Nicky Lopez grew up on 16-inch softball.
Long before the Naperville native turned White Sox infielder dug his cleats into Chicago’s South Side, his weekends were spent watching planes fly low over a softball diamond in Mount Prospect, carting bats taller than him around from inning to inning, traveling to tournaments in Chicago’s Grant Park and suburban Forest Park.
He still remembers the smell of players rubbing Tiger Balm on their sore and stiff muscles.
Now Lopez, 29, is coming full circle with the game. And in more ways than one.
Thursday marks the debut of the Nicky Lopez 16-inch Softball Charity Classic. Starting 5 p.m. at Chicago’s Mount Greenwood Park, the inaugural tournament will feature 16 teams duking it out to raise funds for local youth fighting cancer.
The tournament’s winning team will be invited to take batting practice at the White Sox’s Guaranteed Rate Field.
The event is the realization of an idea that Lopez and his wife, Sydney, have been holding onto since his first years in the majors with the Kansas City Royals, Lopez said in an interview, noting he’s long wanted to host a charity event with ties to Naperville.
But it’s also an homage to family roots that far predate Lopez’s professional career.
Lopez’s dad, Bobby “Lopes” Lopez, is a 16-inch softball hall of famer. He played the game for 20-some years. Lopez grew up tagging along.
“I grew up idolizing my dad,” Lopez said. “He was my role model. … I grew up — every single weekend, every single week — going to his games.”
Since he was a kid, Lopez had an honorary place in his dad’s sport. He’d shag fly balls for his dad during practice and helped out as his bat boy during games.
“I just followed him everywhere he went,” Lopez said.
His dad happily obliged.
“It was outstanding,” Bob said, speaking by phone. “I have three boys — my sons Bobby, Anthony and Nicky. And then my wife, Angela. They knew the passion I had for playing 16-inch softball, and they let me live that out.”
Bob, who still lives in Naperville with Angela, started playing 16-inch softball when he was about 18 years old. He was pulled into the game, a Chicago-born pastime defined by its larger softballs that are slung, caught and slammed with no gloves or mitts, by his brothers.
“A bunch of my brothers actually got a team (together) called ‘The Family.’ That’s how it started,” he said. “And then as time went on, I kept playing.”
During his softball career, Bob bounced around a few different teams, collecting an impressive litany of accolades along the way. Of his tenure, Bob recalled winning a string of national titles on a team called “Lettuce.” He later went on to play for — and succeed with — another team known as “Licorice.” All the while, his family was right there with him.
“They were a big part of the team too because everyone just liked that they were around and on the bench cheering us on,” Bob said. “It was fun.”
Lopez says his dad’s career helped feed his own personal ambitions on the field. When he was younger, he didn’t want to be a police officer or an astronaut or any of the things that wide-eyed kids usually aspire to when they’re little, he said. He wanted to be a baseball player.
“I was always that kid that was in the backyard … arguing with fake umpires and imitating batting stances of professional players,” Lopez said. And it was “following my dad (that) kind of made that a dream of mine,” he added.
For Lopez and his dad alike, finding a way to weave their 16-inch softball history with Lopez’s career today — on Chicago’s South Side of all places, just 50 minutes from where he first made a name for himself in baseball at Naperville Central High School — is the stuff of dreams.
“Being a Chicago guy my whole life and putting down our roots here … it’s surreal,” Bob said. “I mean, I never expected that to ever happen in my lifetime.”
To Lopez, Thursday’s tournament is “kind of like the perfect match,” he said.
Add in the fact that he can do the event for charity, it’s all the more meaningful.
“Every single year, I try to do something that’s community driven,” Lopez said. “I’m given a platform as a big league baseball player. A lot of people look up to guys like us so it wouldn’t be right if I didn’t use this platform for good.”
Lopez joined the Sox hoping to leave his mark on the local community, according to Christine O’Reily, executive director of Chicago White Sox Charities. When he was traded to the team last fall, he “came already with a repertoire of community engagement,” O’Reily said.
“We were able to just tap into his enthusiasm, and it really just took off from there,” she said.
Part of that enthusiasm has included the continuation of a community outreach program focused on supporting youth and families facing hardship, called “Nicky’s No. 1’s,” which Lopez started when he was on the Royals. Since joining the White Sox, Lopez has held “A Day with Nicky” at Guaranteed Rate Field for the Boys & Girls Club of Chicago and visited patients at the Rush University Children’s Hospital.
Speaking to the latter, O’Reily said, “We just couldn’t get (him) out of there. We were like, you’ve got to go, you’ve got a game today.
“I think there’s such a genuineness about him, and Sydney too really,” she said. “You can just see that it’s really meaningful to them to really leave a mark with people and on people, and it’s not just a cursory … quick handshake and have a nice day.”
That’s evident in the charities Lopez chose to benefit from Thursday’s tournament. Proceeds will go to three area organizations: the JWEGSTRONG Foundation, the Andrew Weishar Foundation and Chicago White Sox Charities. In keeping with the personal feel to his inaugural classic, Lopez has close ties to the nonprofits.
The JWEGSTRONG Foundation was named after Naperville Central graduate Justin Wegner. A classmate of Lopez’s and fellow ball player, Wegner died of cancer in 2019. Lopez says that with every charity event he holds, he tries to give back to the foundation created in Wegner’s honor, which supports cancer research at Howard University Hospital in Washington, D.C., and the Robert H. Lurie Children’s Hospital in Chicago.
Similarly, the Andrew Weishar Foundation, which strives to ease the financial burden of young adults battling cancer, is also named for someone known by the Lopez family. Andrew Weishar was a classmate of Lopez’s brother, Anthony, at Illinois Wesleyan University. He died of colorectal cancer in 2012.
“These two (foundations) are near and dear to my family,” Lopez said, “so it was a no-brainer to help them out.”
Lopez, along with his family — Bob included — will be in attendance Thursday. His dad won’t be playing but his brothers will have a team going, Lopez said. Of course, he’s rooting for his family to do well, he said, but there may be some tough competition.
“I know there are some teams … being made where there’s tryouts involved,” Lopez said. “So it’s going to be special.”
Meanwhile, Bob said he just wants “a good showing.”
“I’m excited to just go out there and watch some good softball,” he said.
Though retired from the sport, and not one for running these days, Bob assured he’ll be making his rounds Thursday.
“I’m going to go to different teams,” he said. “I’m going to walk around and see how good these guys really are. I’ll be the judge of that.”
