In his twenty-five years playing sixteen-inch softball, Dave Ruehl played with some of the top teams of his time, including the Meister Brau Taggers, Whips, Lettuce, Red Dog, and Licorice. As a shortstop, Dave was selected as an All-Time Team shortstop in the Mt. Prospect League. He was the 1990 Forest Park No Glove …
Dan Jalowiec started playing softball in 1985 at Clyde Park in Cicero with some friends from Morton East High School when he was seventeen. After playing in the 18-and-under League at Clyde Park, he joined his father Jim, a member of the legendary Sobies in the early ‘70s, his brother Jeff, and several cousins …
John Stock played softball for twenty- five years with some of the top teams of his time. He started playing neighborhood softball when he was fifteen in the schoolyard at Chopin Grammar School. He later played in the league at Smith Park. As his skills grew, better teams noticed him and he soon found …
Drake Jones started playing serious softball with the Mau Maus when he was eighteen years old and met Stanley Brown while working at the Post Office. They played in the Post Office League, at Washington Park, and in tournaments throughout the city. During one of those tournaments, they played against the legendary Flamingos. Drake …
Raymond Johnson began his softball career with the Flamingoes in 1961 when he was fifteen. He played third base with them in the Daddy- O-Daylie League at Meyerling Park, under the tutelage of John Wolf-Wilson. Besides finding great success in this league, the Flamingoes also finished in the top three in the Sixteen-inch World …
After graduating from St. Ignatius High School in 1964, Ken Izral began playing sixteen-inch softball with the Impalas at Sherman Park. The team was an average team, but it launched Ken into a stellar softball career. The next year he was recruited by Cordsman Inn, the top team in that league. Besides Sherman Park, …
During the late 60’s and early 70’s, many softball experts considered Bob Bernstein to be one of the best all around third basemen in the city. He was a star, leader and anchor for the great Shooter teams of that era. Not only did Bob hit for average (.550 to .600 each year), but …
It was the summer of ’84 when Ron and Rich Onesti opened a custom athletic uniform shop on West Irving Park Road inChicago. Thesilkscreenoperationthat started with simple t-shirts quickly grew into one of the largest sports specialty shopsintheMidwest. Astheybeganthe operation, schools, businesses and local teams purchased their athletic wear from thenewlyfoundedenterprise. Then,the 1985 Superbowl …
As a kid, Sal Milazzo remembers watching his dad, Nick Milazzo, play sixteen-inch softball at Saint Bonaventure Elementary School in Chicago. Sal had the opportunity to play softball in the intramural program at Northern Illinois University. After the championship game his senior year, he was asked to pitch for the Willoughby Elrod Raiders at …
Don Savage has been a member of a sixteen-inch softball team for seventy- eight years, from 1935 to the end of the 2013 season. His teams have won more that forty championships and Don has played in or managed in approximately thirty-five senior leagues at parks throughout Chicago and the suburbs Don attended St. …
