Connie Coster-Bruegmann’s softball career began with a bang at the age of twelve, in 1958. She received a special exemption to play shortstop in an adult women’s 12” fast pitch league. She went on to Thornton Fractional South High School, where she earned multiple awards and letters, culminating in her winning the prestigious Senior Athlete …
The signs of Del Cecchini – Centanni’s athletic skills were apparent from an early age when she started playing softball at six years old at Bell Park on Chicago’s Northwest Side. She would go on to play with some of the top women’s teams of her day and establish herself as one of the top …
From 1969 to 1974 Pat Caputo played softball with neighborhoods teams. In 1975 he started a 12-year partnership with the Pirates and also played with the Stompers (‘80 –‘85), the Lords (‘82 –‘84), and with the Stooges (‘88 –‘90). These teams won tournaments at Westchester, Broadview, LaGrange and many other Western and Northern suburban leagues. …
Michael Coleman was eighteen when his father asked him to practice with his tavern team, Boss Larry’s Hustlers. It was during this run that Michael began to hone his softball skills and to prepare himself for his movement into softball’s “major” leagues. The Hustlers played money games against other lounges on the weekends and played …
Ken Cooper’s twenty-year softball career began in 1975 when he started playing for his father and Hall of Fame member, Dick Cooper, on the Meadows Baptist Church team. In 1977 the Meadows moved up to the Rolling Meadows Park District league. After that, he played for the Taggers, the Straycats, Cooper’s Sporting Goods and Splinter’s …
Mike Clifford grew up on the South Side of Chicago and graduated from Little Flower High School in 1972. He then went on to Illinois Benedictine University in Lisle, Illinois where he played baseball. He began playing softball at the major level when he hooked up with Hall of Famer Sal Vasta and the Blues …
Tom Czarnik began his major softball career in 1976 playing second base and pitching with Murderers Row in the Clarendon and Kelly Park leagues and with the Nocturnes at Kelly Park. Except for a brief stint with Mike McGovern’s Amalamonsters, the early 1980’s found Tom Czarnik joining some high school friends to play with the …
Mike Caputo grew up in the Garfield Ridge area of Chicago’s Southwest side. A graduate of the John F. Kennedy High School (class of 1969), Mike spent a couple of years at UICC. He left to pursue a professional baseball career with the Philadelphia Phillies. Mike left hardball to begin a softball career that spanned …
Zeke Crement played his first game as a seventeen year old at Clarendon Park. His first at bat was a home run, a shot that began a 29 year softball career with some of softball’s great teams, and started Zeke’s reputation as one of the longest ball hitters of his era. Zeke played with Active …
Born in 1942, Al Cech starred as an All-Star shortstop for the Bobcats for many years. A right handed batter and thrower, Al Cech was three times named All-American in the ASA Nationals in 1976-1978. He played on seven ASA National Championships with the Bobcats, C & K Bobcats and Whips. Besides softball, Al Cech …
