Hall-of-Famer keeps giving back

Determined to help youngsters, never forgetting there were no organized activities for kids when he grew up there, Herb Wisdom is hoping friends, neighbors and fans of Wisdom’s Caf/ down in Tumac‡cori will want to help him help them.

Si Senor fast pitch softball, based in Tubac, is inviting all those who want to help Herb continue his Little League, basketball, softball and scholarship programs in the Amado, Tubac, Carmen and Tumac‡cori area to their “home run evening” at Wisdom’s Sunday, March 30.

It’s a “triple play” of food, drink and music, with the “first pitch” thrown out for the open bar at 4 p.m., followed by his signature steak chile relleno and tamale plate with the famous Wisdom’s fruit burro for dessert.

The donation means great food, drink, live music, plenty of good conversation, and the opportunity to provide positive activities for youngsters who otherwise might take more negative paths in life.

“The kids without help are going to end up in trouble,” said the owner of one of the oldest cafes in Arizona.

Herb Wisdom’s parents opened the restaurant in 1944 in the house where he was born to mostly ranchers and cowboys. In fact, his father Howard, a good roping cowboy himself, built an arena right next to the caf/ that attracted rodeo champs from all over Mexico and the U.S.

A star athlete at Nogales High School, Herb was recruited for football and basketball at Northern Arizona University and the Anaheim Angels signed him to a AAA contract in 1964 after he played in the Philippines with the same Navy Seal unit trapped in the Bay of Pigs in 1962.

A motorcycle cop in California, he broke all his fingers and earned lots of scars from sliding spikes catching the world famous Eddie Feingner of “King and his Court” fame, no doubt the best ever fast pitch softball artist who barnstormed the country using only four players, beating entire teams, striking out batters behind his back, between his legs, and from second base.

Returning home in 1979 with wife Irene to reopen Wisdom’s, Herb has tried to keep fast pitch alive in the area, heading up Si Senor and bringing teams to Tubac from all over the country for exhibitions.

Si Senor will play in four sanctioned tournaments in the U.S. and Canada, as well as the ISC World Tourney in Wisconsin in August. They have played in 24 consecutive world tournaments since the team was formed in 1982.

This summer he’ll host teams from Houston, Southern California, and Hermosillo, Mexicali, and Tijuana, Mexico.

Using his own money and elbow grease, Wisdom has somehow found time to try to get two fields in Tubac for softballers and Little Leaguers to use.

“When I was growing up, there was no Little League here,” said the man who most don’t realize has quietly given to many of the poor working families in the Tubac/Amado area whenever they asked him.

His fundraisers and T-shirt and hat sales at the restaurant have sponsored Little Leaguers, an intramural basketball team for teens who didn’t make the high school teams but still want to play, sent kids to baseball camp and softball players to tournaments, and provided scholarship money for needy students trying to earn a college degree.

He featured Luz Gallegos, among six in his scholarship program, in his Si Senor yearbook, a young lady from the area who graduates from Apollo College this year because of his financial help.

Over the years Herb’s held car washes, golf tournaments, dances, rummage sales ?— you name it — raising enough to give hundreds of kids a chance to play who might not otherwise have been able to.

A recent golf tournament brought in enough to provide a couple of basketball goals for the minister at the Lutheran Church in Rio Rico to help him start a youth sports program.

“I remember when we had no place to play,” he said. “We were promised a park here in 1952. It never happened.”

Wisdom, a member of both Arizona and Mexico’s softball halls of fame, is single-handedly spearheading an effort to develop TACT Park (Tubac, Amado, Carmen, Tumac‡cori), a facility that would feature a Little League/softball field with dugouts and bleachers, a soccer field, playground, walking trail and ramada.

He believes it can be done for $65,000 with a lot of volunteer help, since water lines and restrooms are already in place.

That way he could run a four-team Little League locally without families having to send kids to Sahuarita or Nogales, and he could create a club team that could travel to other places.

“These are kids, for the most part, that wouldn’t have anything else,” he said.

Anyone interested in attending the $50 per plate fundraiser should simply call Wisdom at 398-2397.

Mike Touzeau is a freelance writer for the Green Valley News.