Tuesday, October 7, 2008

Early Softball Memories

In my first submission I mentioned that I would be sharing some of my many softball memories with you. One of my earliest memories of Kenosha softball was of the great Tirabassi teams. They were always the team everyone wanted to knock off and at the same time wished to someday reach their level of excellence. The Tirabassi Excavators have always been the gold standard of Kenosha softball and in 1962 they were World Champions.

That's right, sandwiched in between 3rd place finishes in '61 and '63; the Excavators were the American Softball Association world champions. They accomplished this great feat by running the table, going undefeated in the 64 team double elimination tournament. They played error-free ball in each of their 7 victories, knocking off Allen Bradley of Milwaukee 10 to 4 in the final game. The stellar defense was highlighted by the strong play of it's outfield.

This team marked the beginning of what was to become the Tirabassi juggernaut. They stayed together and became a dynasty in the truest since of the word. Playing for sponsor Domenic Tirabassi's world champions were:

Mario Bonofiglio

Vince Bonofiglio

Nick Guarascio

Russ Guarascio

Tom Keating

Dick Kreger

Howie Latshaw

Vince Lia

Mike Molinaro

Alex Nigro

Sam Nigro

Jim Spallato

Jim Tirabassi

Jeff Pascucci was the batboy and Al Gadjos the scorekeeper.

The Tirabassi Excavators from the '60's kicked off Kenosha softball's rich history. Remarkably, they still rank among the elite 46 years later. Hopefully, I will share more of my softball memories soon...From The Booth.

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