LANCASTER, CA - Back in the early 1990s, Todd Budke sat in the bleachers at a Palmdale city league game dressed in attire more befitting a day at the beach than on the ball diamond. Then came the call. A team on the field was short a player.

“You want to play?” the manager asked him.

Budke thought, hey, why not.

“They pulled me out of the stands and I was wearing shorts and flip-flops,” Budke says with a chuckle. “The first batter was a slapper and he hit me with the ball. I had three at bats and did put the ball in play, so they asked me back.”

From that less than stellar start, Budke went on to become one of the most feared and respected hitters in International Softball Congress (ISC) World Tournament history...