Sylvester McKinnon played with the Ironmen for 1961 to 1971. In 1961, they took second place in the Grant Park Major Tournament. From 1972 to 1979, he played with the Flamingos. In 1974, they took third place at the nationals held in Dalton, Georgia. In 1976, they played in the nationals in Sioux Falls, South …
John Krehbiel Sr., the founder of Molex in Lisle, IL, always had a passion for employee morale because he believed that employee engagement was vital to Molex’s success. So he started company picnics, social activities, and he created a profit sharing plan, long before other companies even considered it in the 1950s. Mr. Krehbiel believed …
Mike Marchinski was born and raised on the North Side of Chicago. As a child of the 50’s and 60’s, two things were inevitable: Mike was a long – suffering Cub fan, and he spent every leisure moment playing 16-inch softball. Mike’s first venture into organized ball came as an eighth grader playing for Our …
In the summer of 1969, three friends – Hilde Diaz, John “Sweet Daddy” Wojtasik, and Ron “Orca” Michalowicz – recruited their neighborhood friends from Summit to form a sixteen-inch softball team called the Argo Sinners. That year they began playing in the Bedford Park and Summit Park leagues. Like most new teams in their first …
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 …
Pete McGuire had a twenty-one year career playing sixteen-inch softball. Six of those years were on the major level, most notably with the Whips and the Stompers. His best memo- ries though, were the years with his cousins Mike and Tom McGuire on The Groundsmen teams from the South Side and South suburbs. But …
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 …
The Molex team is considered the best team to play in the Western suburbs in the 80’s and 90’s. They were recognized by the HOF for their longevity, tenacity, and ability. Organized by Jim Geiser in the 70’s for employees of the Fortune 500 global connector manufacturer. Joined by new employee and future HOF founder …
In the late 1970s, a chance meeting at a recently opened North Side bar led to the creation of McSchnapps, a women’s neighborhood team that would win many championships during the ‘70s, ‘80s, and ‘90s and create lifelong friendships along the way. During their heyday, McSchnapps played at Touhy, Paul Revere, Wells, Lake Shore, and …
If you were a softball player or simply a young person growing up in the 1960s and early 1970s, you had probably heard of Butch McGuire’s. Softball players knew of McGuire’s as a powerful team not to be taken lightly; non-players knew of it as one of the best bars of its time. Managed by …
