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.
All games were played during school hours so there was always a healthy crowd to support the home team. It was common for kids, teachers and staff to line the foul lines.
Joe Huerta, a former ball player himself, and the school’s custodian, would throw the broom aside and take a break from his regular routine to call balls and strikes.
Mrs. Russell was a “natural” in the classroom and a coach that led her team through a season of brilliant victories. Her college transcript did not show that she had matriculated in baseball 101, but she was a person of strong character and a disciplinarian that got things done, on and off the field. Her prowess as a coach was so respected, she was dubbed the Casey Stengel of elementary coaches.
If you stepped out-of-line, she was a master at using the “board of education,” a piece of an old water hose, recalled one of her students, which measured precisely three feet. It was a tool she did not have to use often, but when she did, it was with much compassion, to deliver a good old-fashioned spanking.
Under her tutelage, the boys finished the elementary softball competition undefeated and untied, trouncing their archrivals from Victoria Heights twice and doing the same to the boys from First Ward School (now, Skinner Elementary).
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