Growing up on the Northwest side of Chicago, I was very fortunate to witness one of the greatest softball teams, The Bobcats, play when I was a kid. My Dad, Frank Lentine-HOF, and several other HOFs, Willie Simpson, Ron Oliesak, Al Cech, and Mike Marino, to name a few. Watching that team play and how […]
From batboy, to player, to coach, to sponsor to organizer for over 40 years. Matt’s love affair began in the late 70’s when he accompanied his father, Matt (HOF), to many of his games and eventually played with him on a very good Dago Park team. Then with ICE he won the Matt D1992 ASA
Mike began his30-yearpitching career after following his brother Frank to pitch practice by playing with his neighborhood team the Lu-Ginksin the youth leaguesat Sayre, Riis, and Amundsen Parks. After high school, they began playing in the men’s leagues at Sayre, Shabonna, Merrimac, and Portage Parks. The pinnacle of the team’s successoccurred in the summers of
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Rich is the perfect example of a Holan Award winner due to his passion for the game as a player, organizer, manager, umpire, sponsor, HOF committee member, and ambassador of the sport since 1977. He even was one of the painters on Wally Filkins’s crew that painted the interior of the HOF Museum. He has
Growing up near Hamilton Park on the south side of Chicago, Vince loved getting together with neighborhood friends to play pickup games of softball, learning the rules and regulations of the game at a young age. 55 years later, he considers himself fortunate to remain actively engaged in the game he loves. In 1964, he
Dean Pritt began his softball career at the age of 18 when he and sev-en of his friends started playing on a team run by neighborhood legend Joe D’Argenio. After several successful seasons at Blackhawk Park, the younger players started their own team and kept the Traffic name. From 1986-2003, Dean managed the Traffic team
The Frank C. Holan Award honors those who show passion for the game on and off the field. Passionate about the game of softball, or all other sports for that matter, is an understatement for Joe Mercadante. He grew up playing football, basketball, and baseball in Chicago; and his love for sports stayed with him
Since 1992, Milan Stevanovich, better known as “Mr. Stats,” has been keeping stats for the Forest Park No-Glove Nationals 16-inch Softball Tournament . He is in charge of compiling and recording player and team stats for each game during the five – day event. Soon after each game, Mr. Stats posts the results of each
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Grace Kenney has been playing sixteen-inch softball in women’s leagues around Chicago for most of her adult life. She played for the team Beer Nuts for over thirty years in leagues at Monroe and Kennedy Park. They won the championship in both leagues. Grace started at the Park District of Forest Park as a
Rich Catizone started playing softball when he was fourteen. He played on local teams with his friends on the playgrounds in Chicago. He was young and inexperienced and his teams lost most of their games, but he loved the game from the beginning. A few years later, Rich met Hall of Fame manager Nick
