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After a sixteen-inch softball career that spanned four decades, Jesse “Mesack” Mack retired from softball in 2001. He was one of the most respected and one of the most feared leadoff hitters and outfielders in the game. With the game on the line, he was unshakable. It would be hard to find a better player […]

Jim Mikuta started playing softball at 37th and Albany in the Brighton Park neighborhood of Chicago. Like thousands of kids before him, he and his friends played “sewer to sewer” until they were too big for the street corner and moved to the schoolyards or the neighborhood parks. In Jim’s case he moved to gravel

Growing up in Canaryville, Jim McCardle started out playing softball the way generations of kids in Chicago did – on the street corner using the sewers as bases and dodging cars while chasing a fly ball. When he and his friends got too big for the street corner (and started threatening the windows of their

Wearing his trademark engineer’s cap as he chugged around the bases, Hank Magiera emerged as one of the most colorful players during his softball playing days. Hank Magiera demonstrated his athleticism when he lettered in four sports (baseball, football, track, and wrestling) at Schurz High School. He was selected as an All – State baseball

Playing his peak years of softball from 1961 to 1987, Jim Moore ranks as one of the top players to emerge on some of the top teams of that era. He began his career in 1964 playing with the Knight Of Columbus and other local Southside teams. He made his jump to big time softball

A veteran of the softball wars in parks on the North and Northwest sides, Mike Moreno began his 16″ softball career as many great players before him did – on the school grounds of Chicago. He played with the legendary running back Jim Grabowski as a member of the Rascals at Rosedale Park and with

Bill Massuci played during some of softball’s most competitive decades, with some of the best teams of the era. In the ‘60s, ‘70s and early ‘80s, Bill played with top teams such as the Stompers, Rogues, Sobies and Otto’s. He earned a reputation as one of the best shortstops and short centers of his time,

Jack Marcoline began his softball career inthe sandlots and playgrounds around Midway Airport when he was twelve. His father, Joe, would often ask him to fill-in for the Chicago Fire Department team. When his family moved back to the West side, he continued playing in the fields at Clark and Moore. In 1954, Bob Snell

Gene Mathis was born in Chicago during the Great Depression. Like many great players, he started playing softball with the older boys in the neighborhood. But he had an advantage that other young players might not have had. He had a bat and ball. His grandfather found them as scavenged the more affluent areas of

Gil Muratori arrived in Chicago from Italy in October of 1938 when he was just a few months old. But in 1948, when he was ten years old, he adopted Chicago’s great game and started a twenty-eight year softball career that would change the way teams used a catcher. He started playing in the streets