Our Name

Longshots??

Why Longshots Baseball?

As a few of the original coaches were building this 1994 version of a Downers Grove-based travel baseball team, fresh off a disappointing 2nd place finish in the Illinois Little League State Championship, then-coach Jim Iwanski suggested the name Longshots.

After considering many of the usual types of names, Jim suggested we model ourselves after the 1991 16" Softball Men's National Champs, Longshots Softball.  We laughed a bit about it, and as the discussion wore on, he talked about the Longshots being more than just a successful team...  and that we had a lot in common.

The Longshots 16" softball team was formed in the late 70's by a group of college and HS players who were also brothers and friends.  The name was certainly appropriate as they bellied up against more experienced and powerful men's teams early on.

After a difficult first year, the Longshots softball team came back the next year and learned to play together... to play with and for their teammates... and to compete to win as a team.  And win, they did - winning league championships and tournament championships for over a decade, and eventually, earning national championship qualifying spots over time.  All the while, they kept the same core players for most of the 14 years, playing together as long-term teammates on their way to a 1991 USSSA National Championship... competing against the best teams... all-star teams made up of "highly incented" players.  Today, Longshots Softball is a member of the 16" Softball Hall of Fame.

This all sounded a bit like what we were up against as we built the Longshots Baseball program in a pretty hostile environment.  But it worked.  When we first showed up on the local and national scenes, other teams were puzzled, or even laughed about the name... this little unknown group from Illinois.  As we continued to have success in national tournament venues like Oklahoma, Florida, Tennessee, East Cobb... the name became the brand we hoped it would be.  People didn't question it anymore... they knew who we were and what we were about.

The Longshots Baseball name represented a group of players who had to earn everything they got.  Teams knew we would be tenacious and compete... winning or losing, we'd play hard every inning... and we'd do it together.  We'd play the game the right way, respecting it, and our competition.

Today, we are still unique and different - and we try to be that way.  We work very hard to be successful, but humble and proud as well.

We are proud of our name, and what it stands for today.  Our players "get it", college and pro guys "get it", national ranking services "get it"... and our opponents, both local and national, "get it".  It's actually a pretty cool name.