Editor’s Note: The following comes from the Lebanon Daily News in Pennsylvania and is, sadly, a sign of the times.
By DAN SERNOFFSKY
Daily News Sportswriter
Lebanon Daily News
Updated: 05/25/2009 11:08:46 PM EDT
This summer, the benches and bleachers at Prescott Field will be void of fastpitch softball players and fans. (Gordon Oliver / Lebanon Daily News)PRESCOTT — It wasn’t all that many years ago when it would have been unthinkable. Memorial Day weekend, the unofficial start of summer, had arrived, and Prescott Field was dormant.
Once, not that long ago, Prescott Field was one of the most-used facilities in Lebanon County.
Prescott Field is still used, but not to the extent that it used to be. Men’s fastpitch softball, the sport that once dominated Lebanon County’s summers, has effectively ceased to exist. The last holdout, South Lebanon TNT, disbanded shortly after last year’s ISC II tournament in Wisconsin.
The decision to disband the team was made by Irv Lutz, the team’s general manager and the man who had been fighting against the odds for the better part of a decade to keep fastpitch going. Some serious health concerns, and a handful of other factors, led to the decision.
“I always thought I couldn’t live without softball,” Lutz said, “but when I ended up getting ill and finding out that my health was important, I thought it would be a tough thing this year not having a team, but I’m living with it.” (more…)