BY JOE ARCE AND CORBIN CRABLE
This past weekend, several Old Timers Fast Pitch softball team players have been inducted into the Mexican American Westside Hall of Fame Association.
The induction ceremony took place last weekend at Shawnee Park in Kansas City, Kansas, this is the third year for the event, which was paused during the COVID-19 outbreak, said Manuel “Rabbit” Hernandez. In all, 11 players were inducted into the Hall of Fame for the 2026 season.
Hernandez, told Hispanic News he communicated with several fast-pitch teams to resurrect the Hall of Fame event.
“I said, ’I’m going to get the ball rolling,’” Hernandez recalled. “And I took it, I talked to the managers of these teams, and they all agreed, ‘Let’s bring it back.’”
Hernandez said an ongoing issue is the recruitment of new players to fast-pitch softball teams, as so many of the current players are aging (average old timer age 70+). New to this year is allowing younger players to play and hopefully join the team of their choice.
“The turnout has been great,” Hernandez said. “I know that these guys appreciate it, and I know everybody’s got a story.”
Hernandez said local teams began to crop up decades ago out of necessity.
“When my dad Paul (Waxie) Hernandez and his friends came out of the Military service, they all couldn’t play baseball because some of them were getting drafted,” he explained. “So the Azteca’s were formed, the Bravos, the Locos, everybody started playing. And they played here five nights a week, at Shawnee Park. … I’m picking this back up because I’m trying to revive it. We’ll see what happens in the next few years.”
The hardest part of such a revival, Hernandez said, is finding youths to pick up the bat and join the team. They decline the offers for a variety of reasons.
“Some of these kids nowadays, they don’t want to play because it’s too hot. And they want to get paid. Back then, my father and some of the teams, we all had to do fundraising like taco dinners and other food drives and that’s how you made your money to travel to these tournaments,” Hernandez said. “A lot of these kids don’t understand that back then, you played softball because you loved the game.”
Jude Davila, one of the honorees and a small business owner, said he played baseball in college. It’s only one of the many reasons he’s remained loyal to the game since he was young.
“It was always kind of a dream to play for Waxie Hernandez and KC Los Amigos. My best memory is probably my first tournament with them, and being able to look over and see my brother Bob, my dad, and everybody, being proud of me playing for the Amigos,” said Davila, who played a number of positions. “I played a lot of sports, football, basketball, baseball. I played 20 years of men’s fast-pitch softball. Sports taught us a lot of life lessons that I took into my business world.”
Davila added that he believes more young people would enjoy softball if they took their focus off their electronic devices and just gave the game a chance.
Ralph Paredes, who has played catcher, second base, and outfield, was honored as well, saying he was excited to see plenty of old friends.
“I haven’t seen these guys in a long time, and, man, it just brings back a lot of memories,” said Paredes, another inductee (his nickname is “Tin Man”). “And I’m feeling like I’m probably not deserving, but I’m glad somebody decided to recognize me. But they wouldn’t have had to do that because I had fun playing.”
Paredes, who played for the Angels, added that fast-pitch softball remains the one thing that helps him forget his troubles and instead focus on being the best player – and person – he can be.
“This was the one thing that I could count on to make me feel good,” Paredes said. “I got away from everything as long as I was playing ball.”
Hernandez wanted to give a shout out to the former baseball coaches and their teams, “I couldn’t do this Hall of Fame without the support of area organizations like Redemptorist youth program Julie McCall and Carla Medina and to Manny Abarca Jackson County Legislature.
