Rick Rostan’s passion for sixteen-inch softball began while watching his brother Steve and friends Bobby Grippo, Roger Ciska, The Donofrio Brothers (Ricky and Joey), Mike Tomasetti, Sal Oliver (HOF) and Charlie” Missy” Miceli (HOF) play at Amundsen Park and Kells Park as the Original Stompers. He started playing in leagues at thirteen for a grammar …
Rick Gancarz’s journey into sixteen-inch softball began when he learned the game from his father, Richard Gancarz, while playing for the Troppists at Portage, Indian Road, and Riis Parks on the Northwest Side of Chicago. He was in high school and was competing against players significantly older and more experienced than he was. This mismatch …
In 1987, John Pellegrino organized the Hickory Hills Rebels after growing up watching sixteen – inch softball games at the local park. The players were friends from the neighborhood looking for a competitive outlet and took their name from a childhood football league. The Rebels built momentum and skill, leading up to their first big …
Randy Russ started his sixteen-inch softball career in the late 1980s playing neighborhood ball with the Levee and the Jackmen. Besides sixteen-inch softball, Randy also excelled at baseball. He played at Lewis University from 1987 – 1990. The team competed in the Division II College World Series from 1988 to 1990. They finished third in …
The “Gashouse” was a group of Peoples Gas employees who primarily played at Grant Park in the Plaza League from the early 1960s until the early 2000s. They were a diverse mixture of young and old players who played with passion and had a lot of fun doing it. Although the bulk of players came …
In1976 little was going on in the history of Black folk, but we know that at least three things happened. 1. Negro History week became Black History Month. 2. While accepting the Grammy for Album of the year, Paul Simon thanked Stevie Wonder for not releasing an album that year…Stevie had won it 1974, 1975 …
Since 1992, Milan Stevanovich, better known as “Mr. Stats,” has been keeping stats for the Forest Park No-Glove Nationals 16-inch Softball Tournament . He is in charge of compiling and recording player and team stats for each game during the five – day event. Soon after each game, Mr. Stats posts the results of each …
Mike Kamenjarin started playing sixteen-inch softball when he was fifteen with the Tonti Playground CYO team. They won the city championship that year in their age bracket. Mike and his neighborhood friends formed the Group to play at Archer Park and at Wentworth Park. They won the Wentworth championship and won the Archer Park title …
Lisa Lovato was born and raised in Blue Island, Illinois along with her seven brothers and three sisters. She started playing organized softball as a shortstop for the Bandits when she was nine. She batted leadoff due to her speed and ability to get on base. In her second year of softball at age ten …
Michael C. Kirksy Sr. was born on April 29, 1933 to Ethel and Edmon Kirksy in Homer Louisiana. They relocated to the Summit-Argo area when he was eight years old. As a youth Michael loved to play all different sports. Some days he would be playing so hard he would forget to go in for …
