Steele's Softballs
- Thread starter qdup
- Start date
swingnmiss
#1 IN YOUR HEARTS
I don't know who made them but their SkyHawks were hard as an f'ing rock. We were hitting them 400' with Damarini Ultimate Distances back in the day. Our sponsor would bring a duffel bag full of bats to tourneys, so when flattened one, we could just walk over and get another one. They were hell on bats.
swingnmiss
#1 IN YOUR HEARTS
Steele's made some great bats for those balls too. The XLT was about as good as any bat and had great durability.
phoenix26
<font color="#228B22">SBF Fund Donor</font>
All so true. Showing your age my man
When Twin Creeks in Sunnyvale, CA opened
up here in the mid 80's they used that ball for
a couple years.
We went to see the Steele's team once and got
a hold of a couple of the HR balls. Marked B100
Those were even harder than the ones we used
in league and tournaments.
Bobby Buggs
SBF Site Sponsor
Steels made their own balls for a while. Ask the Big Cat Mike Macenko, he was doing them back in the day.
swingnmiss
#1 IN YOUR HEARTS
The Macenko 844 XLT was one of the first bats I bought. It was a sweet bat.
GrinningBear
World's deadliest house husband
Gah! Some of you are missing an 'e' and should know better.
Steele's made their own balls and bats for years. I think by the time Reda took over the balls were being made overseas and who knows on the bats. Steele's left a bunch of equipment in the factory when they were closing up.
The balls they used in their stadium exhibitions were not a full 12" and the cover was ridiculously tight. Anything from that time period was crazy, though. The exception would probably be one labeled "non-elastic core" that felt like it was covered in a thick rubber. Blech.
I hit leather Skyhawks with the original silver and black XLT. Good god the ping.
Steele's made their own balls and bats for years. I think by the time Reda took over the balls were being made overseas and who knows on the bats. Steele's left a bunch of equipment in the factory when they were closing up.
The balls they used in their stadium exhibitions were not a full 12" and the cover was ridiculously tight. Anything from that time period was crazy, though. The exception would probably be one labeled "non-elastic core" that felt like it was covered in a thick rubber. Blech.
I hit leather Skyhawks with the original silver and black XLT. Good god the ping.
swingnmiss
#1 IN YOUR HEARTS
Did you prefer the gold and black or black and silver XLT? Remember the "Grip Of Steele" bat? Had an axe handle shape.
GrinningBear
World's deadliest house husband
Black and silver by a landslide. Not just for the ping. Black and yello...gold was bauxite. Not as good as aluminum. Although the black and silver was pretty much disposable.
I have several axe-handles. XXLT-G is the blue one. Thinnest walls of any of the XLT doublewalls. That's why they dented so fast.
swingnmiss
#1 IN YOUR HEARTS
I liked the silver and black better too.............I also liked their doublewall "Alien XLT" when it came out. It killed the ball we hit back in the day and didn't fold like an Ultimate Distance.
The BP Hero
Addicted to Softballfans
OP should make mention that this thread has a minimum age requirement of 45
swingnmiss
#1 IN YOUR HEARTS
......................In snow, barefoot.
STEELES: they were out of Brook Park, Ohio. along I-480 I live in Pittsburgh which is less then 2 hours away.
The neat thing about Steele's was they had a big quanset hut at their showroom were you could take swings with
the bat that you were interested. They could make it any weight or double wall on the spot.
Their double walls had a little gold sticker on them, and if you played in a league that crapped if you had a double wall
it could just be peeled off. My favorite was the Alien, I hit some tape shots with that.
(a little brag post) I was at a tourney last Summer watching my grand children play, and one of the guys there recognized me
and recalled one I hit against them years before. The guys would make it a point to stop by to say hi, and every greeting
would start with, "remember the one you hit over the creek!" My grandkids were unbelivably impressed.
I played in 1959 and still play now. One thing that ever made me sad in softball was Steele's shutting down.
The neat thing about Steele's was they had a big quanset hut at their showroom were you could take swings with
the bat that you were interested. They could make it any weight or double wall on the spot.
Their double walls had a little gold sticker on them, and if you played in a league that crapped if you had a double wall
it could just be peeled off. My favorite was the Alien, I hit some tape shots with that.
(a little brag post) I was at a tourney last Summer watching my grand children play, and one of the guys there recognized me
and recalled one I hit against them years before. The guys would make it a point to stop by to say hi, and every greeting
would start with, "remember the one you hit over the creek!" My grandkids were unbelivably impressed.
I played in 1959 and still play now. One thing that ever made me sad in softball was Steele's shutting down.
