Softball’s Best Were Here

SOFTBALL’S BEST WERE HERE
1937 Game Featured Adam Hat Ten
by John Conway (June 2020)
FALLSBURG—It was June of 1937, and sports fans in this part of Sullivan County were all abuzz about the upcoming appearance of one of the top softball teams in the country.
The Adam Hat Ten, undefeated on the season in the semi-professional Eastern Softball League, were coming to Fallsburg to take on the Sullivan County All-Stars on the diamond at the Hotel Brickman.
The Adam Hat contingent was headed by pitcher Wally Mitchell, considered “the fastest pitcher in organized softball.”
“He has proven that his softball delivery is faster than either Dizzy Dean’s or Mungo’s,” the Hurleyville Sentinel reported, referring to the Brooklyn Dodgers’ fireballing righthander Van Lingle Mungo as well as St. Louis Cardinals ace, Dean, at that point the National League’s perennial strikeout king.
Mitchell had pitched six no-hitters in 1936, and had not lost a game in two years of play.
“Featured in the lineup for the Sullivan County team are Don Murray and Johnny Brown of Monticello, Ray Stein of South Fallsburg, Pete Blumberg of Woodridge, Babe Fiske of Liberty, and Billy Goldstein of Mountaindale,” the Sentinel reported. “Sheriff Harry Borden will throw out the first ball. Umpires will be Judge Benjamin Newberg of Fallsburg, Judge Ike Silberman of Monticello, and Eugene Hartwell of Monticello.”
“Harry Perlstein of So. Fallsburg manages the Sullivan County All-Stars, and is on the look-out for new recruits for future games,” the Sentinel noted.
No reports of the result of the contest could be located.