Tom McCormick *

 

Inducted 1987

 

Tom began his career in 1937 and played until 1967.  Those thirty years of playing included some twenty years in the game of fast-pitch softball.  At the ripe old age of fifteen, Tom was playing outfield for his church team when he was called in by his coach to pitch.  He ended up striking out the side and winning the game.  Over the years, his teams included Abbott’s Collegians, Epworth Methodist and the U.S. Army.  Tom’s All-Army team won the Army/Air Force Championship in 1944 in England and then the European Theater Title in 1945.  During the fast-pitch years, Tom won 630 out of 788 games pitched.  He pitched twenty-one no-hitters while on the way to a career 9,600 total strikeouts.  Ten times in his career, Tom was able to strike out seventeen batters in a game.  In slow-pitch, Tom played for ten years as a pitcher, outfielder and first-baseman.  During that time, he played in some 300 plus games batting just over .500 while belting somewhere around 250 homeruns.  Prior to completely retiring from softball, Tom umpired in Tidewater from 1968 through 1983.

 

*Deceased