Al Cotti played in his first ASA National Fastpitch Championship held in Detroit, Michigan in 1941 at age 19 for a team from Pittsburgh, PA.

 

He remembers a team from Fresno (Peerless Pump) playing that year. In 1944 he was sent to Hammer Field (Fresno, CA) with the Air Force, which had a travel team. He met Lou Ferrero, who was with a Marine Corps team at that time.

 

Then in 1945 he was assigned to Lemoore Air Station and played in Hanford as well as for his military team, playing both baseball and fastpitch, along with an American Legion team from Hanford.

 

In1946, Cotti finished his military service and moved back to Pittsburgh. In 1947 he played for Ralph's Market of Pittsburgh in the ASA National Tournament in Cleveland Ohio; and he played in the first fastpitch night game ever played under ball diamond lighting in Pittsburgh.

 

He also barnstormed with Ralph’s playing against a team sponsored by Joe Louis (former professional boxing champion) called the Joe Louis Punch.

 

It was in the 1947 national tournament that he met up with his old friend Lou Ferrero and the Hanford Kings. Ferrero and Herb Harris recruited and talked Cotti into coming back to Hanford and playing for the Kings, which he did from 1948 to 1950. During those years, the Kings were managed by Kermit Lynch (2008 ASA Hall of Fame member).

 

He treated the Kings as a business, and rented the ball diamond from the city. He sold advertising and setup the field so no one could get in to the ballpark without paying. Admission was 25-cents, but by the end 1950, he raised the ticket price to 50-cents. That was a big ticket item since wages were a dollar per day.

 

The Kings packed the ballpark with two to three thousand people. The players were all payed and the pitchers made as much as $100 per game. There was no television or Little League, so everyone in town attended the games. Even the high school football games couldn't compete with the Kings.

 

In 1948, the Kings played the state tourney in Hanford and lost to Les Haney and the Taft Merchants who went on to win the National Softball Congress (NSC) championship in Oklahoma City (with the help of Lou Ferrero and Whitey Becknell, of the Kings)  In 1949, Hanford won the (NSC championship) in Greeley, CO, and the Merchants finished third. Kermit Lynch, Bill Buckley (All-World 1949 and 1950), and Bill Horstmann (All-World 1952 with Hoak Packers) all pitched for Hanford that year. Five members made the All-World team, Lou Ferrero (1949, 1951), Fred Vierra (1949), Whitey Becknell (1949, 1950), Bill Buckley (1949, 1950), Dom Farruzi (1949).

 

Then in the 1950 World Tournament - again held in Greeley - the Hoak Packers brought in Leroy Zimmerman (10 time All-World selection, 1970 ISC Hall of Fame) but Zimmerman and the Packers barely edged out Hanford, which finished second.

 

Then 1951 Ferrero and Cotti joined the Kings. Cotti also went to Greeley with Zimmerman to play in the first International Softball League (ISL) national championship. Cotti then drove from Greeley to Phoenix to play with the Kings in the NSL championship. The Packers won the 1951 ISL World title, while the Kings finished third with the Kings in the NSL.

 

In 1952, Ferrero and Cotti played for the Packers and went on to win the ISL title in Plainview, Texas over the Nitehawks. The next year, the Nitehawks won the championship, and the Packers finished fourth. That was Cotti’s third consecutive year making the All-World team. He was inducted into the ISC Hall of Fame in 1972.

 

In 1954, Zimmerman and Cotti played for the Packers, while Ferrero and Unruh (All-World 1954, 1955, ISC Hall of Fame in 1998) played with the Dinuba Condors, with pitcher Bryan Voigt (All-World 1953, 1954, 1955, 1958 all with Dinuba, and 1982 ISC Hall of Fame member).

 

Zimmerman got the best of Dinuba, beating them 1-0 in the championship held at Selma, CA. Although, Dinuba did beat the Nitehawks twice to reach the championship. In 1955 the Packers disbanded and the remaining players(except Zimmerman who went to the Nitehawks) all played for Dinuba in the ISL championships held in New Bedford, Ill. The Nitehawks won again with Dinuba finishing second. The Nitehawks Cleo Goyette hit a home run in the bottom of the seventh to win it.

 

Dinuba again made it to the finals of the International Softball Congress World Tournament in 1958, finishing second to the Nitehawks and Zimmerman.

 

All the towns in central California - Madera,(home of Leroy Zimmerman,Principal @Madera High School) Fresno,(home of the Hoak Packers,a raisen packing company) Selma,(raisen capital of the world and home to 2 world tournaments) Hanford(home of the Kings)and Dinuba(home of the Condors) - are all within a few miles of each other and played great men’s fastpitch softball. The little town of Hanford - about 5,000 people back then, and the surrounding area were major players in the early days of fastpitch softball.

 

Fastpitch was just called softball then because slow-pitch was not played by men; only the girls played slow-pitch in elementary school.

(Joe Avila played with and against the players and teams mentioned, and he was inducted into the ISC Hall of Fame in 2010.)