The teams were in place. New players were rated. Schedules were set for the season. And the South Florida Amateur Athletic Association (SFAAA) was off to a grand start as it kicked off its 16th season. Then, it rained.
Rain, when it’s not the rainy season, wreaks havoc on a softball schedule, as Frank Renfro, Open Commissioner, pointed out in a recent email to the players. After some quick thinking, and evenquicker scheduling changes, the season is now set to end near the end of May, with play-offs to follow, and the World Series in Columbus, OH, in August.
Begun by George Kessinger, Jim Stork and Bob Hagen, with the support of many others, SFAAA has been a fixture in Fort Lauderdale since 1994 and the Women’s Division started in 1999.
But as big an operation as it is, many in the community are unaware that on any given Sunday, upwards of 500 players are hitting the baseball diamonds at Mills Pond Park. Yes, there’s life off of Wilton Drive.
That’s not to say that Wilton Drive isn’t involved. Many of the team sponsors are merchants and bars throughout Wilton Manors and Fort Lauderdale, and after the games on Sunday, a sponsor bar hosts an after party that brings all the teams together in a show of team spirit and camaraderie. This season, there are 22 men’s teams, and 25 women’s teams, and through the efforts of Frank Renfro, Open Commissioner, and Carol Moran, Women’s Commissioner, as well as the SFAAA management team led by Chris Kochan, David Campbell and Bob Dias, the League runs like a well-oiled machine.
It takes months of planning to get teams together, players rated, new sponsors on board, schedules planned, and a coordination of efforts between the City of Fort Lauderdale, which runs the park, maintains the fields, and supplies the umpires, and the League, which not only brings substantial business to Fort Lauderdale and Wilton Manors during it’s annual World Series, the Hurricane Showdown, but does charitable good works as well.
Click On Picture to View Full Scale
Love of the Game
This year marked two important milestones in the history of Fort Lauderdale gay softball, and pointed up the deep love of the game.
Chuck Dima, 80, who was instrumental in starting the gay softball league in New York City back in the mid-seventies, and has been a fixture with SFAAA since the Fort Lauderdale League was started, was feted with an appreciation luncheon in March, for what he’s brought to the game over the past 35 years.
“I’ve been playing ball since I was 7 years old,” Dima said. “When I moved to Florida, I brought with me what I’d learned in New York City, where I started gay softball. We needed a organization that provided a safe place for gay people to play, to enjoy the sport they’d grown up playing. I hope I helped the founders of SFAAA accomplish that.”
A younger player, Abe Hasbun, who has been Open Commissioner in past years, and who struggled with cardiac health issues for several seasons, was the recipient of a heart transplant recently, and after months of rehabilitation, hit the fields to play on the winning C-Division Blue Crush just two weeks ago. He was his old self, pushing his teammates to play harder and win. And they did.
“I played in my first softball game a few weeks ago and it was the first time in a few years that I was able to run full speed again,” Hasbun said. “My legs were sore for days following that but it sure was worth it.”
Hasbun and Dima personify what is great about Fort Lauderdale gay softball. Their stories are just two of many in the history of the League, but they show that the love of the game knows no boundaries. They’ve gone to great lengths to bring the League to new heights, to get the most out of players, no matter what division they play in. It’s that love of the game that keeps 500 plus players and hundreds of fans out at Mills Pond week after week, month after month, year after year.
For those interested in playing, or simply becoming fans of SFAAA, go to www.SFAAA.net, to find out more about this great League.
