Don’t forget, this Saturday, August 19, is the Pasadena Employee Softball Tournament at Brookside Park! Come and support our library staff and colleagues from other departments who will be playing ball! Hamburgers and hotdogs will be served, so bring family and friends for the fun!
This isn’t the first time that the City has held a softball game. In the early 1980s, Public Works, Water & Power, and a few other City departments got together after work to play softball. They formed teams based on department affiliation and played against one another. These early informal games soon gained the support of the City, which then helped form a city employee softball league that later included the Library and several other departments.
Participating departments formed their own team and competed against other departments. The Library softball team was fittingly called the Infomaniacs and had its own jersey made (not all departments were as flashy and cool as us with a spiffy name and team uniforms).
The employee softball league was sort of a big deal, as it meant bragging rights if your team won. The Library and other departments practiced at various locations throughout Pasadena to hone their game, but official games were all played at a place called “Johnson Field,” which was located in the undeveloped area south of JPL and north of Devil’s Gate Dam. According to Bryan Sands, former library staff (now with DoIT), Johnson Field was a special place for a variety of reasons:
Johnson Field was a “private” field created by City employees in undeveloped land in the Arroyo Seco using surplus parks equipment like backstops, benches, and picnic tables. Several employees volunteered after hours and on weekends to build the field specifically for the City employee softball league. The field was named after a former Water & Power General Manager. The field fell into disrepair some years later when it was no longer used by employees for softball games. Then a few years back it was removed altogether in an effort to restore the habitat in the area behind Devil’s Gate Dam.
This is the only photo that I’ve found in the Archives showing the library softball team. It was in an envelope with a label that reads “Library softball team summer 84” and a caption “Oh please, can we have another inning?” It may have been taken before jerseys were made available, hence the regular clothes. The person in the foreground is Liz Bischoff, former Principal Librarian for Technical Services, and who can guess the person in the red shirt and blue jeans on the left?
The Infomaniacs played in the softball league for a year or two before hanging up their jerseys in 1985 or 1986. The league continued on until the late 1980s.
The big game this Saturday will be the first citywide softball tournament in thirty years. It’s great to see the Library and other departments back in the game. Our own “infomaniacs” Tiffany Duenas, William Porras, Kristen Annes, Dana Crisp (honorary member), Susan Zehnder, and Michelle Perera (backup) will be teaming up with colleagues from Public Works as Team Smash/Catch Fire. Let’s show them our support!
Many thanks to Tiffany Duenas, Bryan Sands, Penny Sands, Nick Smith, and Laurie Whitcomb for their assistance in the creation of this blog.
