Anne Engelbrecht The First Interview for the Podcast

Annie Engelbrecht talks about her involvement in the original softball league in 1976. She played for various teams, including Buckley's, Coghlan's, the Angels, and the American Legion. She discusses the dominance of her team, which led to other teams refusing to play against them. Annie also mentions playing in other leagues, such as the New York Women's League, where they won the championship in 2004. She talks about the number of teams in the early league and the names of some of the teams. She credits Fran Moore for organizing and managing the team and finding sponsors. Annie also shares her love for playing at Kings Bay and her childhood experience playing with the boys. Alright, we're going to do that intro again. Give me the mic again. I didn't like that. I didn't like that. Okay. We are here in the Tamaqua Bar and Marina in Garrison Beach. It is Sunday, February 18th, 2024. We're interviewing Annie Engelbrecht, who was part of the original softball league way back in 1976, and she's going to start to tell us how she got involved in the league, how long she played, and we're just going to do a great interview with Ann. Alright. Take it away, Ann. Hi, everybody. It's nice to be here. Hi. Yay. Oh, God. Really nice. Thank you. It's appreciated. I started playing in the league just out of high school. It was 76. I had just finished my senior year, and I was looking for a place to play ball before I went to college. And I lived right near the park, and I used to see women playing there, which was wonderful. What park? Avenue V and Haring Street. Dolgin Park. And that was, like, one of my most favorite places to be. I miss the league very much. So I got involved with Buckley's through Fran, really, Fran Moore, who I played for many years on other teams in the league, which progressed into moving on from team to team. Played on a lot of teams. But I started with Buckley's before it was renovated and became a catering hall and a restaurant. It was just a real neighborhood quaint bar. And we would socialize. We would socialize. You can say drink. Yeah, well. It's a bar. It's Buckley's. The jersey was actually green and yellow with a beer mug. And it said Buckley's in a semicircle above the beer mug because this was that kind of a place before they renovated it and made it a nice catering hall. But anyway, I got involved with the girls and friendly, and we played and we organized the team. And eventually we kind of spread out from there. And after that it became Coghlan's. It became the Angels. And it became the infamous American Legion. And we kind of stuck together. We were a group of girls who were very athletic, and we kind of stuck together. And we needed somebody to put it together. So Angel ran the team for a while, but that got a little dominating. And then Fran took it upon herself to start the team herself and manage the team with her friend Pat. And we were pretty much solid. We had about a ten-year run as that team. And we won the championship like almost every year for like the last five of those ten years. And it was kind of good and kind of bad. I don't know if I want to get into that. Oh, boy. It was bad because we were dominating the league, and teams just refused to play us after a while. They didn't want us in the league. So we weren't really well-liked, which was unfortunate for us. And that kind of had to do with us disbanding because a lot of our players preferred playing in the Oak Bowl League in Bay Ridge. And then I eventually played in the New York Women's League in Manhattan for my friend's company team. She worked for American Express. Lehman Brothers was our sponsor. We all know what happened to them. But they were very good sponsors, and it was a very competitive, organized league in Manhattan. And we played J.P. Morgan, Chase, AIG, all these others. And these women were very competitive. They were athletic in college, but they got degrees like in finance and worked on Wall Street. But these were girls who did play serious ball in college. And it was an excellent league. And we did finally win the championship in, I think it was 2004. We beat Morgan Stanley. That was a big rivalry with us. We were the two best teams in the league, Morgan Stanley and Lehman. And we lost to them. And my friend Karen was so upset that we lost to them that she called me up after Christmas and said, we're going to the batting cages every Friday night and we're going to beat Morgan Stanley this year. And we did. Now, when you played in the early league, how many teams were there? Oh, quite a bit. Quite a bit. We played, I would say, close to 20, 25. We were playing every week, sometimes twice a week, from the spring, from the end of April, till September. So you think if you're playing twice a week, you were playing more than once a week. So I would say there had to be a good 10 teams. That's a lot. What are some of the names of the teams? Oh. All right, you at Buckley? Oh, that's a great question. Oh, Colonial Inn, do you remember that? Oh, my God, Colonial Inn. Colonial Inn. Okay. Or Waldo's, which I ended up on. And you saved me. Because after American Legion disbanded, the girls didn't want to play in American Legion anymore because nobody wanted to play us. My daughter was in her son's class in 94. And you said, let's go play. And that's when I got Karen and Dana on the team. Yes, yes. And that's how I got back in the league. From you. From the Waldos. That's how I got back in the league, in 94. And you got me back in the league in 1994 when our kids were in pre-K together with Miss Agnew. Yes. Thanks, I'm glad I read it to you. We were waiting for the kids outside on 19th Street. And you needed some players on your team. And you