As Sam Sees It

By Sam Conner

During the scrimmage between Winslow and Payson softball teams, I wandered over to the Payson side of the field and conversed with a former Winslow resident who now lives in Payson. Lars Johnson was the manager of the telephone company here in the sixties and early seventies. He played softball for the telephone company team.

We both agreed that men’s fast pitch softball was one of the best games ever invented and a great deal of fun. We, of course, had many, many old friends in common. He mentioned Dub Rice, a great athlete and a fine pitcher that I had the privilege of catching quite a few times over the years. We probably talked mostly about the pitchers, who were the dominant players in fast pitch softball.

Bill Herron, Alan Johnson, Theo McDaniels, Thurman Simmons, Bob Taggart and Rice were just a few of those who came to mind. Of course, there were plenty of memorable players. Just to mention a few: Artie Griffith, Crannie Hysong, Fernie Reyes, Tommy, Jack and Mickey Williams, Dave Conatser, Chris Greer, Jimmy McHood, Gale Davis, Joe Benham, Ted and George Wilcox, Byron and George Luther and this list should go on and on and on.

Winslow had a lot of very good softball players and a good park for them to play in. Johnson said that this was his first trip to the park since he left Winslow and that he was pleased to see that it had not changed much. The dug-outs are new. The fence is a little different. The tall screen in right field isn’t there any more.

Frankly, I always thought the softball field was one of our better facilities for the players. The fence is long enough to be a challenge, but short enough that contact hitters like myself was able to hit one out on occasion. It was and is a good fast pitch softball field.

Johnson, like me, never took to the slow pitch game. We both played it once or twice and decided it just wasn’t for us. We both would have probably played another 10 years or more of fast pitch given the chance. We were not the only ones. That sentiment has been expressed by several of the players mentioned earlier and quite a few who were not mentioned.

Not all change is progress. For me, the change from fast to slow pitch was not. While we are at it, neither are all of the changes to Vargas Field.

Johnson was there to see his granddaughter play firstbase for Payson. I was there to see mine pitch for Winslow. Both girls acquitted themselves well and the grandfathers who were rivals decades ago both went home happy.