you had a lot of stuff going on and the atmosphere was tense, he’d come in and lighten the mood right away.”

And one of those mood-lighteners was his appetite, and his love for food. But also for Elliott, it was Gonillo’s love of people and love of life.

“The first question he’d ask when he’d walk in that door was what kind of food they had in there,” Elliott said. “But that was Billy, he got away from the game. He’d come in and talk about life, the vacations he was taking, the sports teams we liked. I always looked forward to seeing Bill Gonillo.”

The idea to honor Gonillo came from Stacie Guilfoyle, whose husband [Mike] is a former closer for the Bluefish. In 2006, Guilfoyle, whose family became close with Gonillo, lost her stepfather to diabetes.

And when Gonillo died, Guilfoyle decided to get more involved with raising awareness - and funds to fight - the disease. She organized a team that walked for diabetes in October, helped Bridgeport Sound Tigers organize an event to honor Gonillo in December, and has a bike-a-thon and an Odd Couple-themed event in the works.

“It was like ‘Hey, we’ve got to raise some money for awareness and find a cure before it affects more people,’” Guilfoyle said. “Everything we’re doing we’ve posted is on www.BillGonillo.com. He’s been to our kids’ christenings, and he was a part of our wedding. It’s a big empty hole that’s hard to fill.”

And Guilfoyle thinks Gonillo may have had something to do with the weather suddenly changing for the better. Instead of a rainy Sunday that was predicted, the storm clouds that were in the sky early that morning were replaced with blue skies and sunshine.

“You couldn’t have asked for a better day, it’s like he was looking down on us and bringing us some sunshine,” Guilfoyle said.

But it’s not just the team and the press that will miss Gonillo. The fans are also at a loss, said Sheryl Rosen, a former president of the Bridgeport Bluefish Booster Club.

Though he didn’t have to help the group out, Gonillo always was willing to plug the group’s road trips to games on Long Island and in New Jersey on the air.

Rosen said she’ll also miss making brownies - and the occasional meat loaf sandwich - for Gonillo.

“Bill was the greatest guy in the entire world,” Rosen said. “We never got him to go on a trip with us, hut he gave with all of his heart. If he was in a position to help someone, he would.”

But if Gonillo is looking down from above, Rosen thinks he would have been genuinely shocked at the day’s festivities.

“He would think it was too much,” Rosen said. “Like we’re all making a big deal over nothing. He was very modest, I think he underestimated his value in this world.

- Text by Tim Parry

photo by Sheryl Rosen

Below: Video of Bill Gonillo Day pregame festivities