Wyoma’s Matt Bloom Sonny Man Hill Award winner

LYNN – When Sonny Man Hill died in 1990, a group of long-time Little League aficionados wanted to honor him in a unique way.”We didn’t want to give it to a star,” said Russ Meade, one of the original founders of the award. “We wanted to make it a sportsmanship award.”With the Hill family’s approval, the William “Sonny Man” Hill Award was born. Sunday, in the presence of Hill’s widow, Rosemary, Matt Bloom of Wyoma Little League became the 24th winner of the award at a ceremony at the Lynn Housing Authority headquarters.Hill, whose son, Ken, had a major league career that saw him win more than 100 games for several Major League teams (and whose grandson is red-shirt freshman for Texas A&M), died in 1990. And by the fall, the first recipients (there were two that year) were named.Bloom was one of five nominees. The others were Thomas Chez, East Lynn; Aiden Leydon, West Lynn; Daniel Lilja, Pine Hill and Elias McDonald, Lynn Shore.Bloom’s father, Kevin, present for the ceremony with his wife, Marybeth, and son Brian, is a Little League graduate, having played for East Lynn. He later played for Bishop Fenwick, and served as head coach at Shawsheen.Matt Bloom is a seventh-grader at St. Pius V School in Lynn, and is looking at Malden Catholic (where his brother goes), Bishop Fenwick and St. Mary’s for potential high schools.”I’m grateful to the Hill family,” he said, adding he was involved with Wyoma for nine years.”I enjoyed all nine of them,” he said. “I met a lot of great friends, and great coaches.”I really enjoy helping people, whether it’s my teammates or my friends. And I enjoy seeing other peole enjoy baseball as much as I do.”Bloom was a shortstop for the most part this past season, but says third base is his favorite position.And, he said, his favorite Red Sox player is Dustin Pedroia.