Green Rules

Spring splendor at the Howard Park cupola

Growing up in my hometown of South Holland, Illinois, was a unique experience.

South Holland’s motto is Faith, Family, Future.

Watching over the town, the village’s water tower displays gigantic praying hands along with the slogan “Community of Churches.”

Since it was founded by Dutch Reformed immigrants in 1894, South Holland remained a "dry" municipality; that is, no alcohol is sold anywhere within the village limits. Additionally, the sale or rental of pornographic material is prohibited in South Holland. The village's franchise agreements with cable TV providers restrict on-demand and other adult-oriented programming. 

The founders held rigorously to the tenants of their church, especially the Lord’s commandment to keep the Sabbath Day holy.  My memory of the blue laws is just how quiet everything was on Sunday. Every business and activity, other than worship, was shut down.

My Sundays started with either going to church or pumping gas at my dad’s station in a nearby town.  When I returned, I would play with friends — but only the non-Dutch ones because the Dutch were indoors honoring the Sabbath.

The most frustrating thing for me was that organized sports were never played on Sunday. This was especially painful during baseball season. The baseball season was already too short in the Midwest, so no Sunday ball made every game that much more precious.

One memorable weekend, when I was 13 years old, I had back-to-back games scheduled for Friday night and Saturday morning. I was pumped! My excitement was quickly dampened when my mom reminded me that I was signed up for a weekend retreat with my church youth group.

No worries, I was a clever teen and was going to outsmart my parents. The church was not too far away from the baseball field, and the departure time for the retreat was close to the first pitch of the ballgame. So in my overnight bag for the retreat, I packed my uniform, mitt, and spikes. My mom dropped me off in front of the church, and as her car pulled away, I bolted for the baseball field.

I changed into my uniform in a nearby patch of trees and hurried to the field for warmups. I had it made! I knew I would take some grief at home when my parents found out what I did, but it was worth it to play baseball.

Then, right before the game was to begin, I saw my mom’s car pull into the parking lot. In an unforeseen turn of events, the pastor had given her a call wondering why I was not at church. He must not have been a baseball fan. I tried not to be noticed on the field but with no luck. When I ignored Mom’s order to get in the car, she went to my coach.

My coach called me to the dugout and sat me on the bench. He explained that my commitment to church and God was infinitely more important than a baseball game. Though I was dubious, I respected Coach Majnarich and his influence has stayed with me. 

A few years ago, I searched for him and found his obituary from 2012. Here is a portion of it:

Joseph A. Majnarich, age 94, Army WWII Veteran, Bronze Star recipient, serving with 101st Airborne in the Battle of the Bulge. Joseph attended Alabama University on a basketball and football scholarship. He was a longtime baseball coach in the South Holland area.

Even today, I remember hearing his words about church and God, and I know he was right.

While I am still a little bummed out about not playing in those games 40 years ago, I am incredibly fortunate to have had a true American hero impact my life.

Similar feelings swelled inside me as I walked to Howard Park Tuesday night. I was dressed for softball but had vowed to myself and to my family that I wouldn’t step on the field if we had enough players. Would Julie notice if I tried to blend in somewhere in the outfield? This time I didn’t test my luck. 

Fortunately, the Cougars proved to be heroes on the diamond, winning 18-3 over Boogie Knights and scoring 12 in the first inning!

You can watch the powerful first inning offense on the full game video below.

Here’s a 90 second highlight reel:

• One minute into the game, the opponent had runners on first and second and, of course, we pulled the Wheel Play on the new team to the league.  (Wheel Play explanation in footnotes)  
• Martini pitched his first ꓘ in the first inning.
• Ev hit a moonshot for his third homer of the year.
• A perfect relay play from Ev to Fort to CRads gunned down an advancing runner.
• Joker slowed down and ducked into 2B, and the short center flopped and rolled to CF.
• Li’l Rads had a sweet stretch at 1B for a key out.
• Martini pitched his second ꓘ in the last inning.
• Big Ball Jimmy made a big catch to seal the victory.

 

While we all may have different religious beliefs with varying Sabbath traditions, our Tuesdays have a universally revered observance of playing 16-inch softball. And, thankfully, there are no blue laws in Wilmette because Green rules the night! 

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GAME VIDEO

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SCORES

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STANDINGS

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SCHEDULE

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WHEEL PLAY

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Wheel Play Rule

Our league has an interesting baserunning rule that new teams either do not know or understand.  The Cougars take advantage of the rule to get out of a jam. 

Basically, with runners on first and second, if we make a pick-off play on the runner at first base, he can't advance because the base he is advancing to is occupied.  The runner on second base can't advance because a play was not made on him. 

So the Cougars throw to pick-off the runner at first base and the ball intentionally gets away.  The opposing team runners then sprint around the bases and each advance past the next base.  Because they have advanced to the next base, they are automatically out.  We tag each base out of an abundance of caution and have execute the oldest trick in the history of Howard Park.