Home

Since John Emeigh and Davey Dunmire were on my softball team, I knew I wasn’t the worst player in the league.

I was close, though, when I played in the Butte “adult” softball league from 2004 through 2007. One thing I do know is that I was the worst slider.

In four seasons, I slid exactly three times. Each time resulted in a trip to the emergency room or Express Care.

The first time I slid, I went down too late and the breakaway base didn’t breakaway. I was sure that I broke my ankle, but I came away with only a sprain.

I sprained my wrist once, and one time my leg swelled up about six sizes because the cut I got on my ankle from sliding became infected.

While the first two injuries can surely be pinned on my coaches for not properly teaching me how to slide into a base. The last one is the fault of Butte-Silver Bow. At least partially.

Those infields at Stodden Park used to be the worst. Sliding on them was a dumb idea in the first place. It would have been softer to slide on Montana Street — after it was chip sealed for the winter — than it was to slide on the dirt of Stodden. 

You could easily identify the dummies who didn’t learn that lesson by their multiple road rashes on their arms and legs. It was almost impossible to slide and not come away bleeding — even if you were wearing Long Johns under your softball pants.

That is why I was always blown away when I watched high school girls play softball on those fields while wearing shorts. And they slid. A lot.

I used to think that wearing shorts on those fields — and while playing in springtime in the Rockies — was a way the Butte High girls tried to intimidate their opponents.

It also proved my long-standing theory that girls are just tougher than boys. They are also meaner. I learned that indisputable fact by refereeing high school basketball last season.

Maybe that is because girls have gotten short changed for so long.

Seriously, the girls playing high school sports are only a couple of generations removed from the days when there were no high school sports at all for the females.

Things have slowly evened out over the decades, but the girls still get short changed in a lot of ways. Look at those Stodden Park fields as an example.

A decade ago, the county fixed the infields at Stodden to make them much better for sliding. While they more resemble a sand trap than an infield on a dry day, the fields are also light years better when it comes to handling wet weather. A storm that used to ruin the fields for several days is now no big deal, as long as the snow doesn’t stick.

The renovations at Stodden Park came about mostly because of a Title IX complaint filed against the school district. The renovations were welcomed to a park that, thanks to further improvements to the golf course and the addition of a waterpark and new playground, is at least one of the best in the state.

With all due respect, though, some of the renovations to the softball fields were done in a half-assed manner. 

Take the new dugouts for example. They are too small, and they are too chain linked.

They are cramped, and there is no protection from the elements like you see in dugouts elsewhere. The girls have to wrap tarps around them to try to block the rain, snow and win, and that doesn’t work too well.

The fences, which were put up in 1975, were not updated. Those fences are curved up the bottom, and holes can be found around all three fields.

That poses a danger to the players, and it can sometimes affect the play on the field. A guy playing co-rec softball suffered a lawsuit-worthy gash on his head from that fence a few years ago.

Meanwhile, the boys have a field of dreams just up the hill at Copper Mountain Park. Miners Field at 3 Legends Stadium is a beautiful ballpark that came about because the American Legion teams lost use of Alumni Coliseum because of the growing campus of Montana Tech.

A decade after the program barely had enough players to field a team, the Butte Miners won the city’s first State Legion title in 69 years last summer.

You better believe that the new stadium played a big factor in that. Now, so many Butte boys grow up dreaming of playing there that the American Legion had to expand to three teams.

The girls should be allowed to dream that same dream.

There is talk — or maybe even whispers — of putting an artificial turf on Miners Field after horrible spring weather limited the high school baseball season. That would help give the Butte boys a competitive advantage — or at least put them on the level — because they would be able to practice and play more on the field.

It would also make it more likely that Butte could get another team from a wooden-bat college league — this time without a monorail salesman of an owner. It might even help us lure a minor league team.

Hopefully, that turf talk becomes a reality sooner rather than later.

But let’s make sure the girls get a turf field first. Or at least at the same time.

The Bulldogs and Maroons could obviously benefit from a project that would clearly mean more time practicing and less rainouts. It would lead to better play, more wins and probably more scholarship opportunities.

Giving the girls dugouts that are as nice as the ones the boys have would be a nice touch, too. That and maybe some stable, permanent seating that is safer than those old, metal bleacher death traps that we see at Stodden today.

Softball games draw as many fans as baseball games, after all. Actually, you probably see more spectators crowded around Field No. 1 at Stodden Park for Butte High softball games than you do for most games at 3 Legends Stadium.

Those upgrades would probably mean that the Mining City would get a high school state softball tournament almost every year, too. The giant Hit to the Pit Tournament would be really hard to rain out, and that is always a nice boost to the local economy.

The fields at Stodden send a lot of money to local businesses.

Judging by the explosion of participation in the Copper City Softball League, our girls like to play softball. Their families and coaches are investing in them, and the game is investing in the community.

The community should invest in the girls and make sure they have all these things. Because the boys already do.

Our boys deserve the very best that we can give them, and so do the girls.

Such upgrades would also be a big help to those old guys and girls still sliding into bases while playing in the “adult” softball league.

If they turfed the fields at Stodden, I might even come out of retirement. But only if John and Davey will join me.

I don’t want to be the worst player in the league.

— Bill Foley, who is also better than Davey Dunmire at checkers, chess and Super Mario Bros., can be reached at foles74@gmail.com. Follow him at twitter.com/Foles74. Listen to the ButteCast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or wherever you find your favorite podcasts.