Thursday March 28th, 2024
TEXT_SIZE

Added a small report to the 2014 Arizona Hall of Fame All Star Event!

 

Dec 6th, 2014 The first annual HOF/All Star classic was a huge success this past weekend with upper level ball being played at Sahauro Ranch in Glendale, AZ.  Arizona USSSA started its’s Hall of Fame and honored its first 2 inductees Elby Bushong (Player) Ron Seaton (Manager/Sponsor). Arizona broke it’s all stars into 3 teams 20’s,30’s,40’s and Nevada and So Cal also brought teams to the event.

 

A ton of CUSSSA players and past Upper level players rounded out the Arizona Rosters. Nick Robertson, Matt Fox, Danny Lopez, Alexis Rameriz, Dan Kirkwood, Tyler Buerline, Brian Knight, AJ Montano, Jason Krieder,  Ron Parnell, Carl Blank & Jeff White.

 

California was led by veterans leader Jay Hill, Eli Aguilar, Brian Lipman, Mike Brambilla. Kid Vega and Vito Messina (Billy’s kid). Nevada was lead by Bryce Olivera, Flip Washington, Chris Hansen, Dan Norquist and Nate Newman with Tony Verdugo by there side.

 

Solid crowds watched the larger matchups with Nevada, So Cal and Arizona. Arizona (30 year olds) and Nevada both went undefeated in pool play but So Cal ran the table in the bracket and took home the first championship.

 

“This event is more about the players and sponsors that came before and recognizing them and putting Elby Bushong and Ron Seaton in as the first members of the Arizona Hall of Fame. Having great players come and support the event just made it even better” Tournament Director / Far West V.P Elliot Clark.

 

Arizona USSSA also held a Women’s All Star to showcase the great talent of ladies playing the game and to recognize the women who have played Upper Level ball.

Team California won the 1st Annual Arizona Hall of Fame Tournament!

 

 

Arizona All Stars!

Nevada All Stars!

Arizona 20's All Stars!

Women's Champs!

Ron Seaton & Elby Bushong first 2 members of ARIZONAN USSSA Hall of Fame

 

2 responses to “Added a small report to the 2014 Arizona Hall of Fame All Star Event!”

  1. Todd Leonard says:

    I was glad to see that Elby Bushong made it into your Hall of fame. He is well deserving of it as he is known from coast to coast in Slo Pitch Softball. I do have a question of why my father is never talked about or given the credit for what he did for Az. Softball.. He started and had many Softball teams that won many Tournaments. His team J&R Roofing which Elby played on was the 1st Slo Pitch team in Az to win a World Championship. 1983 they won the USSSA A World which was played in Huch. Kan. My father was the main reason for several players in Az to become known all over the US. most went on to become Hall of fame players. Elby Bushong, Dennis Myers, Larry Neff, Donnie Walden, Rod Bartlett, Greg Wolf, and the list goes on. My father was known in the Phx. area as the Man for putting to gather great teams and when he would show up to watch teams players would hope they were being watched so they would be asked to play for him. My dad also won the 16″ USSSA soft world in 1977 known as the K Club. Dad spent many hours and days putting these teams to gather, his dream was to have the 1st World Champion from Az which he did. If you were to ask Elby Bushong who was the reason that J&R Roofing won the World in 1983 he would tell you it was because of Richard (Dickie) Leonard. There is much more to this story but I’ll end it here as my Dad would be up set with what I’ve said. Thank you for your time.

  2. Elby Bushong says:

    Todd Leonard is correct. His Dad, Dick, recruited all the players and more which enabled J& R Roofing to win the Championship over 104 teams to be the first World A Champions from Arizona. Not only that they were undefeated. 7-0. Quite an accomplishment!

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.