In 2016, the Forest Park Review newspaper received the Media Award from the 16″ Softball Hall of Fame. The newspaper was honored at the annual banquet, where an acceptance speech was delivered.
We’re thrilled to get this trophy and it couldn’t come at a better time. The Review is celebrating its 100th birthday this year! We consider Forest Park to be the Softball Capital of the United States.
The Park District fields have received the “Field of Dreams Award” thanks to the hard work of its commissioners, staff members and maintenance workers. We have the Softball Hall of Fame Museum and have hosted the No Gloves tournament for close to 50 years.
For the past 25 years, we have published a special No Gloves section. Over the years, we’ve written about Hall of Famers, up-and-comers, women’s softball, co-ed softball, high school softball, blind softball, overseas softball, Iowa softball and even softball with gloves. We’ve focused on umpires, scorekeepers, statisticians and the grounds crews that groom the fields after every game.
This section is put together by writers, photographers, layout artists and editors. Softball is the in the lifeblood of our community and the No Gloves Tournament is the highlight of the summer in Forest Park. We want to thank the Hall of Fame for recognizing the hard work the Review has done for a quarter-century. We are going to continue to promote Chicago’s game and the Hall of Fame Museum. We will do our best to make sure the sport continues to grow.
In addition to receiving the award, the newspaper was invited to the Annual Hall of Fame Inductee’s Day, on July 22, 2017. On this date, they unveiled the plaques of the 2016 inductees. These were placed inside the glass cases located in Inductee Park. This ceremony was followed by a “Legends of the Game” softball field on the west field. Finally, the Park hosted the No Gloves Tournament play-in games, with four teams vying for the final spot in the tournament.
