Softball players and softball umpires both gravitate to the sport for the same reason - they enjoy the game, the camaraderie and the friendships the sport forges - many of which last a lifetime.

On Saturday, the local softball community will gather at Paddy's to honor two men - Greg Hart and Tony Luzzo - who have contributed greatly to softball in North Idaho for years and years. The open-mike festivities are scheduled to begin at 6 p.m.

Hart, a feared hitter - for home runs, and for average - is being honored for his induction into the Idaho ASA Hall of Fame, saluting a softball career which began in 1968, and is still going strong.

Luzzo, an accomplished umpire, is being honored for his years of service behind the plate - a career which began almost by accident in 1977. He says he's "unofficially officially retiring" - which means he's easing away from the game, and figures to continue to umpire for another year or two.

"Both of these guys have got a lot of respect in the softball community, and they've both contributed in a positive way to softball in North Idaho," said Steve Anthony, Idaho ASA commissioner and Coeur d'Alene recreation director.

Hart, now 60, played on state ASA championship teams in 1970, ’73 and ’80. In 1992, he played on a team that finished third in the nation. In 2004 he played on a 50-and-older team that took third at the world championships in Seattle.

In 2008, he played on a local 50-and-older team that won the ASA softball Triple Crown — western nationals, nationals and worlds.

“It means quite a bit,” Hart said of the Hall of Fame honor. “I’ve been playing a long time ... a lot of years, a lot of time and commitment. I just enjoy the game, and I enjoy the people I play with.”

Other locals already in the ASA Hall of Fame include Arnold “Red” Halpern, Joe Whitley, Dave Chapman, Dick Edinger, Ron Edinger, Loren Schmidt, Steve Anthony, Jim Edinger, Dick Raymond and Marlin Harris.

Hart, who ran track with Anthony at Coeur d’Alene High, and played summer ball with the then-Coeur d’Alene Loggers American Legion baseball team, played with or against several of those other softball legends back in the early days.

These days, most leagues limit teams to the number of home runs they can hit in a game — after that, they’re outs. In the early days, the righty-swinging Hart remembers hitting 29 home runs in a tournament.

“Greg is going in on his hitting ability,” Anthony said with a laugh. “Greg could play some defense, but his forte was hitting the ball, because they called him ‘Crush.’”

He played some third base, but the 5-foot-11, 230-pound Hart also played some catcher back in the days before it was illegal to plow into the catcher on a play at the plate.

“You had to put somebody pretty stout there because if he’s sitting there holding the ball, all bets are off, you could go in there and throw a shoulder ... ,” Anthony said. “Your job was to go in there and try to knock the ball out of the catcher’s hands, so most teams put someone back there that could hold onto the ball and take a hit.”

“I’ve taken a few of them, too,” Hart recalled.

Back in the 1980s, at a tournament in Seattle, Hart tinkered with his grip on the bat. He put the nub of the bat in the palm of his left hand, holding the bottom with the last three fingers. He said it gave him more “whip” in his swing.

Hart said he couldn’t estimate how many homers he’s hit in his softball career.

“I’ve seen you hit 200,” said Luzzo, the longtime umpire, with a laugh. “He (Hart) was fun to get along with. ‘Crush’ could put the ball out.”

Hart said he was likely part of the reason ASA changed the rule in the early 1980s to where, if you hit a foul ball with two strikes, you’re out. In the old days, you could hit as many foul balls as you wanted.

“Me and a couple other guys in town, we’d hit foul balls down at Memorial (Field), one after the other, ‘til we got our pitch, and then we’d hit a home run,” Hart said.

Anthony remembered one player hitting 17 foul balls in a row.

“I’ve hit the bathrooms before in the park (across the street from Memorial),” Hart said, which would require a right-handed hitter to turn quite a bit on an inside pitch and yank in way foul).

“It used to add 45 minutes to every game, with all the foul balls.”

Also, back in the days of unlimited arc, the good hitters would foul off pitch after pitch until they got one that was relatively flat to hit.

