Matt Dosen began what would become a 34 year softball career in 1964 when he was 22 years old playing with a neighborhood team at Russell Square and Cal Parks. It might have been a neighborhood team, but it had a legendary sponsor – Alderman Ed Vrdolyak. 1967 brought a change to Dosen’s career when he met White Johnson and played with Butch McGuire’s at Lake Shore Park and Clarendon Park. He began a five-year run with ERV and manager John Kavanaugh in 1968, playing at Kennedy Park against the Bobcats, Sobies, Strikers, and Moore Business Forms in some memorable Sunday doubleheaders at Kennedy Park and in the Moday/Wednesday leagues at Ridge Park. Like many great players, Matt Dosen’s talent was quickly noticed and recruited by Eddie Zolna; neighborhood ties proved more important, however, and Dosen stayed with ERV and the Eastsiders. That year (1969) ERV and Matt Dosen won the Trumbull Park Labor Day Tournament. In the mid 1970’s, he played in the Windy City League first with Tom Bonen and later with Les Messinger. Dosen ended his softball days playing with his sons on the Snappers in 1996. One of Matt Dosen’s fondest softball memories is playing ball with his sons at age 53 in the Grant Park Tournament. He and the Snappers lost the first game but then went on to win six games in a row. Primarily a short center through most of his career but a player who also played shortstop and second base, Matt Dosen carried a career batting average and r.b.i and homerun totals that placed him as one of the best hitters of his 1964 – 1979 era. Batting second or third on most of his teams, Matt Dosen was well known for “setting the table” for the homerun hitters who followed him in the lineup. Matt Dosen and his wife, Patricia have three children, Matt, Marty, and Debbie and three grandsons. He works for the Chicago Port Authority.
Matt “Mattie” Dosen