asked me to play. And I said, sure, I'll get my friend Karen too. Now, did Dana play with you in American Legion? Yes. Okay. Oh, yeah. Yeah. His name's a team. It's Colonial Inn, Coglins. Coglins. Wheelers. We played for Wheelers. J.P.'s, the bar on the corner. I actually played for a team that was in Bay Ridge called Browns Limited Spirits. It was a little bar on 4th Avenue right near the bridge. And they ended the league. And I played for them for a while. This girl named Bessie took over the team. Bessie Rinaldi. She took over the team because somebody didn't want to run it. So she got a sponsor in Bay. She had to find a sponsor because you had to find a bar to sponsor you. So she found a bar in Bay Ridge called Browns. Probably changed names a million times. It's probably still there. So we used to go schlep to Bay Ridge after some of the games. That was while I was in college. That was around 1978. A couple years after Buckley's. Well, how did these four teams get together? Do you know any of those stories? Hmm. That's a good question. Because when I started in 1980, I do remember, I said... Mariners. Yeah, Mariners. Right at their home. Oh, how did I forget that? You were a big rivalry. Fran took care of all that. See, Fran took it all over. And she did a great job. She said, I want to take over a team. I want to run it the way I want to run it. Because it was mismanaged. A lot of it was mismanaged. We weren't cohesive. We couldn't get a cohesive unit. You couldn't rely on people. They were undependable. So she found a way to get us together. She knew who really wanted to be there and play. And we had a core of about six of us. Six, seven of us. Karen, me, Dana, Fran, Pat. Yes, that's Donna. So there was about six, seven of us. And we just needed another three or four girls. So it did happen. You know, word of mouth. And we got a core team together. And we stuck together for a good number of years. A good ten-year run. Right, right. And that's kind of how that happened. It was Fran. It was Fran Moore who did it all. She took a lot on her own. She did a good job. Right. And that's really how all the owners of this bar got together. The goodness of their hearts. Fran went literally to the bar and asked them to be our sponsor. Yeah. And we had to show up after the game and spend a certain amount of money. And we did. We did. It wasn't a problem. It wasn't a problem. No. Right, right, right. I think they did very well for us. Right. Now let's talk about Kings Bay a little. Oh, sure. Kings Bay must have been fun. I loved it. That's where Donna Lockett comes from. I loved it. Yep. That was the best thing that happened to my neighborhood was that they started a team called the Lassie League. I wanted to play a year before that, but my mother was so against me playing ball back in the early 70s. You know, I had to be a girl. I had to learn how to cook and wear a dress. Really? Oh. You're welcome. My mother hated me playing at all. Despised it. She threw out my baseball cards. Oh. Oh. You know what I had in that shoebox? A lot. I had cards from 8th grade, which was 1971-72, and you know who played Major League Baseball. Roberto Clemente. Pete Rose. I had... Don't talk about it. She goes, well, I didn't know they were going to be worth anything. I would have been sitting pretty today, but anyway. Throw it out. She said, throw things out, because she wanted me to... So anyway, I got involved with playing ball with the kids on my block, because I had friends, and the girls on my block used to like to play dolls and play house, and I thought that was the most boring stuff in the world. And there were kids, and there was one girl named Carol, and Linda Jones. And I was like, oh, my God. Oh, my God. Oh, my God. Oh, my God. And the more I played with the boys, the better I got. And it was fun. We'd go from church football in the winter to wiffle ball, stick ball, and punch ball, and kick ball. In the street, we painted bases. So they needed somebody to take the throws at first base, because the kids would just pick up the ball and try to race to first base before. So they needed somebody to take the throws. So I stepped in. A few years later, I got a call from a friend of mine. He said, well, you know, I'm not going to play with you. I said, well, I'm not going to play with you. He said, well, I'm not going to play with you. I said, well, I'm not going to play with you. He said, well, I'm not going to play with you. And I started getting good eye-hand coordination, and I ended up playing first base from the street. So I go to Kings Bay. I hit a line drive, and I cracked somebody's windshield. And my mother had to pay whatever, like the guy's insurance didn't pay. And it was about $168 in, like, 1971. And it wasn't too good. So I begged my mother. I said, if you put me on a team, I won't be breaking windows. So I got to Kings Bay. Played for the Pixies, and then the Bunnies. Great names. And in 1972, I was the first girl to hit a ball over the fence in field two. So when I get cremated, I told my daughter to put my ashes on field two. So I got to Kings Bay. I played for the Pixies, and then the Bunnies. Great names. And in 1972, I was the first girl to hit a ball over the fence in field two. So I got to Kings Bay. Played for the Pixies, and then the Bunnies. Great names. And in 1972, I was the first girl to hit a ball over the fence in field two. So when I get cremated, I told my daughter to put my ashes on field two. So I got to Kings Bay. I played for the Pixies, and then the Bunnies. Great names. And in 1972, I was the first girl to hit a ball over the fence in field two. So I got to Kings Bay. I played for the Pixies, and then the Bunnies. Great names. 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