Mother Nature once again smiled on Lincoln Park in Kenosha, WI USA. The weather was damn near perfect for this year’s installment of the Rotary Tournament. Aside from the occasional dust-up at second base on a slide and experiencing the first real influx of mosquitoes, the weather was perfect.
It was fantastic to see my old friend Jerry Ruffolo who came back to KTown just to hang out at the Rotary Tournament. An excellent player in his own right, Jerry moved up to Manitowoc several years back and among other things runs a Grade-A Guide service called Anglers Plus. Jerry is a classic example of a guy that NEVER forgets where he came from.
Big Al was all over the place at the tournament. Enjoying a new found push to his already massive celebrity from the recent article on this very site, Big Al ruled the landscape of the Rotary as he always does.
I spoke to Pete Sinksy and we both agreed, “this IS our demo…the 35 to 85-year-old crowd is what this has become”. The Golden Age will not be returning, and that is OK. Life moves on, times change and the best days of 12″ softball have come and gone. Long live the folks that were a part of the history.
The first thing I saw when I walked up on Friday night was Glen Marescalco ripping and RBI single to right center and then going from first to third on a base hit up the middle. As I said to him as I walked to my car, “nice job man, but I’ve seen that movie before”. Not bad for a man north of 60.
I had a great opportunity to talk to a couple of women from Kenosha that were at one time THE best women football players in the country. Keep your eyes open for an upcoming article that will help tell the story of our conversation that night.
Sitting at Sunnyside and listening to Swa (ChrisWade) talk about a less than stellar performance in his return to the playing field for the Rotary was pretty damn funny. There is always something fun happening at Sunnyside on Rotary weekend.
I had a pizza and a hot dog while at the tournament, and as usual, they never disappoint. Wash em down with a silo of Coors Light sold to you by Big Al and all is right with the world. Looking forward to next year!