Chicago Softball Hall-of-Famer Salvador ‘Buddy’ Ganir dead at 74 - He will be cremated and his ashes placed in a 16 inch Clincher softball... which will be batted out to Lake Michigan

Sal Ganir broke half of his fingers over the course of his life, but it didn’t matter.

As long as he could play 16-inch Chicago softball — which he did from age 16 into his 60s — he was happy.

For many years, Mr. Ganir played for the Dwarfs, a team that dominated the diamonds at Clarendon and Kelly parks. Between 1968 and 1973, he pitched the Dwarfs to 25 park district championships, according to the Chicago 16-inch Softball Hall of Fame, to which he was inducted in 2012.

He had a lifetime batting average of around .560, said his son David, and hit more than 200 home runs and scored over 2,500 runs.

Fellow Hall of Famer Don DeBat, a former Chicago Sun-Times editor, called him “one of the most competitive sports personalities I ever played with or against.”

“He really pounded the ball,” DeBat said.

He could also hold his own at trash-talking and umpire-arguing, according to DeBat, who said, “He wanted to win.”

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