2004 Male Player: Tom McCarthy
/Tom McCarthy
The general consensus regarding Tom McCarthy is that he was a talented and exceptionally competitive softball player who retired from the game far too soon. Tom wanted to be involved with his three sons as they grew up, and made the right decision, people are quick to say. Still, they contend softball is the less for it.
“It’s a sham he couldn’t have played longer,” Tom’s old skipper, Bank of Westmont manager Don Loid said. “We would have loved to have had him continue playing for us over the years.”
But Loid understood McCarthy’s motives back then and he understands them now.
“As his boys grew, he made the decision,” Loid said.
If McCarthy has been as good a father as he was a softball player, his sons are now lucky men. McCarthy epitomized the competitive softball player.
In 14 years of USSSA ball, played primarily with the Bank of Westmont, but also Bunca Car Wash and Burla Construction, the left center fielder forged a reputation as an intense competitor.
“He was a high intensity player,” Loid said. “His motor was always running.”
McCarthy said he reveled in victory and sorrowed in defeat, but that didn’t stop him from appreciating all that he was experiencing.
“During off time, I could relax with the best,” he said. “But when the time came to play ball, I was disciplined and expected all who played the game to give it as much effort and determination as I did.”
“During off time, I could relax with the best, but when the time came to play ball, I was disciplined and expected all who played the game to give it as much effort and determination as I did.”
At the heart of that attitude was an intense pride, both in his personal game and the game of softball itself.
“When I played on the Bank of Westmont, even though we did like to enjoy ourselves, we really dedicated ourselves to being a very competitive team, along with representing the USSSA in a professional manner,” McCarthy said.
McCarthy was mostly a good percentage hitter who would go long from time-to-time. He boasts .630 career batting average and over 250 home runs in 14 years during an era – 1978 through 1990 – in which the game of softball was played without the artificial boost of space age metals and trampoline effect bats. McCarthy was named Most Valuable Player at five Class B and A tournaments between 1983 and 1987, including a Class A tournament in Kalamazoo, Michigan while playing with Bunca Car Wash. At this tournament, McCarthy went 28 for 29 against some of the strongest competition in the country.
McCarthy was able to keep things in perspective and never put softball ahead of some of the more important things in life; however, he may have gone too far in the mid-90s. Asked to list his All-State honors for the Illinois USSSA Hall of Fame, he wrote down several years and added, “but I cannot find my trophies. I threw a lot of stuff out in the mid-90s.” Apparently, that included many of his National, NIT and World All-Tournament awards, of which he says, “There’s more, but I can’t remember!”
Others remember it for you, Tom. We just hope you choose to hang on to the Illinois USSSA Hall of Fame plaque that marks the induction into the ranks of the hall.