In two closely contested games, the Dana All Stars took home back to back wins in dramatic fashion.

Here is Joe Juhasz’s writeup:

What a wonderful 4th of July day of senior softball in was in beautiful sunny San Diego. (2) teams: One from DANA the other from LA MESA. DANA, honoring the date, wore very patriotic jerseys. LA MESA must have been sponsored by the Chinese and wore red.

The 70+ was the first game. DANA started out with a bang. (7) batters and a quick (5) runs, now let’s see what LA MESA can do. They did nothing ! Next inning-nothing, 3rd inning-nothing. DAVE HUNT was doing his GREG MADDUX impression. In case you forgot, – MADDUX holds the MLB record of 70.1 innings in a row without a walk. For (3) innings, LA MESA did nothing. They even had a huge celebration. in the 4th inning when they finally scored their first run on a sacrifice fly. But after their 5-run 1st inning, DANA’s bats went silent, being shutout (3) of their next (4) at bats.

But one thing those good ol’ boys from east of I-15 and west of I-94 can do is hit. And for (2) innings, hit they did with (10) quick runs. After DANA’s ZERO for their (2) innings, LA MESA had a 10-8 lead. It was nip-and-tuck the rest of the way, with DANA holding a slim

14-13 lead going into the all-you-can-eat ninth. Damn … LA MESA scored 3 to take a 16-14 lead with DANA coming to bat in the bottom of the 9th needing 2-to-tie and 3-to-win. KENNY, STEWART and JERRY quickly get hits bringing RON to the plate with the winning run on first. RON had already done his job, getting singles and scoring the 5th run in both the 1st and 6th innings. You could hear the crowd wispering … “Could he do it again ?” Bing, bang, boom … RON wallops a double with the winning run scoring all the way from 1st.

• HITTERS-OF-THE-GAME *
  RON 3-for-4 with his Walk-Off Double
  KEN 4-for-4 with a Double and Home Run
  JERRY 4-for-4 with a Double
  DANN 3-for-3 with Double

Other than the success stories above, it was a tough game offensively for DANA. At the same time LA MESA was outhitting DANA, DANA was also making several more errors than LA MESA. How the heck does a team win that way ? Looking back at it, I think a ton of credit goes to FRED KAISER and
DAVE HUNT for the work they put into this team, especially those 2 practices with FRED emphasizing (with an emphasis on emphasizing) about cut-off throws and positioning ourselves properly, not throwing the ball around needlessly and things like that. To be honest, it felt a bit silly at the time. We’ve all been playing this stupid game for more years than we want to recall … and we’re expected to change in a couple of hours ? Well we did. We made errors like senior softball players do from time to time, BUT … we did not throw the ball around stupidly. When’s the last time you’ve
seen that at DANA ???

A big “THANK YOU” to FRED and DAVE and STEVE ROBINSON and JOHN CHURCH and ….. and the LA MESA team and everyone that made this such a huge success.
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If you thought the 70+ game was thrilling, the OPEN game was even more exciting. The mighty La Mesa hitters plated seven home runs, three of them after two outs in the first inning, and had a few more home runs that only counted as singles since they were already up by three over the Dana hitters. But aided by excellent defense, the Dana All Stars clawed back.

At the end of the 8th inning, the score was 30 to 29 in favor of La Mesa. A key running catch by second baseman John Concepcion helped keep La Mesa scoreless in the open inning. In Dana’s ninth, a single and two walks (La Mesa walked a total of ten batters in the game) was followed by two singles, producing the 31-30 win.

Player of the day was Ken Kowalsky, going a combined (both games) 11 for 11 with six home runs.

Overall, a good time was had by all and many thanks are owed to all who helped with the delicious BBQ.

A good time was had by all.

In week one of the playoffs, sixth place Light Bleu won two games to advance to the semi finals. Third place Royal Blue also advanced.

Game one saw 2nd place finisher Crimson score 6 runs in the bottom of the open inning to defeat Royal Blue.

In the second semifinal game, it was close all the way with both teams tied after seven innings. The Bombers were held scoreless in the top of the eighth, while the first-place finishers Purple Haze only managed one to take their first lead of the game.

In the open inning, after one initial out, the Bombers bats came alive, and by the time the inning was over, they had scored an overwhelming 12 runs to advance to the finals.

A smattering of runs by both teams in the first five innings of the championship game resulted in a 9 to 9 tie game. Beset by some injuries and replacements, Crimson would only score one more run in the next four innings. Light Bleu scored seven in the eighth and ninth to preserve a six run victory and become the playoff champions of the Winter 2024 season.

A season beset by multiple rainouts had finally come to an end. Celebrations continued at the postseason party at Harbortown.

Past president and long time Dana member Richard Wolfe passed away on March 5, 2024. Richard always had a smile and a kind word.

His wife Jefferi said she would like everyone to know how much Richard loved the game of soft ball and baseball and he loved his teammates. He had lots of activities he enjoyed such as fishing, gardening, cooking, wine collecting. But, she added, the constant joy throughout his life were the ballgames and the friendships he forged on the field.

Patrick Roche noted that Richard was instrumental in the organizing and structure of the DANA league. He drafted and implemented league bylaws – which still exist today (save for periodic changes). He served as President of the league bringing reason and stability to the Saturday games. Patrick noted that Richard was a calm, reasoned thinker – and an excellent ballplayer.

Tim Dimasi recalled that Richard was responsible for the double high fence in left field. There was a problem with too many balls sailing over the existing lower fence. Richard, who was an attorney in city government, somehow used his influence to get the city to raise the fence to its current level.

This past week we also lost Dave Tessmer. Like Richard, Dave always had a smile and a kind word, except perhaps when an umpire got it wrong. Dave was someone you could count on. Pictured above (at age 76) on a cold, rainy Saturday, he was among a number of volunteers including John Church and Marshall Cohen (78 at the time) who helped make the field playable that day.

We always knew it was Dave when we saw someone with a feather sticking out of his cap.

Dave Tessmer’s Memorial Service is scheduled for Saturday July 13 at 10am. Location: St James By The Sea in La Jolla.

We will miss Dave & Richard.

Current roster players: your manager will be asking you if you plan to play next season and how many games you expect to miss. And he will be collecting dues. We highly encourage players to pay $150 for three seasons to minimize having to collect again for the next two seasons to follow.

Non-roster players can contact Dave Hunt if you want to play next season.