Hart noted that, over the years, as the bats have gotten more explosive, the balls have gotten softer. He started with a wooden bat, then progressed to aluminum, then composite, and now to graphite. But the balls, which used to be harder and stitched real tight, don’t fly as far now, he says.

“If you hit one of the old balls with the new bats, they’d go 500 feet,” said Hart, who works in the timber industry as a boilerman.

Luzzo, 59, said he’s “probably had a couple challenging moments” with Hart on balls and strikes over the years.

“I remember Marlin and I having words, and I’m sure Greg and I have had words once in a while,” he said. “But in slowpitch, you’re mostly calling outs.

Said Hart: “I used to tell umpires, when I was catching and they didn’t call a strike when I thought it was a strike, I’d turn around and tell them, ‘If that happens again, I’m going to have to step on your toes.’”

Luzzo started his umpiring career doing Little League baseball in Post Falls. He umped Little League for 20 years, umped Legion ball for a few years. He’s umped softball for more than two decades, gravitating to girls fastpitch softball in the early 1990s.

He has been Umpire in Chief for Idaho ASA District 1 the past 12 years. Before that, he was in charge of the umpires for high school ball from 1991-2002.

“Tony’s done some of the best-level ball there is,” Anthony said. “Tony’s forte was fastpitch. He did slowpitch, but he’s known more for fastpitch. He’s done some of the top ball in the nation.”

Luzzo accomplished a career goal last summer when he umpired at the ASA girls 18-and-under gold nationals in San Diego, considered the top ASA tournament.

“I’m unofficially officially retiring,” Luzzo said. “I’m giving up the administration end. Since they started Quad Park in 1987 I’ve been running the umpires every year. It’s just time for me to step back and do a little ball, and go fishing on the weekend once in awhile.”

Luzzo remembers going to his son’s Little League practice in Post Falls in 1977, offering to help coach a team.

“Well, then, that’s your team,” Luzzo recalls Ed Goodwin telling him.

“A couple of days later we didn’t have an umpire so I grabbed a mask. My dad umpired for years and I told him ‘Well, I did a game today,’ and all of a sudden it was full-on (umpiring).”

Luzzo coached Little League and Babe Ruth in Post Falls for 14 years, some of those years while also umpiring.

“Being an umpire is really a thankless job,” said Hart, who found time to umpire rec softball for a couple of years a few years back.

“I had a guy come over the fence with a bat one time when I was doing a Little League game in the ’80s,” Luzzo recalled. “He didn’t like a call — not my call, but my partner’s call. We had to finally call the police.”

Added Hart: “I was doing two or three games one night and this one guy thought I made a bad call. People on both sides thought it was a good call, but this one guy thought it was a bad call and started arguing with me. I told him, ‘I don’t have time for you right now, I’ve got another game, and if you still want to talk to me, meet me on the other side of that fence out there by the street when I’m done with this one.’”

Was he there?

“No,” Hart said.

Fortunately, they said, those incidents are rare — everyone has to get up and go to work the next morning, the umpires like to remind the players — so most players temper their competitive juices with a dose of reality.

“Sometimes you have to be a teacher of the game too,” Hart said. “I was doing a co-rec game and this girl, when she would come up to bat, she would stand right on the plate. And I would take her and move her back into the box, and say you have to stay right here in this chalk box. And you’re always reaching down, and it’s usually a girl in co-rec catching, and you always have to reach down and grab ‘em by the back of the shirt and pull them back a little bit, tell them you’re getting a little too close (to getting hit by the bat).”

Luzzo says he’s helped players learn how to swing the bat.

In general, if an umpire is consistent with their ball/strike calls, and makes the effort to get into position to make calls on the bases, they usually don’t encounter any trouble with players. Except for that one time ...

“I was doing a game at Quad Park once years ago, a weekend tournament,” Luzzo recalled. “I’m out in the infield, the shortstop is SUPPOSED to throw home. We’ve got a runner not even halfway home; we’ve got an easy out. It’s a relay from the outfield, and he (the shortstop) turns and wheels to first and drills me in the side of the head. Because I’m where I’m supposed to be ...”