Toncie Siriscevich’s fifty-plus year softball career started on the sidewalk by Ward School when he was ten.
He was too young to play at Armour Park or Harden Square, so he and
his friends made bases with chalk and were coached by Frank Stubitch. Three years later, he was playing “sewer softball” (in the street with the sewers as bases) with the older guys by Tooty’s Corner, a local grocery store at 28th and Princeton. When he was fifteen, he was asked to play with Johnny’s “O”, one of the best teams in his neighborhood. They played at McGuane and Donovan parks.
He started playing more competitive softball when Pete Monaco (HOF), manager of the Knights of Columbus St. Albert the Great, asked him to play for them. It was there that he started playing with and against such great players as Willie Simpson (HOF), Ed Surma (HOF), Eddie Surma (HOF), Jim McArdle (HOF), Jack Keller, and others. In 1962 and into the early 1970s, St Albert won numerous state titles and Toncie was selected MVP several times. In 1963 and 1964 he played for Ed Zolna (HOF) and the Bobcats. He continued to play for St Alberts for the next twelve years in the Knights of Columbus League.
At that time, Toncie was asked to
get involved in a softball league in Bridgeport for kids who were not playing baseball. The league was to be called Wallace Softball. Along with men like Nick Spata, Tom Hadley, Ray Houlihan, they secured a lot
at 33rd and Wallace. The league became a success with more than
four hundred kids between the ages of six and sixteen playing softball.
The league continued for fifteen years until houses were built on the lot. The league moved to Donovan Park where play continued for ten more years. Many of the league’s graduates such
as Kevin Annerino, Mark Munnizzi, Tom Duddleston, Perry Mastro, and Chuck Gash went on to play for Crush, Stickmen, Lettuce, Whips, and other great teams. There is still a Wallace team playing sixteen-inch softball today.
Toncie then joined the highly successful Attitude team in the 1990s. He left them and joined Bucketheads in 2002. They finished second to the Miller 45s in the ASA Nationals. The Bucketheads now play as Windy City Softball and have won several nationals titles: ASA Majors in 2010 and the SSA Majors in 2012 and 2013. They also won the Forest Park title in 2013.