Wolfynuts24
Jagoff
Zuke where did you play and where do your grandkids play ball?
mightymike
Addicted to Softballfans
Steele's softballs were made first in Taiwan and then in China. The majority of the bats were made by AMM (American Modern Metals) in Kearney, New Jersey. We had other bat manufacturers make bats for us also. Bauxite is is an ore used in the manufacture of aluminum. The first ones we had made called Bauxite were unbelievable bats. They produced 12 of them. I used the bat half of the season of 1987. For whatever reason they could not make that bat as good as the first 12. They made them and they played pretty good but not like the first 12. The XLT's were great bats. The Gold ones were just as good. We sold many of the Grip Of Steele's. I used one bat in 1990 that had a 14 inch barrel, a gold XLT. Still have that bat hanging in the garage. A ball manufacturer named Andy Kou in Taiwan made our balls for the longest period. Hope this helps.
Mighty Mike Macenko
Mighty Mike Macenko
Bobby Buggs
SBF Site Sponsor
Mike I thought you guys used to make balls in the back of the warehouse
mightymike
Addicted to Softballfans
Yes Bobby I use to run a Polyurethane machine at Steele's. I actually made 10,000 softballs at one time. The shipping of the balls over to Taiwan and then getting them stitched took too long for us at the time. We were selling a lot of softballs and it was cheaper to have them to do it. Also we bought 25,000 softballs from Wilson (TN-Poly's) and took the labels off with thinner.. The machine I ran cost 100,000 that Steele's bought from a company in Kansas City... I have been involved with softballs since 1982. It was a great time...
Mighty Mike Macenko
Mighty Mike Macenko
swingnmiss
#1 IN YOUR HEARTS
I watched you play at Pearl Harbor back in the late 80's. I want to say '88 or '89........Afterward I spoke to you and asked you what the "844" on the taper of your bat was for. You said, "That's how many homeruns I hit last year with a bat that length and weight......." I bought one on the spot for $125, which I thought was an astronomical price.....One of the very best bats i've ever owned and I'm certain that if I hadn't loaned it to my brother inlaw and he hadn't lost it. I'd probably still own it. Tough as nails.
phoenix26
<font color="#228B22">SBF Fund Donor</font>
Those were some of the hardest balls ever IMO.
I remember a couple of them had the cover (leather) completely
ripping off on about 75% of the ball & still as hard as a rock.
WOLFYNUTS 24: I'm from Brookline, I used to run that weekend league years ago at Moore Park, we had 30 teams from all over.
Now I play at North and South Parks in their senior leagues. I do a little open stuff too. Those kids are fast, I envy them.
When I run they time me with tree rings. I promised myself to never turn 70 again.
At Westinghouse I played with a leagand from out your way, Jack Frey. they used to say, "Zuke and Frey, and an RBI"
I always said about Kirby Puckett, "Anyone 5 feet 7, 215 lbs. shaves their head, can't be all bad" that's what I look like.
We probably played against each other at some point. I played guys that told me, " your Zuke, you played with my grandfather."
Now I play at North and South Parks in their senior leagues. I do a little open stuff too. Those kids are fast, I envy them.
When I run they time me with tree rings. I promised myself to never turn 70 again.
At Westinghouse I played with a leagand from out your way, Jack Frey. they used to say, "Zuke and Frey, and an RBI"
I always said about Kirby Puckett, "Anyone 5 feet 7, 215 lbs. shaves their head, can't be all bad" that's what I look like.
We probably played against each other at some point. I played guys that told me, " your Zuke, you played with my grandfather."
Wolfynuts24
Jagoff
I'm still a young man but I've been playing for ten years all around pittsburgh so I'm sure we've played somewhere lol
Wolfynuts24
Jagoff
I've played in little Boston, frick, North park, westview, south park, pleasant hills, Clairton, Dan Marino, Neville island, N Versailles, Braddock hills, west mifflin, Blawnox, Penn hills, dravosburg, Forrest hills, monroeville, and a few others lol I'm sure we've either played together or have seen each other. I'm 5'7" 195. I've got long hair and look like mufasa from lion king. You'll know when you see me. Lol
wolfynuts 24: I found a photo of me taken this past summer up at north park with the n. park seniors.
log on to "northern allaghany county senior softball league" go to the photo gallery i'm exposier 11.10 green shirt , short sox
I've played in all of those places you mentioned at Boston I hit one to the river. Yhe guy who had the rasturant on the other side
would put out a spread for both teams after every game there for the senior leagues.
I'm a glutton, the rest of the guys were drunks.
log on to "northern allaghany county senior softball league" go to the photo gallery i'm exposier 11.10 green shirt , short sox
I've played in all of those places you mentioned at Boston I hit one to the river. Yhe guy who had the rasturant on the other side
would put out a spread for both teams after every game there for the senior leagues.
I'm a glutton, the rest of the guys were drunks.
Wolfynuts24
Jagoff
Cool man. I'll have to check it out.
mightymike
Addicted to Softballfans
Does anybody remember the Wolf Pack field in New Kensington? Now there was some serious softball played there in the 1970's. BYM had a team that had players like Dave and Roger Snatchko. They had one player that I thought had the coolest name for a softball player. His name was Red "Killer" Kowalski... We played Sol Mintz there for 5,000.00 for one game. We lost by 2 or 3 runs. Use to have some serious crowds there too....
Mighty Mike Macenko
Mighty Mike Macenko