Baseball, not softball, was Wally Pecs’ game after graduating from Roosevelt High School. But that changed after several unsuccessful major league try-outs led Wally to look to softball as an alternative outlet for his talents,so at age nineteen he started the Tappers. Two years later he left Tappers to join the Road Runners, a top Northside team. In 1975 he formed the Registers, a name taken from Schmaus Cash Register, where he started working in the early 70s. In 1980, the Registers merged with the Stompers, a powerful team managed by Sal Oliver. Wally took a hiatus from softball from 1984 to 1991 to be a coach to his kids. He coached his son Jeff’s Little League and Pony League teams. He also coached his daughter Tracy’s fast pitch career, and his daughter Kim’s equestrian interests. In 1991, Wally Pecs found his way back to softball as a pitcher with Rich Melman’s Lettuce team. In 1992 he started his third team, the Rabbits, who made quite an impact their first year, when they made it to the Grant Park Championship game. Although they lost that game to Lettuce in the last inning, they still succeeded in making a name for themselves. In September of that year, they defeated the Stickmen twice to win the USSSA Major title in Wisconsin. The Rabbits became Red Dog in 1995 when Pecs changed sponsors. Red Dog continued Pecs’ tradition of winning, by taking the 1998 and 1999 Hall of Fame tournaments. Pecs continued to demonstrate his physical prowess in 1995, when he hit a 270 foot home run at the Majewski Complex, two days after his 50th birthday. In addition to hitting, Pecs frustrated opposing players from the mound for his last 20 years. He’s thrown four no-hitters, including one in the 1982 USSSA Major World Tournament. Despite his two thousand plus wins, and numerous championships over his 37 year career, Pecs’ best memories are of games played with his children. Four seasons playing along side Jeff, and one game on Tracy’s 12” co-ed team, where all three had key hits to help win that game are all particularly good memories. In 2001, Wally had been married to Peggy for thirty years. They have four children; Pamela, Tracy, Kimberly and Jeff.
