GRANBY — The Toth brothers could have played baseball anywhere they wanted this spring. They chose to come home.
Junior twin brothers Michael and Raymond Toth played for Granby’s junior varsity team as seventh graders. Then they spent two seasons at the Williston Northampton School in Easthampton with their older brother Jonathan. Last year as sophomores, the Toths attended the MacDuffie School. After witnessing the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, the brothers decided to continue their careers where they started.
“We came back to Granby because we thought it was a better decision. I think we could play anywhere. They were pretty short on numbers,” Michael said. “I liked to come back to Granby at some point in my high school career, so I thought the switch would be right now.”
Michael is a catcher committed to UMass, while Raymond pitches and plays shortstop. He’s considering several options in the northeast at both the Division I and Division III levels. Their reintroduction bolstered a Granby lineup with similar measures of experience and youth.
“Really when you’ve got two guys like that that come into a program, you really get like five positions out of them. If you get a center fielder and a right fielder who are both big hitters, it’s two positions,” Granby coach Jim Woods said. “What you’re getting is two guys that can run the bases, a catcher that can completely control the running game and shut it down. And then you get a fielding shortstop who can hit, run and pitch. That’s five situations that we’ve locked down with two guys. That’s so rare to do, and it helps the lineup so much that the flexibility is so much compounded because of that.”
When the Toths returned to Granby, they knew they needed to lead. It runs in the family. Their father Gary Toth is a coach, and Jonathan Toth was a captain for Williston.
That means challenging the team to run sprints after practice even when the Rams don’t have to. They’re at the front of stretch lines.
“And doing it without anybody telling them. And they’re leaders by example, too. They’re good players, they hustle all the time, they run out balls. The rest of the guys see that, and they do it, too,” Woods said. “The Tom Brady effect. When the best player is showing up early or doing all the right things everybody else takes notice.”
They constantly work together on the field. When Raymond pitches, they comprise the battery and barely need signs to decide which pitch comes next. If Raymond is at shortstop, they form the Rams’ first line of defense against base stealers. Michael knows exactly where he needs to put the ball, and he can get it there.
“He knows I’m throwing down if I even give him a little look, he’ll know to get there and be ready because he knows what I do back there,” Michael said.
That connection was built over a lifetime together. They’ve always been in the same class in school. The decision to return to Granby was made as a pair.
“We’re always together. There’s no splitting us really,” Michael said. “Unless we go off to college at different places. I don’t want to be separate.”
Michael has tried to entice Raymond to join him in Amherst for the next step in their careers, but he knows he can’t force his brother to go there. He’s going to make his own decision in due time.
But that decision is still in the future. For now, they’re back in Granby trying to lead the 5-0 Rams to a place they’ve never been. Granby has never won a Western Massachusetts championship and hasn’t even played for one since 2017. That appearance was their first in 25 years.
“We’re trying to be a strong team, be a close-knit group and make it as far as we can in the playoffs and hopefully win the Western Mass. title,” Raymond said.
It would be quite the homecoming.