{"id":20947,"date":"2013-05-28T19:06:11","date_gmt":"2013-05-29T02:06:11","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.fastpitchwest.com\/?p=20947"},"modified":"2013-05-28T19:06:11","modified_gmt":"2013-05-29T02:06:11","slug":"area-softball-great-rich-plangger-dies-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.fastpitchwest.com\/?p=20947","title":{"rendered":"Area softball great Rich Plangger dies"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Click<\/a>
Click logo for original news story at the Herald Palladium, Benton Harbor MI<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

From the Herald Palladium, courtesy of Scott Plangger<\/em>
\nBy BEN SANDERS and JASON MITCHELL – HP Staff <\/em><\/p>\n

Rich Plangger built his own team, park and legacy in Southwest Michigan softball.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Plangger, whose Plangger\u2019s Furniture team competed in numerous state and national men\u2019s fastpitch softball tournaments, died Saturday at Caretel Inns of Lakeland at age 90.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe was just a great guy,\u201d said Fred Chabot, who played first base for Plangger\u2019s Furniture for more than 20 years. \u201cHe\u2019d do anything for you, anything for the team. He was always there. Prompt. He\u2019d get mad if you were late. He wanted you there an hour before the game.\u201d
\nPlangger\u2019s Furniture sponsored a team beginning in 1956. The team usually featured a Plangger in the pitching circle \u2013 either Rich or one of his two sons, Rick and Scott. Plangger also had a daughter, Jill. His wife, Ruth, died in 2000.<\/p>\n

Plangger\u2019s Furniture competed in a variety of tournaments at the state and national levels, some years playing more than 100 games, and won the International Softball Congress state championship in 1985.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe had a great team,\u201d Chabot said. \u201cIt was an all-local team. We had the best pitcher with Ricky (Plangger).\u201d<\/p>\n

Rich Plangger was inducted into the Michigan Amateur Softball Association Hall of Fame as a player in 1983. He continued to pitch even beyond that, exceeding his own expectations.<\/p>\n

\u201cHow many years I can pitch, I don\u2019t know,\u201d Plangger said in a 1962 News-Palladium article, when he was 39 years old. \u201cI\u2019d sure hate to quit though.\u201d<\/p>\n

In 1973, he built Plangger\u2019s Park in Benton Township to give his team a home field. The park also was home to the Lake Michigan College softball team for several years.<\/p>\n

Plangger helped LMC host the NJCAA national tournaments in 1985 and 1986.<\/p>\n

In 2007, he was inducted into the Lake Michigan College Athletic Hall of Fame as a contributor and volunteer.<\/p>\n

In 1994, Plangger\u2019s Furniture didn\u2019t field a team for the first time in 43 years, citing a lack of players in the area.<\/p>\n

\u201cI never played for a better sponsor,\u201d Chabot said. \u201cHe\u2019s done a lot for the community. He kept the sport going a long time.\u201d<\/p>\n

Chabot and his sons, Browning and Brent, sponsor the Smalltown softball team, which plays at Plangger\u2019s Park.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve got a league going and it\u2019s pretty good,\u201d Chabot said.
\nPlangger\u2019s Park has also hosted the Rich Plangger Invitational men\u2019s fastpitch softball tournament the past two years.<\/p>\n

Email: sports@TheHP.com<\/p>\n

Twitter @HPBenSanders @HPJasonMitchell<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

From the Herald Palladium, courtesy of Scott Plangger By BEN SANDERS and JASON MITCHELL – HP Staff Rich Plangger built his own team, park and legacy in Southwest Michigan softball. Plangger, whose Plangger\u2019s Furniture team competed in numerous state and national men\u2019s fastpitch softball tournaments, died Saturday at Caretel Inns of Lakeland at age 90. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":20943,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[22],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-20947","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-people","8":"entry"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fastpitchwest.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20947","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fastpitchwest.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fastpitchwest.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fastpitchwest.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fastpitchwest.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=20947"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.fastpitchwest.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20947\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":20948,"href":"https:\/\/www.fastpitchwest.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20947\/revisions\/20948"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fastpitchwest.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/20943"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fastpitchwest.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=20947"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fastpitchwest.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=20947"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fastpitchwest.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=20947"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}