David Hardt started his fifty-year sixteen-inch softball career in the late forties and early fifties in the Father Jerry League. Top players like Eddie Earle (HOF), Orin Matson, Bill Hall, Geno Petramale (HOF), Jack Zeko, and Jack Lewis played in this league. After the Father Jerry League, David started playing with the Wolves at Portage …
Carl Maniscalco’s softball career spanned over twenty-five years, beginning when he was in grade school. Although he attended Queen of Angels Elementary School, he was frequently found at the playground of Waters Elementary School starting in the 1970s. It is there that he found his love of softball. This love continued through his high school …
The B’ Athletes softball team was formed in the Fall of 1992 as an alternative to the negative influences experienced in the neighborhoods where the players lived. The team was comprised of baseball, basketball, football, and track stars from high school and college. For many years, the team played in parks on the South and …
Tony Ward’s obsession with sixteen-inch softball began at the age of eighteen when he started playing for the Kings in the Black Olympians League at Madden and Ellis Parks on Chicago’s South Side. They won that league and that lit the fire for Tony to play softball every summer. The Kings later became the Budweiser …
Albert Fegan was born in Chicago in 1901. When he was a young man, he was offered a job by George Young at the George Young Plant and Company. Founded in 1893, the company, located on Western Avenue in Chicago, manufactured baseball and softballs. On July 21, 1925 at twenty-four years of age, Albert was …
Traffic is a classic neighborhood softball team from the Riis Park area that evolved into a consistent top- fifteen team. They started playing in a Sunday league at Riis Park in 1986. In 2011, they took second in the Westchester Tournament of Champions and finished fifth in the Forest Park No Gloves Nationals in …
The Saints sixteen-inch softball team first played in the Darien Park District League in the late 1970s. They were sponsored by Our Lady of Peace Church. Its pastor, Reverend Alphonse Mika, served as their first general manager. Father Al later joined forces with softball veteran Mike Paulo to take a group of neighborhood players …
In 1946, Mr. William Ahern Sr. established the Peppers as a South Side neighborhood team. They were a powerhouse from the beginning, winning money and beer games that were prevalent at the time. In 1965, William Ahern Jr. (Bill), the oldest son of the founder, took over the reins of the team and began …
Deathwish was founded and managed in 1979 by Carey B. Goins with his Phi Beta Sigma fraternity brothers, friends and family. They played their first year in Avalon Park on Chicago’s South Side. With Ted Gothard added as coach, the team began playing in the Washington Park Sunday League in 1980 and the Budweiser …
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 …
