![]() The regulation-size infield, 60 by 60 feet, looks small enough to reach across. Under the lights, pitcher Nick Jamison, head of the Recreation Department, gleams in red-and-white striped pants. The sky is black by the time Recreation and Elledge take the field. ``That's as good as striking out,'' he calls with a laugh. Hooper hits a long fly into an outfielder's glove, turns, and throws out his hands. ``I play church ball with him,'' he adds. You can strike out for me,'' Bill Walker shouts from the sidelines. The weekly triple header is part of the tournament that leads to the 22-inch trophy on display at City Hall.Īt bat is Sanitation's Danny Hooper, a solid slugger whose crouched frame sends outfielders backing toward the trees. Beyond third base a family sets out lawn chairs, keeping a wary eye out for foul balls. Most fans sit on the hoods of cars or picnic on the slopes, toddlers staggering across the grass. ![]() The field has a single stand of bleachers. ![]() Paisley is in a lower-income neighborhood bordering old tobacco warehouses and a textile mill. On this August evening in Winston-Salem, a few of the faithful are gathering as spotlights brighten the summer dusk and the first cars bump down to the ballfield at Paisley Middle School. ``When I do something right, they make me feel good.'' ``They're like a bunch of brothers, every one of them,'' she says of Elledge Waste Disposal's men. This is her first year on the field since the birth of her three-year-old daughter. Before she was married, Perryman played women's Class A softball. 29, Terry Perryman, snaps the ball into Parker's glove for a reply. 29 there is our regular right fielder,'' big redhaired Mike Parker, a player for Elledge Waste Disposal, says emphatically. ``I want you to be sure and know that No. Women play with Planning and Elledge Waste Disposal. No rules govern co-ed play or interdepartmental mingling. Former claims inspector Kemp Cummings, a founder of the league, has special permission to play as a retiree with Recreation. The Winston-Salem City Employees League has only one restriction, that all players be drawn from the ranks of 1,949 city employees.Įven that rule can be bent. The Amateur Softball Association's 18 divisions of championship play include such categories as men's and women's fast and slow pitch, church slow, industrial slow, co-ed slow, men 35-and-over slow, and girls' and boys' fast and slow.īut many local leagues are organized around the get-along quality of softball rather than the characteristics of the players. These are only a few of the 200,000 organized teams that make the 100th year of softball special. And in Virginia Beach, Va., Fielder's Choice, composed this year of 18 members of the Emery McCoy family, is undefeated going into the playoffs in the city co-ed league. In Sierra Valley, Calif., Big Valley Seniors face other teams of men 50 and older, playing tournaments under the lights in Sacramento. In Fremont, Neb., the Trinity Church men's team is a community tradition, passed down from father to son for 30 years. In Stratford, Conn., the world champion women's fast pitch team, the Hi-Ho Brakettes, plays softball with the verve and skill that professionals bring to other sports. And appropriately so, because softball is a game played at the grass-roots level in communities everywhere. Special events and celebrity games were held around the country throughout the summer. In commemoration of the centennial, the Amateur Softball Association has sponsored a marathon torch run from the birthplace of softball, Chicago, to the Softball Hall of Fame in Oklahoma City. Some 40 million play in the United States alone. One hundred years old this year, softball is America's most popular team sport, interlacing the lives of young and old, men and women, supervisors and employees. Million-dollar-a-year athletes are confined to other sports. Slow-pitch, fast-pitch, intense or lackadaisical, softball is a game played for fun - for relaxation, exercise, and a chance to test one's skills on warm summer evenings. Softball brings people together like that. We just like to get out here and run and hit, you know.'' ``We used to play for blood that's when we were younger,'' says Bill Walker, coach of the two-year champion Public Works team. ``We want to win that trophy for our department,'' says third baseman Calvin Blyther, a 10-year veteran of the team.īut not everyone in the City Employees League plays hardball at the softball games. And when city employees face off on the softball field Wednesday evenings, Streets plays with commitment. Its players are lean, strong men who spend their days filling potholes and mowing slopes along the Interstate in 90-degree heat. THE Streets Department in Winston-Salem takes its softball seriously.
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