Our son Mat Johnson passed away Feb. 28, 2016, he would be 51 this March.(affects of years of diabetes) He played for Riverside Paving, New Construction, Wildcat Fence, and so many others. His dad Jimmy Johnson played ball for years played for Jiffy's, just to name one, he quit playing ball before he was 50.
Our son's home burned down in 2011, and all pics, and softball magazines are gone. He had a bat with his name engraved on it, his world ring also,lost in the fire. We have nothing left of his softball days. Anyone that knew Matt, and have any articles with or without pics, it would do my heart good.
Besides his family softball was the love of Matt's life, he lived to play softball. We miss the days of going, and softball was just one big happyfamily.
There is a Facebook group called Softball Community Talk, and I know that many of the guys on there played for or against those teams, and they share old pictures in it. Since I know those teams listed well, I probably met your son before. You are in my prayers.
Thank you so much Nancy, will go see if I can find anything. (also just an edit...My husband played with the guys that played for Jiffy's, they called the team "Derby Club.") Thank you Nancy and chikn55 for your sentiment.
OldTimes, if you cannot find it, we can talk offline. It looks like any of us on it can invite new members. My husband played and coached for years in the same area and was friends with Roger New. I have a very funny Riverside Paving story from a tournament in Seymour. I wish you well. It is good to keep our lost ones alive in this way.
I played with Matt in 1989 on GLASS. Matt was a great teammate and all around good guy. He always had his wife and if I remember correctly 2 little kids at all the tournaments. He could really hit a ball. I remember we were playing in Milwaukee on July the 4th and Matt got upset that they hadn't given him his weekend money yet and as much as I tried to get him to stay he chose to go home and ended up quitting the team. Turns out we never received any of our money the rest of the year as one of the sponsors quit.
I knew Matt had passed but wasn't aware of his house burning down. My wife kept a lot of stuff from my playing days and if I can find anything with Matt in it I would be more than happy to give it all to you.
KEGS
