Toncie Siriscevich’s fifty-plus year softball career started on the sidewalk by Ward School when he was ten. He was too young to play at Armour Park or Harden Square, so he and his friends made bases with chalk and were coached by Frank Stubitch. Three years later, he was playing “sewer softball” (in the …
Tom “Bomber” Horn is one of the greatest mound magicians in sixteen- inch softball history, a defensive master who won nearly one hundred championships at every level and was beloved by friends and foes alike. Horn’s dad Bernie pitched for the Lyons 45s (a team honored by the Hall of Fame) and his mother …
Curtis Granderson was born in Tchula, Mississippi. He developed a love for baseball at a young age watching his older brothers play. He began playing the game once he was old enough to swing a bat. He graduated from Tchula Attendance Center High School where he played baseball and basketball. He then attended Coahoma Junior …
Dan Carmody was born in October of 1955 in the Beverly neighborhood of Chicago’s South Side. He graduated from St. Ignatius High School and played baseball his freshman year at Regis University in Denver, Colorado before transferring to the University of Alabama. There he was given the nickname Sheik and graduated with a degree …
Buddy Ganir grew up on the North side of Chicago in the Wrigleyville neighborhood. He is a 1960 graduate of Lake View High School where he was captain of the football team and a three-year starter at fullback. Buddy began his softball career in 1957, playing playground softball against other neighborhood teams. Two years later, …
Jim Quinn embodies what the game of sixteen-inch softball is all about. Originally from the Chatham neighborhood on Chicago’s South side, Jim and his family moved to the North side in 1956. That year Jim and the “Rods” won the 12-14 year old Sauganash Park Sixteen-inch softball title. Two years later, Jim Quinn, Jim Voss …
Dale Mitchell started playing softball on a CYO team in 1966. From 1971 to 1986 he played at Boyce, McGuane, Donavan, and Armor Parks. In 1987 Dale and the Aces won the ASA “A” Tournament in Portage, Indiana. That victory launched a career in Major Softball that would last for another twenty-one years. He …
Phillip Williams, Jr. was born and raised on the South side of Chicago. His father (and namesake) played softball at Ogden Park in the 1940s, so Phillip spent a lot of time as a seven and eight year old watching his dad play. He started playing softball on the street corners of his Englewood residence …
George Sherman began playing softball in 1963 for Durty Nellies in Palatine. He was nineteen at the time and was playing football for Northern Illinois University, so he could not fully commit to the travel necessary to play full-time for Nellies. After college, he became the quarterback for the Lake County Semi-Professional Football Team, further …
Don Martina began playing softball in the ’60s and continues playing today for a career spanning over forty years. While serving in the Army, he played softball and basketball overseas and along the East Coast. He returned to Chicago in 1968 and joined several local teams playing at Lawndale (now Piotrowski) Park on Chicago’s …
