What began four decades ago on a couple of fields is celebrating its final year.
The 35th annual Paradise Valley Volunteer Fire Department 44-Hour Softball Tournament, which begins on Friday night at the Winnemucca Sports Complex will be the last one. The long-time director of the tournament is Dennis Deputy — AKA Deputy Dawg.
In the early stages of the tournament, Deputy was the tournament director, coach and an umpire and is still going strong after all these years. Deputy gets help for a number of people as well.
Known as the 'Mardi Gras of the West”, the tournament was one of a kind when it first began. Teams and players came from all around the West to be part of a three-day party with some softball thrown is as well.
Every year the faces are the same, even though you may see that person just one time a year. In addition, you will see the same group of umpires out on the field for three days, with some yelling at them from time to time.
Why go all the way to New Orleans for beads, you can stay in Winnemucca to get your own set of beads as you mingle around the sports complex. How you obtain the beads is totally up to you.
In its beginning stages, over 100 teams played across the street from Humboldt General Hospital or whatever field was available. At times you would find games being played on the baseball or softball fields at Lowry High School.
The first two years of the tournament was different, as an out of town promoter started the tourney for men and women. At that time there was just one adult field and one Little League field. By the second year, the promoter had decided to no longer offer the women a chance to play. That is when the French Ford Lions Club decided to take over the idea of the tournament and off the event went with as few as 20 teams and 24 hours.
Playing on two fields in town for 24 hours continued for the next eight years — surviving through just about anything and everything. There were the late night automatic sprinklers (garbage cans in the outfield to cover them up). There were bad light, short fields (when played on the Little League field, there were special rules). The old-timers also remember the beer trophy. It seemed the beer trophy was bigger than the championship trophy.
Mother Nature has played a part in the past 34 years, including snow. Yes it does snow in July in Winnemucca. The tournament has also had its share of heatwaves with temperatures near 110 degrees and days where thunder, lightning and rain played havoc with players and organizers. You can be in shorts and a tank top in the afternoon and huddled up in blankets at night.
The tournament has also had its battles with power outages. One year a car hit a power pole near the complex, knocking out the lights.
In 1988, Winnemucca built the four-field sports complex that is still used today. The number of teams grew to a point that even the complex was too small to hold the event. The tournament was over 100 teams from four states and Little League fields and high school fields were still in use.
The logistics for teams and management became overwhelming as teams were running all over town looking for their fields day and night. In addition it was nearly impossible to find people to manage the tournament. The decision to limit the tournament to just the complex, which created fewer teams.
The 44 Hour Tournament was one of a kind back in the day, but more and more similar tournaments are popping up and the number of teams have dwindled. The economy has something to do with that as well, with teams taking part in just a select few tournaments, due to travel costs and rooms.
Many players now sleep in tent city just outside the complex. It quickly fills up and when they aren't playing, many other activities are going on. RV's fill up the back parking lot and you will find the occasional pool to cool down as well.
One staple of the tournament that hopes to be back and umpire a few full games. If anyone has visited, watched or played in the tournament, they know the name Dr. V otherwise known as Mike Vasconcellos. Dr. V gets the tournament underway with e national anthem on his kazoo. A number of years a go, a stroke slowed down Dr. V, but he makes his return to Winnemucca in the third week of July.
In recent years, the tournament has added the Dawg Pound for the worst of the worst. In the past, once a team lost twice, they were out. Now, teams that lose the first two games have a chance to be the best of the worst. However, a third loss will end your stay in Winnemucca.
As of Wednesday there are 10 women's teams singed up, including three from the Winnemucca area. Three Idaho times are set to play.
Just one men's team from Winnemucca is signed up to play, with two teams from Idaho and one from California. Squads from Round Mountain, Fallon, Sparks and Reno are ready to go Friday night. As of Wednesday there are 12 teams.
The 44-Hour is played with different rules, which includes home runs being outs. Batters start with a one-ball and one-strike and a foul ball on a third strike is an out. The No. 1 rule (no whining).
