16th Annual IBEW 9th District Softball Tournament

Local 1245 Business Rep. Mike Saner.

OK, there is no way around this. It was HOT.

In fact, it may have been the hottest day of the year when players took the field for the 16th Annual IBEW Ninth District Softball Tournament on Aug. 11. The two-day event, held this year at Manteca’s Big League Dreams Park, drew IBEW Local 1245 teams from PG&E General Construction, Modesto Irrigation District, Turlock Irrigation District, and a combined team from PG&E and Wellington Energy, which advanced to the finals on the second day.

Fifty-three members of Local 1245 registered for the tournament, a sizeable increase over last year, according to Business Rep. Elizabeth McInnis, who helped organize our union’s participation in the tournament.

Stan Nelson, President of IBEW Local 180, and Local 1245 Assistant Business Manager Ralph Armstrong.

“The members put their own teams together. This gave everyone an opportunity to bring their families, so there was a lot of children out there, and wives and girlfriends.”

Besides the tournament itself, union members found time on the side to play Cornhole, a horse-shoe type game played with bean bags. And on Saturday night, everyone came together for drinks and dinner at a banquet set up at Big League Dreams Park.

“This is a great way of bringing union members together from the various locals to talk and exchange ideas,” noted Local 1245 Senior Assistant Business Manager Ron Cochran.

It was a family event for MID’s Mike Gomes.

IBEW Local 441 of Orange County won the tournament. Along with the victory comes the right to host the tournament next year.

McInnis said Local 1245 looked forward to fielding teams for that event as well. “Each year we can only get better. This being only our second year we did pretty good,” she said.