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Charles DiMarco was inducted into the Amateur Softball Association’s (ASA) PA Hall of Fame on March 2nd of this year, Charlie DiMarco has come full circle. The most prolific home run hitter in the history of the West Chester Adult Softball League began his fast-pitch softball career in a much different fashion than most stars do. For two years in the early 1950s, Charlie served as a batboy for his older brother Don’s team when the old Community Softball League played on fields in the County Seat which are now covered by macadam and buildings. As he grew older, DiMarco’s interests leaned towards the popular sport in season with softball on the backburner. In fact, during the late 1950s, his high school years, Charlie was involved in summer league baseball and high school baseball, but in 1960, one year after graduating from West Chester High School where the three-sport star helped the Warriors win the Ches-Mont League basketball and baseball titles his senior year, he began his fast-pitch softball career. It should be noted that DiMarco did turn down a baseball scholarship to Baltimore University for a chance to attend Goldey Beacon College (DE) on a basketball scholarship. Charlie’s fast-pitch softball career would eventually span six decades and culminate with him becoming the most prolific home run hitter in West Chester Adult Softball League history. He has played on so many fields all over the tri-state area, it is impossible to remember them all, although he has many special memories from playing on 18 different championship teams. As for tape-measure home runs, there were many, but the most discussed home run Charlie DiMarco ever hit was the 350-foot bomb he blasted one afternoon in Baer Park in Reading (PA). Playing for the West Chester Stars in a Conestoga Valley League game against Reading, he turned on a fastball, sending a magnanimous blast skyward, stunning a crowd of fans with this defining Hall of Fame moment in a career which began as an 11-year-old batboy lining up wooden bats by length. Not to be forgotten, during the late 1950s and 1960s, Charlie was also an active player in the West Chester Adult Baseball League. A true all-around great athlete, DiMarco was also a tremendous competitor at the Pennsylvania Senior Games. In 17 years of competition, he claimed over 100 medals Charlie competed in numerous sports in the Senior Games with Track as just one of them. DiMarco played Bocce, Darts, Shuffleboard, Disc Golf, Golf, Softball Throw. |
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