Brian Fleury: This Ball Player Will Never Leave the Field.

How do you get to Brian Fleury Field you may ask?  Practice, practice, pratice! Formerly known as “Field # 1,” this location was dedicated to the late Brian Fleury on opening day April 19, 2008, before a large audience which included family, friends, local officials, parents and hundreds of boys and girls in uniform to honor a man who loved the game.

“Brian would play ball by the street lights,” said Ed Fleury, Brian Fleury’s father and Little League coach. “You couldn’t get him in the house. He just loved playing baseball whenever he could.”  

There was no T-ball when Brian Fleury started playing baseball in the late 70’s, so he started off his career at age seven as a bat-boy for a Morris Plains Little League team. The coach of that team, Jerry Brophy of Morris Plains, remembers him fondly. 

“Bubba was an athlete!” Jerry laughed as he explained that “Bubba” was Brian Fleury’s nickname. “You could tell at that age he had talent.” Jerry and Ed Fleury coached Brian throughout his Little League career. 

Seems a young Brian Fleury was even willing to coach if need be. Once, when he was 10, his father and Brophy were running a little late for practice due to work.  When they arrived at the field Brian Fleury was running practice. “He was doing as good of a job as we would have,” Ed conceded. It was this type of maturity and commitment to the game that followed “Bubba” throughout his 39 years.   

After a stellar career at Morristown High School, being drafted by the Houston Astros in 1986, yet opting for a brilliant college career at Georgia Tech and University of Delaware, capping it off with a phenomenal stint as head coach at Delbarton (223-63 record), no one could challenge Brian Fleury’s dedication to the game of baseball.   

After a 20-year battle with Hodgkin's lymphoma, Brian Fleury died at age 39 on October 19, 2007 robbing the game, the Morris Plains community, and his family of someone who really seemed to thrive at improving the people around him.

Ed Fleury said, “One of Brian’s favorite sayings was 'Everything you do matters.'’” Judging from the support Brian Fleury and the Fleury family still generate throughout the community, everything Brian did still seems to matter. 

Most local area Little League teams enjoy visiting Brian Fleury Field–even as the away team–because of the rare opportunity to play a night game. Most kids don’t get to experience playing a baseball game under the lights until they’re in high school and, even then, they might not get the opportunity. 

In Morris Plains, though, even the T-ball players get at least one game under the lights at Fleury Field.  You can tell by the smiles on their faces after the night game, it’s a big time, big league-style experience they’ll never forget. The parents seem to get a kick out of it too. 

If you have the opportunity to head over to Jim Fear Drive in Morris Plains, and catch a Little League baseball or softball a game, you may bump into someone from the Fleury family. Brian’s parents Ed and Shirley Fleury still attend games at Fleury field–and not just for the memories. Their grandson Timmy Fleury is quite the ballplayer boasting a terrific glove and a quick bat at 10 years of age. 

His mom Jen, who happens to be quite the ballplayer herself, has her son on that field ready for business, even if it happens to be field #2. When you see young Timmy Fleury play baseball with the same intensity and love for the game his father had, it helps you remember why we grew up loving this game.

It also gives you an idea why the community of Morris Plains no longer refers to their showcase Little League field as field #1. When watching or playing ball at Brian Fleury Field you still get that feeling the spirit of number 18 is still inspiring the game.