When Harry Johnson joined the Hernando County Parks and Recreation Department in the early 2000s, he wanted to make use of the two public softball fields in Spring Hill. Now, some 14-15 years later, HCRD has a recreational men’s softball league that hovers in the neighborhood of 30 teams and around 500 players.
“We had two softball fields (at Anderson Snow Sports Complex and Veterans Memorial Park) and really no men’s softball to speak of,” said Johnson, HCRD manager. “I thought, ‘This is crazy.’ ” He continued, “To me, softball has always been fairly popular. Even when I played back in the day, when all the games were in Brooksville, back then they always had 10-12 teams looking to play. It has definitely grown in popularity. People moving in from out of state; everywhere you go people are playing softball.” Softball easily ranks as the top recreational sport offered by the county, attracting players of all ages and abilities.
In more recent years, many rosters have been peppered with former prep baseball players only a few years removed from graduation, still eager to dabble in the game they love. “They’re just looking to stay active in a sport similiar to baseball,” Johnson said. “Typically players that were good baseball players become good softball players.”
Jack Renzulli, manager of the team sponsored by Inflatable Party Express, is among those former baseball players and so are many of his teammates. “A lot of us, we’ve all played high school baseball, college baseball, some kind of baseball before,” Renzulli said. “It’s something for everybody to do. Guys look forward to it. They come home, they work, it’s like their escape time, their time to get away. Women like to shop, guys like to play softball… I’ve been here for a long time. Harry does a great job. I enjoy coming out here. It’s all about having fun and camaraderie. Everybody has a good time.”
Danny Aiello, a manager for the Anthony’s Pool Cleaning team, played at Nature Coast Technical and previously came up through the Spring Hill Dixie Baseball League that also calls Anderson Snow home. “It’s important for us to get out and play. We enjoy it, it gives us something to do rather than look for leagues outside of the county where we’re giving them our league fees. We’d rather keep it in-house,” Aiello said. “I know some of our guys play other leagues in Brooksville, Tarpon Springs, but they’re very pleased with the facilities the county has provided us. Aiello also stated, “He’s (Johnson) done a phenomenal job working with us and it’s been a pleasure. We’re hoping that he keeps it going for us, because obviously without him I don’t think of a lot of this would be possible.”
Johnson came to the HCRD after working at the Hernando County YMCA, which hosted smaller softball leagues, and he utilized his contacts from there to get the county’s league off the ground. Umpire Charlie Tumbarello, who at one point worked for the county, has had a front-row seat to the growth from those early days. “It’s always been popular from the days when we were at the YMCA,” Tumbarello said. “Then we all came across to the county, we built up to 32 to the most up to 42 teams, so the popularity with the guys, it’s a big thing. They get out a couple times during the week. It’s fun. It’s a growing league. We hope to grow even more down the road.
Fathers and sons often play together within the league. “We’ve got where the fathers used to play, now we have [where] the fathers and the sons are playing. Obviously when the fathers were playing the sons were young. Now they’re of age to play and a lot of them are playing with their dads, which is a great thing to see here,” explained Tumbarello.
HCRD runs three seasons per year, with a one-month gap in between. Games are played Monday through Friday on one field apiece at the two parks. Due to logistical issues, HCRD has been unable to expand to women’s and coed leagues. “We’ve grown a lot over the years,” Johnson said. “We’re still pushing down the road to get a quadplex built in Hernando so we can accommodate even more leagues.”
Over the past 10 years, the City of Brooksville has also held two seasons a year at Jerome Brown Community Center, featuring a men’s, women’s and coed league. The men’s league typically features 7-10 teams, the women’s 4-6, and the coed 11 but has gone as high as 13. Overall, there’s roughly 375 players a season. Brooksville’s leagues have followed the same pattern as the county, with increasing numbers and a wide variety of participants. Some play in both the city and county leagues.
“I just think most of our players are the age of getting out of high school and college,” said Mike Walker, the city’s parks and recreation director, “and we still have veteran men and women that still have the passion for the sport and want to be competitive.”