Bob Berger is stoked for victory in Eldridge with a team full of American, Canadian and South American all-stars itching to take on fast-pitch softball rivals packing just as much heat.
Berger is a Los Angeles custom painting contractor who also manages the JB Bombers. He has plenty of respect for the 21 other teams arriving in Eldridge this week for the International Softball Congress tournament opening Saturday at Sheridan Meadows.
It won’t be just all fun at the ballpark.
“I’m there to kick the **** out of everybody,” he said.
“Our team hasn’t been together in two years, and we’re looking forward to the best players in the world,” he said. While many played elsewhere, Berger said they didn’t face ISC-level competition.
In Eldridge, he’ll face the world’s best:
2018 tournament MVP outfielder Bryan Abrey of the Gremlins will be here.
So will 2017 MVP Nico Carril of Hill United Chiefs, Six Nations, Ontario.
Team USA veteran Alex Ibarra arrives this week to pitch for the Walcott Lampliters. He’ll be staying with Lampliter tavern and team owner Clint Kutcher through the tournament, before heading to LSU where he helps coach softball.
The ISC tournament Aug. 14-21 at Sheridan Meadows brings hundreds of players obsessed with a game that once ruled eastern Iowa. Through the 1980s, the Q-C region had four fast-pitch leagues and at least 80 teams competing from almost every town, Kutcher said. Now there are just four traveling fast-pitch teams.
It’s a game where many pitchers leap airborne hurling a 12-inch-round, 6.25-ounce ball 43 feet. Around here, it’s a ferocious girls’ game in most high schools. This week, about 350 men will be arriving in Eldridge this week, about a third of them from overseas.
The ISC earns its international distinction with at least 108 foreign-born players on this tournament roster. ISC director Dean Oscar recited the list:
38 Canadians
37 Argentineans
9 Mexicans
6 New Zealanders
6 Dominicans
5 Australians
3 Venezuelans
2 Czechs
1 Dane
1 Guatemalan
Most will know each other in the tight bubble of fast pitch softball. That’s part of the draw, said Lampliter coach Duke Sims, of Durant.
“If you’re any type of ballplayer, you always want to face better competition. If you don’t, why do it at all?” Sims said.
JB Bombers manager Berger called his obsession “an expensive hobby.”
“My wife reminds me all the time,” said Rio Grande Senators owner Dave Parker.
Parker, of Midland, Texas, described his anticipation for Eldridge while driving to another tournament in Tulsa. He’ll join other ISC teams heading here from Oklahoma.
“This is a big deal. Most of these guys we’ve seen for years and years. There are some really some good rivalries. For the most part, the fast-pitch scene is a very friendly lot,” he said.
“All my boys were raised in dugouts,” he said. His oldest, Brady, 23, will play in Eldridge. Parker estimated a $10,000 travel and hotel tab to get his team here.
Teams typically play a game a day and enjoy exploring the Quad-City area many are familiar with from ISC tournaments in Moline’s Green Valley Park.
QC familiar to players
Eldridge’s Quality Inn is full. The Isle of Capri serves as a base hotel, and others booked rooms around Brady and I-80.
Tournament veterans say torrid onfield competition often is followed by equally spirited celebrations. Families will fan out across the QC, but will be looking for local watering holes.
“Don’t run out of Busch Lite,” said Lampliter coach Sims.
The JB Bombers’ Berger is 63 with 40 years in the sport. “Every year I say this is the last year. If we win it this year I’d actually retire for sure.”
Like most ISC members interviewed, the team owners lament fewer teams this year.
Normally, up to 40 teams qualify. Pandemic uncertainty shrank the field to 22 teams, and also prompted the move to Eldridge.
The tournament had been scheduled for Kitchner, Ontario, home to the Kitchener Hallman Twins, a contending team that will play in Eldridge. Canadian pandemic restrictions limited international participation, prompting the ISC to look elsewhere. League members have fond memories of the Quad Cities through previous championships in Moline’s Green Valley complex. That complex hosts the ISC 2022 tourney, so the ISC and Visit Quad-Cities tourism promotion board approached Eldridge.
The Eldridge tourney theme is “Familiar friends, new fields.” Players familiar with Moline tournaments will find that Eldridge hustled up about $130,000 for lights, dugouts and other upgrades to Sheridan Meadows Park diamonds. About $51,000 of that was covered by grants from the Isle of Capri and Rhythm City casino authorities.
The city lined up food vendors, including Eldridge’s own Cabo’s, to rotate through the park each day of the tournament.
The tourney runs Aug. 14-21. Sunday features an opening ceremony league director Dean Oscar said “is modeled after an Olympic-style ceremony.” Uniformed team members take the field in ranks, stand for the national anthems, and celebrate the championship’s return after the pandemic year.
Walcott's Lampliters warmed up with a practice game Tuesday versus the Walcott Merchants. Both teams have played top-level ISC teams at Moline’s Green Valley park and have big aspirations.
“We’re just two little teams out of Walcott,” Merchants manager Louie Hutchison said.
His roster is culled from the QC region, with some help this tourney from Argentinian pitcher Fabio Silvestre, taking a break from the DeKalb, Ill., team where he’s pitched all summer.
Both know they’re longshots for the championship. But Hutchison said local teams relish a shot at the best players in the world.
“They’ll see very competitive games with fantastic pitching,” he said.