The Chicago Jets softball team was organized and launched in 1976 as a “B” League northside neighborhood saloon squad. Managed/Coached by player John Clausen, 1st basemen, the Jets went on to win 22 Chicago Park League championships, a half- dozen major tournaments, and hundreds of big games, including the 1985 USSSA State Tournament, all in […]
The Juicers began their Co-Ed journey in 1988 as a recreational team in Grant Park on Saturday mornings to get together to have fun and go to sponsors downtown afterwards. The men were from several different teams, the women mostly from the Break-A-Ways. After winning at the recreational level the team soon began playing in
Anthony grew up in the shadows of the old Comiskey Park and there he found his passion for the game of 16 inch softball. The first team he played for was the Matador Pros. Shortly after his 14th birthday, he was asked to play with some of the older teams in the area. With the
Born in Arcola, Mississippi, he moved to Chicago with his family at a very young age. Started playing softball at 12 in the local parks and playgrounds in his neighborhood. Coty attended Wendell Phillips where he starred in football and track until 1976. His softball career took off and over forty years he was on
Little did Joe know as a young kid growing up in the cradle of softball – Forest Park – that he would grow up to be the youngest member of some of the fabled top powerhouse teams of the late 60s and 70s. A fleet-footed player that used his athletic talent to get on base
Calvin Jackson’s 16-inch softball career started at the age of twelve (1961). He was under the tutelage of Mr. Walton in the Madden Park-Darryl Home Park District softball league, located at 3813 South Rhodes. This league had two divisions: the Intermediate (12 to 15 years) and the Senior League (15 to 17 years). Calvin first
Bob Glosa and Tom Balek started JYNX softball as a combination of four South Side neighborhood teams. JYNX consisted of some good players and some great players, but they were all great guys. They were a special group with a strong bond of close-knit players. New players were often pals of current players who wanted
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
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
