13 Indy men are headed to Gay Softball World Series. One says 'this team saved my life'

INDIANAPOLIS — Jon Brenes was drifting and he was depressed. It was 2014 and Brenes had moved from Puerto Rico to Indianapolis to take a job in marketing at Eli Lilly. For months, he smiled at work, he laughed and he was the eternal optimist.

Marketing, after all, meant putting the company's best foot forward, showing the positives, smiling.

But at night, when Brenes went home, all he felt was sadness and frustration.

He was 1,900 miles away from his native Puerto Rico. He didn't know many people. He hadn't "come out" in the Indianapolis community.

"I was not living my truth," said Brenes, 42. "I was pretty much a very shy person. I knew that I was gay, but I didn’t want to share that. I ignored that part of my life."

Then one night at a party, a friend turned to Brenes: "Hey, do you play softball?"

Did he play softball? Yes. Brenes had played a lot of softball in Puerto Rico. The friend asked Brenes if he could fill a spot on his team the next day. Of course, Brenes told him.

"And oh, by the way," his friend said. "It's a gay league."

A gay softball league. The weight began to lift off of Brenes' shoulders.

'You could be yourself'

Brenes showed up to the Circle City Pride league the next day in Indy and he played softball with abandon. Brenes loved the camaraderie of the team almost more than the game.

"You could be yourself and you were not judged," he said.

After that game, Brenes joined the league's Indy Naptown Sluggers, an LGBTQ+ softball team that travels the country and represents Indiana in tournaments. 

As he played week after week, as the team got together for beers, as friendships grew, Brenes said he was finally living his truth. The sadness dissipated.

"I felt so grateful for what they had done," said Brenes. "My softball team saved my life."

The Sluggers are among more than 1,000 teams and 17,000 players who are part of the North American Gay Amateur Athletic Alliance (NAGAAA). The organization's mission is to give "the LGBTQ+ community a place to participate in organized softball competitions in a safe environment."

A culmination of that mission happens each summer when teams from 48 cities in the United States and Canada converge for the Gay Softball World Series. It is a competition of each city's best teams, a series that dates back to 1977, when two teams from gay bars in New York and San Francisco played a best-of-5 series.

Forty-five years later, the Indy Sluggers are going to the Gay Softball World Series in Dallas. This isn't their first appearance. In the D division, the Sluggers are a team to be reckoned with, a team the series has its eye on.

In recent World Series appearances, the Sluggers were fifth in the nation in Kansas City and in the Columbus, Ohio, series placed in the top 16.

"Now, we're kind of known," said Brenes, who is also the Sluggers' coach. "People are expecting a lot from us, which is a lot of pressure."

Thirteen men make up the Sluggers team going to the World Series. In past appearances, the Sluggers have had women and people who are transgender.

"It doesn’t matter your sexual identity or your gender orientation; however you identify yourself is fine," Brenes said. "We just care about how you can play. If you can hit the ball, let’s go. If you can throw the ball, let’s go."

And that's how the "token straight guy" landed on the Sluggers' team.

'This guy's pretty good'

Chris Parker was playing softball on the south side of Indy four years ago and, unbeknownst to him, a fellow player was watching him.

"This guy's pretty good," Brenes said to himself. He asked Parker to join the Sluggers. A competitive softball team? Of course, Parker said yes.

In his four years on the Sluggers, Parker has come to be known as the team's "token straight guy." Of the 13 men headed to the World Series, Parker is the only one with a girlfriend.

Brenes knew players of any sexual or gender identity were eligible to play on NAGAAA teams that first time he watched Parker play. And Parker had exactly what the Sluggers needed, an aggressive guy with experience.

Parker quickly became the highest-rated player on the Sluggers team, which is no surprise to teammates who know his history on the field.

Parker was 6 years old when he first started playing baseball. He went on to play for Cathedral High School as a catcher, where his team won a state championship in 2007.

He passed up an offer to play college baseball to focus on academics at the University of Evansville. He soon got into the softball scene, playing on and off for different teams.

When he started with the Sluggers, Parker realized this team wasn't just recreational. It was intensely competitive and he liked that.

Parker, 33, who works in cyber security, mostly plays third base, but sometimes shortstop or first. This will be his third World Series for the Sluggers.

"This series, it lets people across the country, not just in Indianapolis, test their skills against people all over the United States," Parker said.

But beyond that, he said, the World Series is about making new friends and seeing that there is a whole community of LGBTQ+ players who, like Parker, just love to play softball. A community that has been around for 45 years.

