The Illinois High School Association celebrated the 20th anniversary of the state softball tournament with a reunion game of past champions that brought back a celebrity.
Kim Considine, who starred on Loves Park Harlem’s 1980 state champion, played the role of the Racine (Wis.) Belles second baseman Dixie in the movie “A League of Their Own.”
“I’ll never look at movies the same ever again,” she said. “Remember that scene where Geena Davis turns and catches the ball barehanded from Rosie O’Donnell? It took four hours to film that one scene. I’m not kidding.
“Geena had the hardest time catching the ball, which was a mushy softball. They tried spraying stickum on her hand and everything. Everybody got a little frustrated.”
Considine responded to a tryout request but never imagined she’d be chosen from the hundreds of hopefuls. When she was selected, Considine spent three months in 1991 filming at Wrigley Field and in Evansville, Ind.
“Everything you hear about Tom Hanks is true,” she said about the actor who played the manager of the women’s professional baseball team. “In real life, he is just like the character he played in the movie `Big.’ He is still a kid in a lot of ways, a big goofball who is very fun and such a nice person. There would be a crowd waiting for him every day and he would sign every autograph request and talk to everyone.”
Considine played on the West team that lost 5-2 Wednesday night to an East squad headed by former Downers Grove South stars Amy Elza and Amy Thompson, plus ex-Streator star and former Richards pitching coach Alexandra “Zami” Mogill. The 20th anniversary celebration continued Thursday with a parade of champions, and a barbecue was scheduled for Friday.
Fashion police: IHSA executive Susan Hinrichsen, who is in charge of softball, notified Elite Eight coaches that she would enforce the state’s dress code after a Class A coach tried to defy the rule in last week’s title game. Upon notification, Thornwood coach Gary Lagesse had to order special coaching shorts from a California firm and have them shipped express mail. When they arrived, the shorts were too big.
“We’ll have to wear a rope to keep them up,” he said. “I look like the Good Humor Man. I agree with the intent because having coaches’ outfits match their team uniforms adds class to the game. You can’t be out there in cutoff jeans or a backwards baseball cap. I just think we should have been notified earlier.”
“This was a clarification of a National High School Federation rule,” Hinrichsen said. “The rule has always been here, but I have a feeling it’s never been enforced. We don’t want to have the coaches wear uniforms like baseball, but they should wear what is appropriate.”
Hinrichsen said if a coach is caught wearing inappropriate colors, he or she will not be allowed on the field. The Class A coach last week who triggered the controversy eventually changed clothes to comply with the IHSA.
City jinx: Although Elite Eight teams generally don’t mind drawing the Public League champion, those teams don’t fare too well after the quarterfinals. Public League softball has not advanced anywhere near the game being played in the suburbs and Downstate, and city teams have never won a quarterfinal game. The biggest difference is pitching, with city pitchers still lacking the proper technique and instruction to dominate a game like their peers in the suburbs.
But when Elite Eight teams that cruise by the Public League representative encounter a hard-throwing opponent in the semifinals, they have difficulty making the adjustment. Only Maine South in 1988 and Naperville Central a year later have beaten Public League teams in the opening round and won their semifinal games. Everyone else failed to advance beyond the Final Four, and Moline will be the latest to face this challenge.