Wednesday was one of the best days of the year for baseball fans.

All four MLB divisional series featured games, and the teams that are generally of most interest to Lehigh Valley-area fans – the Yankees and the Phillies – were in action.

But the conversations at Green Pond Country Club were not about the home runs of Aaron Judge or Kyle Schwarber or the second-guessing of Aaron Boone or Rob Thomson.

All of the talk was about the Blue Mountain League, the Lehigh Valley’s oldest amateur baseball league, which completed its 79th season in August, and three special players.

The 42nd BML Hall of Fame ceremony and reunion honored Brian Cope, Andy Robison and CJ Saveri. The induction of those three stars brought the number of inductees to 243.

In addition, Zachary Mattes, an Easton High graduate, was saluted as the Robert Schuster BML Hall of Fame Scholar-Athlete Award winner.

Here’s a look at the honorees:

Brian Cope

The Parkland High and Lafayette College graduate spent 11 seasons in the BML, all with the Orioles franchise based in Egypt, Whitehall Township. He was a four-time all-star selection in 2006, ’08, ’09, and ’13. He was the pitcher of the year in 2015 and was also a Turoscy Formula winner, which the BML presented to measure pitching efficiency. He also returned to the team for the first time in eight years and helped the Orioles win a title in his final season in ’23. He finished with a career record of 34-16 and a 3.04 ERA with 317 strikeouts in 356.1 innings. His best year was 2015, when he went 8-1 with a 1.04 ERA and had a 0.9 WHIP (walks and hits per innings pitched).

Longtime Orioles pitcher Justin Jachowicz presented Cope and said, “He was an absolute workhorse, and he was already with the Orioles when I came into the league, and I tried to model myself after Brian. In 2015, Brian was unhittable. I was trying to keep up with Brian, and I went 7-2, but I couldn’t keep up with him.. Every time he was on the mound, you could count on him giving you five-plus solid innings. He gave you a quality start in every single outing.”

Cope said: “I want to thank the BML in general for existing. For ballplayers after college, we’re lucky to have a league like that to play in and for it to be as competitive as it is. We take it for granted that it exists, but we’re so lucky to have it in the Lehigh Valley to give us a chance to continue playing after college. Not many athletes have that chance to keep playing in such a competitive league with so many good players.”

Andy Robison

The Pennridge High and West Chester University product has played and coached in the BML for 38 seasons, all with the Limeport Dodgers where he became a fixture at the area’s renowned “Field of Dreams.” As a player, he compiled a .265 career batting average, scored 136 runs, and had 126 RBIs. He was a league all-star several times and helped the Dodgers win league titles in 1989, ’91, and 2001. He was also the manager of the year in 2025 after leading Limeport to the playoffs one year after the Dodgers went 4-22-1 in 2024.

Bill Quinn, Robison’s presenter, talked more about Robison as a person rather than a player or a manager.

“If it’s 2 a.m. and you need someone to talk to, Andy’s the guy to call,” Quinn said. “If it’s 3 a.m. and your hot water heater breaks, Andy will come over and help you repair it. If it’s 4 a.m. and you need to borrow Andy’s truck and trailer, he’ll figure out a way to help you get the truck. If Limeport Stadium is falling apart, and we need to go on top of the roof to do repairs, Andy is there to organize everyone who can be there. The saying ‘he’d give you the shirt off his back’ isn’t just a saying to Andy. He would always do whatever he could to help you out.”

Robison said, “The things I remember the most in my career are that I enjoyed competing year in and year out with the same group of guys. Whether we won or lost, the group of people were some of the nicest guys I’ve had the privilege of playing with. I also enjoyed the guys on the competing teams. Those are the guys who made playing in the BML special and fun.”

CJ Saveri

The Bethlehem Catholic and East Stroudsburg University product played 12 seasons for the Vynecrest Reds and Martins Creek. He won three MVP awards in 2013, ’14, and ’16. He was also a three-time all-league selection and won the Turoscy Award four times while helping Martins Creek win championships in 2013 and ’17.

He finished his career with a mark of 65-24 and an ERA of 2.13. He also had 16 shutouts and 15 saves, and a 1.08 WHIP. He struck out 652 in 574.1 innings.

“The Blue Mountain League has given out an MVP award every year since 1963, and in that time, less than 10 pitchers have won the MVP award, and CJ won it three times,” said his presenter, Eric Schmitt. “CJ didn’t have to come to every game. We had starting pitchers in the league who would only show up every third game or when they had to be there. CJ was there every game, and he’d be ready to come in every game. To have a guy there all the time and have his team’s back all the time, as a manager, that made him worth his weight in gold.”

Saveri said, “I never thought I’d play for Martins Creek, but it turned out to be the best seven years of my career. In those years, I went 47-11, I won three MVPs, and we won two championships. Martins Creek is a place like no other. It’s stuck in the hills of a small Italian town along 611 and the Delaware River, and it became my home away from home. We had a team of legends, and I loved each and every one of them. Without them, there wouldn’t have been 47 wins, three MVPs, and two championships. You can be God’s gift to earth on that mound, but without a good supporting cast, you’re not winning anything.”

Zachary Mattes

He was ranked No. 1 in a class of 777 students in his senior class. He earned the EAHS Academic Excellence Award, was named the Easton baseball scholar-athlete, the Easton Rotary Club Young Person of the Year, and won the Pete Violante Pitching Award. He is currently attending Penn State.