'Sport for gay and lesbian jocks'

It was 1977 and, in Indiana, the law said it was no longer a crime to be gay. That same year, the first Gay Softball World Series was played.

The tournament came about on a whim when owners of bars in New York and San Francisco frequented by gay men, many who played softball, had an idea.

In the summer of 1977, the Ramrod team from New York headed west to play the Badlands in San Francisco in a best-of-5 series. The Badlands won and the Gay Softball World Series was born.

The NAGAAA was formed as the parent organization for not only the Gay Softball World Series, but LGBTQ+ leagues and teams throughout the nation. Cities quickly began to join and softball was established as the premier gay sport.

"It’s hard to overstate the importance of softball and the Gay World Series to gay sports history," wrote Dawn Ennis on Outsports.com, a news site that focuses on LGBTQ+ issues and personalities in sports. "For years, gay softball was about the only game in town for gay and lesbian jocks."

It gave that community a place to be themselves, a circle of friends and a stage, finally, to play the sport they loved.

"If gay sports has its founding fathers, it’s people ... who formed the first gay softball leagues," Ennis wrote. "And that bicoastal series in 1977 that turned into a legacy."

The Gay Softball World Series is the largest, annual, LGBTQ+ single-sport, week-long athletic competition in the world. It will take place Aug. 29 to Sept. 3 in Dallas. The tournament features teams from five divisions, A, B, C, D and E.

The Indy Sluggers represent the D division, which Parker calls a step up from the E division, made up mostly of newcomers. "D is where it starts to get pretty competitive," said Parker. "C, B and A, those are ridiculously competitive."

But it doesn't matter what division they are in, the Sluggers play all out, not just for the win, but for what their games represent.

"What this shows," Brenes said, "is sports really can bring people together."

'You meet people from different walks of life'

Donnie Ritzline started playing softball when he was 17 in Columbus, Ind. His dad was big into the sport. The extended family formed a team and they were pretty good.

When Ritzline found the Sluggers, he found a team that was perfect for him, competitive and made up of allies. Ritzline is the team's NAGAAA representative this year and what he represents, he said, is much more than softball.

"I'm a white man that just happens to be gay," he said. "There is just so much out there we don’t see. This brings a lot of communities together and that is super important. You meet people from different walks of life."

Ritzline is a consultant for Baker Hill in Carmel. He is engaged to Don Bruns, his partner of more than eight years. On the field, he usually plays outfield, but because of his experience can play just about any position -- except pitcher.

"Nope. The ball comes back," Ritzline said, laughing. "It comes back toward you too fast."

But that competitive play is what Ritzline loves. And he loves that the Sluggers, his team, is the team representing Indiana in the Gay Softball World Series.

"It really is an amazing experience to be there," Ritzline said. "To be there seeing all these people coming together."

Love on the field

Softball saved Brenes' life. And softball turned into something much more.

He met his partner and fiancée, Cory Davidson, competing in the 2017 Gay Softball World Series. "Softball brought us together," Brenes said.

Davidson was playing on an opposing team and the two started talking. Soon after, Davidson moved to Indianapolis.

"He's my rock," Brenes said. And Davidson is also his teammate. Davidson plays outfield for the Sluggers and is a designated hitter.

Brenes can't stress enough what this softball team has done for him. He is happy, happier than he's been in a long time.

"This is my community. This is my family. These are the people I trust," he said. "Everybody feels comfortable with each other, everybody respects each other. We truly play with pride and we do it because we love the sport."

Help the Indy Sluggers get to Dallas

The World Series in Dallas is a weeklong tournament, which means out-of-town flights for the Sluggers as well as hotels, food expenses and time taken off from work.

The team tries to defray the costs through fundraising throughout the year. But for the most part, the Sluggers front the cost themselves.

"We are a self-funded team, in a sense," Brenes said. "Everything we get, we work for it."

While cities such as Dallas often raise as much as $50,000 for their teams, the Sluggers have, at most, gotten a couple of thousand dollars, said Brenes.

For its 2022 World Series trip, the team has started a GoFundMe page to help with costs.

"As you may realize, the expense to travel and fees is a lot, so we are asking friends and family to help us achieve our goal," the page says. "Be part of our journey. All contributions are welcomed and appreciated."

"Any little bit helps," said Brenes.

Follow IndyStar sports reporter Dana Benbow on Twitter: @DanaBenbow. Reach her via email: dbenbow@indystar.com.