NSA Hall of Fame: Rick Weiterman (1998)

CATEGORY: Player

YEAR INDUCTED: 1998

Throughout America’s slow pitch community, Rick’s name is synonymous with “champion.” Playing at the highest level of the sport, he traveled the country with some of the greatest slow pitch teams ever assembled and won numerous national titles, professional championships and world titles with other softball organizations.

Among the legendary teams he starred for were Steele’s Sports and Steele’s Silver Bullets, Elite Coatings,

Ritch’s/Superior, Team TPS and Milwaukee’s Copper Hearth and Schlitz. He was named All-Pro in the American Professional Slo-Pitch League from 1979-82.  In 1979 with the Milwaukee Schlitz he won regular season MVP honors and was also the batting champion. He hit .791 in that year’s APSPL World Series to earn another MVP award while leading Schlitz to the crown.

Thirteen years later his Ritch’s/Superior outfit steamrolled to the slow pitch version of the Grand Slam. A left-handed hitter with power, he concentrated on lashing line drives and getting on base for the big bombers that followed him. Rick’s lifetime batting average of .760 demonstrates how successful his approach was. “He made an out or two a week,” said one of his former managers, with only a slight bit of exaggeration in mind. On the defensive side, many slow pitch observers considered him to be the best pitcher in the United States at the height of his remarkable career.

In November 1998, Rick Weiterman was inducted into the NSA Sports Hall of Fame in the Player Category.