The Marshalltown South 6th Street Complex is honored to be the first out of state diamonds to be named a Field Of Dreams. These fields were constructed on the site of a flood control landfill in 1977 and 1978. The entire complex, as well as ongoing improvements, was paid for by player contributions, donations, concession …
James was born on August 23, 1936. He grew up on the South and West Sides of Chicago, attended Emerson Grade School, and graduated from Manley High School where he was an outstanding basketball and baseball player. He attended Crane Junior College until he was drafted into the U.S. Army. After his military service, he …
Todd Mirrabelli loves softball the way it was meant to be played – Chicago-style with no gloves in park leagues and tournaments throughout Chicago. That’s where he loved to play and where he managed his teams. In the late ‘60s and early ‘70s, Todd’s big brother John used to take him and his brother Garth …
Ronnie Matrisciano began his sixteen-inch softball career playing pickup games with his brother Robert and the neighborhood kids on the playground of Emmett Grammar School on the corner of Madison and Central on Chicago’s West Side. His father, Santino, played in the legendary Chicago/ Kedzie League, so his father and brother taught Ronnie all about …
Mt. Prospect Park District’s first involvement with major 16-inch softball came in the late 1970s when the district’s Meadows softball fields hosted a Winston Cup tourney. In 1982 they expanded its summer softball leagues from four to fifteen, then Rick Pyle and Bob Ancona started a softball league that attracted most of the major Chicago …
Ernest Millsap began playing sixteen-inch softball when he was just sixteen. He played with his older brothers R.V. and Vern, and friends Rob Kubicki (HOF) and Tim Kovel at Hodgkins Park District. He was hooked after his first season of play. As a younger kid, he had dreamed of playing in the major leagues, so …
Jim Martin grew up on the North side of Chicago in the Hamlin Park neighborhood where he was introduced into the realm of sports by Chicago Park District icons Harold Joe Gaffney, aka “The Count,” DePaul University’s only All-American football player, and Carl Newey. Jim attended Carl Schurz High School where he played basketball and …
Charles Martinkus grew up in Chicago’s West Lawn area and attended Bogan High School. He graduated in 1963 and was awarded “Most Physically Fit Senior”. While at Bogan, Charles won an intramural softball championship, which ignited his love for sixteen-inch softball and led to his playing in various Southwest side park leagues the next two …
Renette McCurry got her first feel of sixteen-inch softball around the age of fourteen when she started playing at the Sears parking lot, and a neighborhood playground on Homan Avenue on the West side of Chicago. She played for her my girl scout group Girl Power under the leadership of Corrine Stubbs. She played fast …
Before moving behind the plate to call balls and strikes, Tom McClelland played with some of the top teams of sixteen-inch softball. He grew up in the Norwood Park neighborhood on Chicago’s Northwest Side. He started playing sixteen-inch softball in seventh grade at Immaculate Conception Elementary School. He played outfield and pitched for the Bobcats …
