Herman Vaught, born in 1946, Evansville, Indiana. Came to California in 1960. One of seven children, three brothers and sisters, all reside in the mid west.  I went to school at Leuzinger High in Lawndale, California and UCLA.  I then entered the Army in 1963, served all of my time at Fort Leonard Wood Missouri, and was a drill instructor for basic training.

I married my beautiful wife, Gerri in 1977, and between us have three children and 4 grandchildren.   We have resided in La Mirada, California since 1977.  Gerri and I met and both worked at Northrop Grumman.  I worked in the Subcontract Management organization and Gerri worked at the corporate offices as an executive administrative assistant, Gerri retired after 32 years and I recently retired after 43 years, we both worked in Saudi Arabia (1979-1981) while working with Northrop.  One of our most memorable activities at Northrop was working on the B2 Stealth Bomber.

Organized sports came to me later in life than most, I played in my first softball league at the age of 27, and naturally I fell in love with the competitiveness of the sport and the camaraderie of the players, and started playing tournament level softball in my mid thirties.  The first team was with the Rookies with Tom Carter as manager.  I learned a lot about the game and players and continued tournament level play through my early Forties, until I got burned out. I restarted playing a few years later at the urging of my son Jim, and we played in various city leagues around Brea and Fullerton.  I was just turning 50 and figuring my time was about to come to an end when a gentleman came up to me one night while playing in Fullerton and introduced himself as Lee Miller,  Lee simply said hey, aren’t you turning 50 this year (to this day I have no clue how he knew) my response was a simple yes does it show that much.  Lee laughed but was persistent in his pursuit that he was with a team that I would fit in with real well and that the guys were great players and good guys to be around.  I had no clue just who they were but had directions to show up on a Saturday in Long Beach and he would introduce me around.  Saturday came and I went to the park and met a guy named Dennis Lew, this experience was one that I shall never forget, went hitless in my first 8 at bats in fact none left the infield but the folks on that team were wonderful no one said a single negative thing and all welcomed me to the team. The team Fatcola had more than made me feel welcome, they in fact inducted me into their family.  My experience with Dennis and the guys re-energized my thirst for softball.

I played for 6 years with Fatcola than played with D&K managed by Larry Littlejohn for another 6 years, and I am currently playing with the Bickerton’s Softball team managed by Ross Bickerton.

I’m very competitive but feel it has been controlled over the last few years by the collective friendships made with all the guys, don’t get me wrong while on the field it is business as usual. I love the game, but enjoy the friendships I have made so much more!