By RENE TORRES
In 1941, The Valley enjoyed the game of softball and the kids from West Brownsville Elementary (today, Russell Elementary) were just as passionate about the game.
With no uniforms, no score board, no fences and with no cries from parents — as none were in sight — the game was a game. There were no white lines marking the diamond, but rather old running paths established by the generation of players that came before.
The ward school softball competition was a serious proposition with kids playing for city bragging rights. Little League Baseball in Brownsville did not emerge until the early 1950s—elementary soft-shoe softball and youth playground ball were popular choices for kids of then.
Although football was also part of the elementary curriculum, softball at West Brownsville was a spring sport that dominated all available space on the playground.
Jimmy Pace, who played the hot corner for the Westside boys, said, “We didn’t use gloves, maybe just the catcher and it was not by choice, as these were tough times.”
Playing fields at West Brownsville were plenty, as then, buildings did not swallow the landscape. From the first to fifth grade, each grade level owned their piece of the perfect diamond.
As the first graders moved through the seasons and bloomed with every play, their goal was to make it with the big squad—the major leagues or the fifth-grade team, that participated in a formal league against other city ward schools.
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