Notes from the Coach

Da Coach
(Doesn't he look young? How many years ago was that picture taken, anyway?)

Just a few words........ The AWA Enterprises Softball Club was a team of family and friends that formed in the spring of 1975, participating in the City of San Jose softball leagues. Twenty-six seasons later, in the fall of 2000, the team took the field for the last time. I was probably the luckiest guy on the roster, starting as a player on that inaugural squad, taking control as manager in 1980, and then finishing out the 26-season run as the losing pitcher in our last game. What was truly remarkable is that I shared the time with a core group of players who were right there with me for most of those years. During that span, we captured eight league championships at the "C" and "D" levels of the San Jose softball scene, and two tournament crowns. Those accomplishments are pretty good, but nothing special. What was special was the bonds of friendship that have endured long after we stopped taking the field, and I was truly lucky to be "The Coach" during that time. Not that we were "happy-go-lucky". Make no mistake, we liked to win. We hated to lose, and we weren't always cordial about it. And it wasn't always smooth sailing among us. There were days when the bonds of friendship were really tested. But that is how brothers are. On the whole I could not have hand-picked a better bunch of guys or found a better place to hang my hat for 26 years. We were witness to big changes in the world of slow pitch softball in those years. In 1975, the reputation of the game we were playing was slightly higher than the stereotypical "beer league" games that you saw at company picnics. The "real players", like former baseball players, were playing fast pitch softball. The fast pitch game had ruled the softball world for decades, and the slow pitch game was somewhat looked down upon. Our game in 1975 had 60 feet between bases, aluminum bats that would easily dent, and balls that would quickly turn to mush. Pitchers had a 12-foot arc limit to work with, and the better pitchers pushed those limits even beyond. But change was coming. The fast pitch game was in its decline, and more of those players came over to fill out slow pitch rosters. The slow pitch game was becoming more athletic, and we saw the formation of a professional slow pitch league in 1977. We saw rule changes that extended the bases to 65 feet. Bats were becoming more highly engineered, using newer metal alloys in their production. The pitching arc was reduced from 12 feet from the hand to 10 feet from the ground, which neutralized many of the old-school hurlers. By the late '80s, at the height of its popularity, the game had been completely transformed. Offense was emphasized more than ever, and it showed in the numbers. A 6-4 game in 1975 was common. In 1995 it was more likely that the score would be 6-4 after the first inning! By the mid-90s the popularity of slow pitch was starting to decline. Familiar teams and rosters were replaced by squads of rent-a-players, as teams scrambled week to week to fill out their lineups. We were having those same issues, as our guys were getting older, were more prone to injury, or were just simply retiring. Then came the internet. And the AWA Enterprises Softball Club became one of a handful of softball teams to populate the World Wide Web, as it was known back then. Our website was created in 1996 as a lark, as something fun to add to our weekly activity. The site was updated week to week with game stories, box scores, and updated statistics. Our "fan page" became a lively exchange between the guys and friends. Soon we were making contacts all around the world, picking up fans as far away as Australia, Scotland, France, and Switzerland. A couple of coeds in Michigan were regular followers of the team, and we made some connections with other like-minded softball squads also setting themselves up on the internet. We even got some recognition along the way. The team's website was first featured as a story in a San Diego newspaper, and the site was written about in a couple of local softball magazines. In a French magazine that identified the best sporting websites around the world, our little piece of fun was given a "Bout du Chapeau" (Tip of the Hat), an honorable mention in the story. All very amusing stuff. With the arrival of the new millennium, I knew my time as a player was coming to the end. I was nearly 50 years old at the time, and I was planning a move to Sacramento. Shortly before our last game in 2000 I announced my retirement. There was some conversation about the team continuing on, but those old-timers who were still playing each decided that my exit would signal theirs as well. So, after that last game, we shut it down for good. Twenty-six years. 379 wins. 369 losses. 4 ties. Uncounted beer and pizza. Lasting memories. There are lots of statistics here. Yeah, we kept stats. Offensive. Defensive. Pitching. What can I say? Stats are fun. But they are what they are. They tell a story of what happened, how much, and often how badly. They don't really mean anything else, except in the context of ourselves and the teams we played against. Like I said before, the game changed a lot over the years. A .500 hitter in 1975 was a pretty good player. A .500 hitter 20 years later was only average. And we have errors. Errors are not hits. So how you do stats may not be the same as how we do them. So there is no point in comparing. Besides, I always defer to Mark Twain's conclusion that there are three types of untruths - lies, damn lies, and statistics. We lost Neil Christie in April of 2002 from complications related to AIDS. Neil was our first manager in 1975, a player for 21 seasons, and an ardent supporter of the team throughout. He was one of the team Godfathers, and loved what the team stood for all those years. The AWA Golf Association commemorates Neil with one of our annual events, the Neil Christie Cup, held each April. Dan Degnon passed away when he did not survive a heart transplant in 2013. We always knew there wasn't a heart big enough to replace the one he had. When his playing days had to be put aside, he kept active managing each of the various AWA fantasy leagues. Dan is also remembered by the golf club with his named attached to our annual Club Championship. His love for the guys cannot be overstated, and his hearty laugh has been sorely missed. Earl Yagi passed away in December, 2018 after a long bout of heart issues. "The Duck" was also one of the Godfathers of the team, as he was the one who came up with the notion of forming a team. He was our first pitcher, a true talent in a game that favored offense, and he was widely recognized as the primary reason we had so much success early on. He wore #13 because that was his lucky number. We were the lucky ones to have Earl with us. We were still rocked by Earl's passing when the news came down that Pat Koeplin, one of our original players from the 1975 squad, had passed in January, 2019 from a long bout with brain cancer. Pat played "buckshort" in those first three years in which AWA had a team. For those of you who are too young to know that such a position existed, think short fielder, playing in the shallow outfield and shading to the pull side of each hitter. Pat left for big opportunities in Seattle, and there he remained. He was a good man. So now what we have left with the website is a museum piece, I suppose. A record of the times come and gone. What makes this all unusual is that so many of the guys played together for so many years. And all the celebrations, all the bad times, and especially all the memories of this family are truly a shared experience. We had a great time. So, what's happening now? Well, you didn't expect us to go away, did you? I give you the AWA Golf Association, formed in 1999, logo designed by the former Dan Degnon, and still going strong today with over 45 members, most of whom had ties to the softball team. Every tournament is a reunion, and it just doesn't get any better than that.