Joe Wolanski Joe Wolanski
Inducted: 00/00/0000

Joe Wolanski was born in Seattle on 1/11/54. Thus his lucky number is 11. It has always been his jersey number. Joe grew up in Seattle's Boulevard Park area and in Federal Way.

He played ball from the time he was 7 years old until he retired at the age of 41.

His mom was quite the athlete. She coached girl's softball in grade school and played softball until she was 50. Both Joe's sisters were excellent ball players. In fact, one of his sisters played in the ECSA league with Joe from 1981-1983. His brother played in the ECSA in 1986. Joe was addicted to softball. Joe would attend his family's games and tournaments.

He started his first softball team at the age of 18 in Sumner for two years. In 1974, he worked construction in Burien. He convinced his boss into sponsoring a team. His brother and friends played in a Federal Way league and won 1st place. His team took 2nd place the following year. Joe almost always pitched or played outfield. In 1976, his brother started a team in Auburn and they won again. They won a tournament in Issaquah that year in July.

1980 - A group of about 13-14 guys got together every week out by the U-District and practiced softball. They were very good. They tried to get a league together, but there was no interest at the time. They organized games with Vancouver, BC. BC had an established league. Joe stated "We would host each other in our homes. (No "host" hotels) We all became really great friend's, it took them 3 years to actually beat us on the field!"

1981 - Joe and a few others went back to the gay community again and they finally showed some interest in a new league. They got 6 sponsors the first year. They went to the bars and put up sign-up sheets. And, before you knew it, we had a league! We all met to choose our officers.

Joe recalls a little bit of history here!

The league was first titled: Seattle Gay Softball Association. Then it changed to Seattle Gay Athletic Association (SGAA) to leave it open to other sports.

The first couple years we played at Bobby Morris & Miller Playfields. It was a fun time.

The league decided that we'd have our own umpires to save money. There were six of us that were "official" SGSA Umpires. It was about our 3rd year that we started paying for official ASA Umpires.

The first year teams were: Tugs (my team), Grace Gospel, The Body, Brass Door, Hombres and 2024. The league wasn't very competitive the first year, Tugs went undefeated.

We also started a tournament called the Cascade Cup. It was originally held on Memorial Day weekend. There were teams from L.A., San Francisco, Sacramento, Vancouver BC and all the Seattle Teams. The Hay Loft from Los Angeles won the 1st year. (Tugs took 2nd).

1981 - Over the 4th of July Joe's team went to a tournament in Sacramento and took 2nd. In August we went to Vancouver BC for the Pacific Cup and lost to Sacramento and took 2nd place.

In December of that year Joe bought a new home in Maple Valley on the Cedar River. The commute to Seattle certainly got old, but it was well worth it.

1982 - Tugs didn't want to sponsor his team anymore. So a very dear friend of Joe's, Charlotte Martin, who owned a restaurant on Oak Harbor called Char's Cove sponsored the team. The league went from 6 teams to 9. The new ones were the Ritz Café, Daddy's and The Park Bench. The Grace Gospel changed to the Elite Bat Boys.

Char's Cove won the Cascade Cup that year. Seattle finally beat Sacramento.

Joe got ready for the 1st Gay Games in San Francisco. Al Fernandez coached the team. Seattle took 2nd place and won the silver medal. Tina Turner played for the closing ceremonies!

1983 - The Ritz won the league and the right to play in the GSWS. Joe was a pick up player on that team for the series. The tournament was in Chicago and they played Houston and beat them 5-0. Joe pitched the entire series. Seattle beat Milwaukee 13-11 and then beat Minneapolis. Seattle lost to Chicago 4-3. Seattle beat Houston again and then played Los Angeles. The game went 10 full innings. We lost 6-5 and finished 5th in the series.

1984 - Joe played on first time sponsor Roy's Glass. He took 2nd in the league but won the league playoffs, so his team ended up 1st overall. Several members of the team couldn't go to Houston GSWS, so the Ritz went instead and picked Joe up as a player. They picked up Bruce Caszatt and a few others. It was a great time. Houston did a super job hosting the tournament. Seattle dropped into the loser's bracket but kept knocking out other teams and ended up in 5th place at the end of the tournament. All the teams stayed at one hotel. The hotel's pool area was one big party. The temperatures were in the upper 90's every day!

1985 - Joe's close friend Larry Jenkins from Roy's Glass got sick and passed away.

So his team switched their sponsorship to Neighbor's. The team took 2nd in the league that year. Again, Joe was asked to go to the GSWS as a pick up player. It was in Milwaukee. Joe stated that it was a boring tournament - and "we didn't do very well".

1986 - Joe's best friend Frank Adkins, the coach of the Body team, got Sparks to sponsor a team. So they played together. Frank was the coach. Frank was really easy going, not tough like Joe was when he coached. Frank was a good player and he gave 100%. He did a lot for the league. He was also a player that would always get asked to go to the series. He was a school teacher. Frank passed away in 1996. Bless his soul.

Also the 2nd Gay games were in S.F. Joe was asked to coach the team. Seattle won the bronze medal.

1987 - Joe played for Sparks this year. For the first time, he did not go to the Series.

1988 - Joe played with Sparks. Elite won the league for the first time and asked Frank and Joe to go to the GSWS in Dallas. We played in 105-108 degree weather. We played 4 games and were knocked out.

1989 - Joe's dogs had 17 Vizsla puppies. He took the year off from softball.

1990 - He joined the Elite team. We won the league that year and went to the GSWS in Pittsburgh and lost in 4 games. He also went to Vancouver for the 3rd Gay Games and played really well and they won the bronze.

1991 - Joe played with the Elite. The team joined a straight league. They took 2nd in the straight league and won the Gay league. All the hard work was paying off. It was well worth it. We went to the Pac Cup in Vancouver and took 2nd. I got the MVP.

1991 - The team went to Boston for GSWS the day after the hurricane hit. We played well, but eventually lost.

1992 - Joe played with Elite again and won the league and the Seattle Metro league. Team went to LA for the GSWS. Seattle lost to San Diego for the first time.

1993 - Joe played for the Cuff Gamecocks team. We won the ECSA league, but Joe did not accompany them to the GSWS in Philadelphia.

1994 - Joe took the year off for more puppies! I did play on a straight team in Issaquah. It was a fun late summer, early fall league. I played 4 years with that team.

1995 - The series was going to be in Seattle. Joe went back to the Elite. In March of that year we went to Phoenix and won that tournament. The Elite Batboys joined a new straight league in the Burien area. They lost one game in league play but went undefeated in the playoffs. Things were looking good for the Series when they won the ECSA league. When the Series started they won all four pool play games. Joe pitched all 4 games. Our first elimination game was against San Francisco and Joe took a break and sat on the bench. SF jumped on them in the first inning and they lost a close game. They won the next 4 straight to take 5th place.

Joe decided at this point in time to finally call it quits.

In 1999, he sold his home on the Cedar River and bought 100 acre farm in the Eastern Washington. He lives about 8 miles SW of Othello, in the middle of nowhere. The farm keeps him so busy that he is overwhelmed at times at what he has to do. It's a lot of work from March to September. Othello only get about 5 inches of rain a year. Joe mentioned that he misses the rain a lot. Joe stated, "I've got a horse due to foal any day now".

Joe's last comments:
I hope the league is still doing well. I want to thank the league for this honor of being chosen to be inducted into the Emerald City Softball Association Hall of Fame. It means a lot to me.

Over the years playing ball I learned that winning and losing go together. If you learn anything at all from the game, sportsmanship is by far the most important element.

Good luck again to all of you and THANK YOU so much for this honor.