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Joey Stankowski at bat
Free Soil Township resident Joey Stankowski, a former standout Mason County fastpitch softball player and Mason County Central High School alumnus, will be inducted into the USA Softball Michigan Fastpitch Hall of Fame Saturday, Sept. 26, in Midland.
Stankowski, 63, is in his sixth year teaching social studies and science to third- through fifth-grade students at Walkerville Public Schools.
His induction will place him alongside his father, James “Potsie” Stankowski, and brother, Jimmy Stankowski, in the hall of fame. All three were pitchers, though they also played other positions.
James Stankowski, now 91, began pitching while serving in the U.S. Army at Fort Hood, Texas. He later managed the successful teams on which his sons and nephews played. He was inducted into the Michigan Fastpitch Hall of Fame in 2005.
Jimmy Stankowski, 62, was inducted in 2025.
“I was born into fastpitch,” Joey Stankowski said. “Actually, it is my Mom (June) who takes credit for starting me out. She started pitching to me at age three. But it sounds like it took me a while before I could hit anything.”
Fastpitch softball flourished in Mason County from the 1960s into the early 2000s. At its peak in 1982, the area had six men’s fastpitch leagues and one women’s league.
Joey and Jimmy Stankowski grew up watching their father play and became batboys as soon as they were old enough. Before they could join organized leagues, they played pickup games with cousins Ken, Rick and Greg Tyndall.
Joey Stankowski, a Mason County Central High School alumnus, also played on successful MCC baseball teams.
As the Stankowski brothers developed as fastpitch players, their father sought increasingly difficult competition. Their teams traveled across Michigan to play in Midland leagues and competed in tournaments nearly every weekend during the season. They even played exhibition games against teams at correctional institutions.
The Stankowski family became closely associated with one of Mason County’s most successful fastpitch teams, Schoenherr Investment, which was later renamed Flora-Craft at the sponsor’s request.
The team won state championships and advanced to national tournaments in 1988, 1990, 1991 and 1992. The 1990 team was also among 30 teams that advanced to a world tournament in British Columbia, Canada.
At the 1988 national tournament in Las Cruces, N.M., Schoenherr Investment finished 10th among 48 teams while leading the tournament in home runs and team batting average.
Stankowski with one of his students.
That 1988 team was inducted into the Mason County Sports Hall of Fame on June 27.
“It was great to see former teammates again because we went through a lot together,” Stankowski said. “When 12 of us flew to Las Cruces for nationals, I think it was the first time 10 of us had ever been on a jet plane. Softball was our ticket to seeing new parts of the world.”
Stankowski played shortstop when he was not pitching. Three shoulder surgeries eventually forced him to move to third base. Additional surgeries led him to retire from competitive fastpitch softball by age 30.
The Schoenherr Investment/Flora-Craft team produced six members who have been inducted into the USA Softball Michigan Fastpitch Hall of Fame. In addition to James, Jimmy and Joey Stankowski, teammates Greg Melchert, Harvey Miller and Tom Paul have also been inducted.
– Story contributed by Tom Page, West Shore Educational Service District.
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