2024 Male Player: Mike Emerson

After 4 years of college baseball at Rock Valley Jr. College and Eastern Illinois University where he was 20 and 5 as a pitcher he moved to Clearwater, Florida in 1972 with some college teammates where he started playing Slow Pitch softball. Jim "Big Daddy" Yeager (HOF 1996) spent the winter of 1973 in Florida with Mike and was a big influence on him playing Slow Pitch softball. When Mike moved back to Rockford in 1974, he began playing with Ken Becker, from there it was Diamond Bar, Schlichting, Park Town Hall, Hollywood, and Little Caesars.

"Emer's" batting average over a 11-year span was around the 600 range. He played first base and had no foot speed therefore no leg hits and still hit lead-off for all the teams he played on. Mike said a lot of times when he came up to bat for the first time in a game the opposing catcher would yell out to his teammates "okay, good speed here." Mike would turn to the catcher and tell him that he was the slowest player on the field and then proceed to find a hole and get a base hit.

In addition to playing on some great teams and the guy, always on base or the batter to get that "key" hit in the 7th, Erner was placed on numerous All-Tournament Teams. In 1982 he was placed on the Class "A" All State Tournament Team going 13-18, with a . 722 batting average for the weekend!

The highlight of Mike's short but eventful career came in 1981 when Park Town Hall won the Class B Divisional in Milwaukee at Wilson Park. Town Hall played great defense, had timely hitting, and were very close as a team. Everyone played for the team, not just for themselves.

"It's been forty years since I played this great game and from what I've seen the best Slow Pitch softball in the Rockford area was played in the 7O's and 80's" says Mike.

A special thanks goes out to Brenda Paulson, Ken Franzen, Brad Lindmark, and Jim "Big Daddy" Yeager for making this all possible.

2024 Male Player: Keith Laski

Keith Laski formerly from Lisle is one of the original Precision softball members that helped the team go from a Class E team to a AA team. This has never been done before or after in the Men's program in Illinois USSSA history. Also, advancing as a Class E player to playing on Major softball teams is another feat!

Keith was named Tournament MVP of the 2014 USSSA B World Tournament (equivalent to the A division now), Offensive Tournament MVP of the 2015 USSSAA World Tournament and was extremely honored by being placed on the All- World Tournament Team in the 2016 Major World Series. He earned many All-Tournament Team honors in other Conference Tournaments and NIT's while playing with Precision.

After the years with Precision, he went on to play for The Scene a Major team, where they finished 3rd in the Major World Series, Sonnys (another major team) where they finished 5th at the Major World Series.

Laski played most of his softball days at shortstop, but did play center field (in his younger years) and then eventually moved over to 2nd base/1st base/and catcher. Keith was also a player representative for Miken sports, Pure sports, and Spiderz batting gloves.

2024 Male Player: Brett McCollum

Brett McCollum – Lake Villa, IL

Brett began playing USSSA in 2004 and he quickly advanced to the upper level of play with KA Softball, Class B for 2 years, and Rope Club, Class A for 1 year before participating in the Men's Major program with teams including: Long Haul, Dan Smith, Nordkap, Shoppe, Backman, and Illinois's Precision in AA for 4 years. He then returned to the Majors. He accumulated over 40 All-Tournament Team Awards, 5 Best Offensive Player, and 7 Most Valuable Player honors. Brett's primary position was shortstop from 2004-2018, and he played first base from 2018 to the present. His batting average was .690. and 824 homeruns.