2015 Male Player: Joe Ambrose
/Joe Ambrose
When it comes to state championships, Joe Ambrose may be the poster child for the Illinois USSSA, as he may be one of very few that has been a member of a state championship at every level A thru E. Along with his team successes, “Jammer” captured numerous individual All-State, All-NIT and All-National awards in several different classes.
He found early success with The Steamers and Home Run Inn teams during the late 80s and early 90s. In 1993, he began play with the Men’s A/AA team Joe Blacks where he played hundreds of games at the AA/Major level. As an example of his contribution to the Joe Black’s team success, he averaged a home-run in less than every four at bats, while compiling well over 800 dingers in his career.
When asked about one of his most thrilling moments playing softball he stated, “Playing on ESPN in the Major World Series in 1997 and I hit a home-run over dead centerfield fence at the Cubs minor league stadium. Even though our team got killed, it was quite a moment.” Former coach and IL Hall of Famer, Tom Starck, added this regarding his former teammate, “Joe Ambrose was a great player for us and one of the best ever to wear the Joe Black’s uniform. I’m so glad to see him take his place with so many other fine players in the Illinois USSSA Hall of Fame.”
In his 22 years of USSSA play, Joe provided a .675 batting average, while playing with other numerous Hall Of Fame players, such as Tom Starck, Burgess Watts, Brian Schultz, Roy Ambrose, Mike Oates, Dave Villarreal, Kurt Kozlowski, Ken Adams and many, many, more.
As an example of his long ball prowess, Jammer finished in 3rd Place out of 150 home run derby participants at the A/AA World Series and finished in 2nd Place at the Men’s Major contest.
Joe commented about the Illinois USSSA program, “I really like what the Illinois USSSA has done with the 50 plus program, which has allowed many of the guys that I played with to remain active in the game. I am looking forward to coming out of retirement and joining them at some point.”
We are looking forward to seeing Joe return to the field as a Hall Of Famer in the near future.