The B’ Athletes softball team was formed in the Fall of 1992 as an alternative to the negative influences experienced in the neighborhoods where the players lived. The team was comprised of baseball, basketball, football, and track stars from high school and college. For many years, the team played in parks on the South and […]
Tony Ward’s obsession with sixteen-inch softball began at the age of eighteen when he started playing for the Kings in the Black Olympians League at Madden and Ellis Parks on Chicago’s South Side. They won that league and that lit the fire for Tony to play softball every summer. The Kings later became the Budweiser
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Albert Fegan was born in Chicago in 1901. When he was a young man, he was offered a job by George Young at the George Young Plant and Company. Founded in 1893, the company, located on Western Avenue in Chicago, manufactured baseball and softballs. On July 21, 1925 at twenty-four years of age, Albert was
Traffic is a classic neighborhood softball team from the Riis Park area that evolved into a consistent top- fifteen team. They started playing in a Sunday league at Riis Park in 1986. In 2011, they took second in the Westchester Tournament of Champions and finished fifth in the Forest Park No Gloves Nationals in
Dan Carmody was born in October of 1955 in the Beverly neighborhood of Chicago’s South Side. He graduated from St. Ignatius High School and played baseball his freshman year at Regis University in Denver, Colorado before transferring to the University of Alabama. There he was given the nickname Sheik and graduated with a degree
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John Stock played softball for twenty- five years with some of the top teams of his time. He started playing neighborhood softball when he was fifteen in the schoolyard at Chopin Grammar School. He later played in the league at Smith Park. As his skills grew, better teams noticed him and he soon found
Drake Jones started playing serious softball with the Mau Maus when he was eighteen years old and met Stanley Brown while working at the Post Office. They played in the Post Office League, at Washington Park, and in tournaments throughout the city. During one of those tournaments, they played against the legendary Flamingos. Drake
A lifelong softball player, Austin “Spider” Ware began playing with Hall of Fame inductee Billy “Bumstead” Johnson in 1961 at Parkman Elementary School. He co-founded and played second base with his first team, the Invaders, in 1963. They dominated play until 1967 when they merged with the Van Dykes, managed by the great Floyd Neal.
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John Smith began playing organized softball in 1972 when he was eighteen and playing left field for Orr High School on Chicago’s West-side. He was having so much fun playing the game that he loved that he started playing in other leagues in 1974. He played for P&O Express for two years at Garfield Park
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Tony Portincaso started playing softball in 1981 with the Masters, a team from the Northwest-side of Chicago. They played in Norridge and Niles and at Hiawatha and Oriole Parks. He got a taste for competitive softball while playing in a couple of games at Clarendon Park. In 1984 he joined Pegasus, a team comprised of
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