A year later, softball player returns to tournament that brought him fulfillment

By Dave Mondt, Staff Writer

Friday, Jan. 13, 2017 | 2 a.m.

It was Jan. 6, and Jackie Pass was bouncing between rooms at Centennial Hills Hospital.

Her husband, Joe, was admitted Dec. 31 for pneumonia, and complications were threatening his life. Now, her son Shawn Dunlap also was hospitalized, for severe headaches that for weeks had been plaguing him.

“I was trying not to make my mom worry, so I had been downplaying it,” remembered Dunlap, a bar manager at the Fun Hog Ranch, a local LGBT hot spot. “My stepdad was checked into the hospital but he had already been in and out of quick-cares for being sick for a couple of weeks. When I finally ended up going to the hospital instead of an urgent care, I was pretty worried. I knew my stepdad was already in ICU upstairs and they still weren’t sure what was wrong. Having to tell my mom that the hospital was now admitting me overnight was really tough because I knew she’d be freaking out. I kept trying to act like it wasn’t a big deal and assure her there was nothing wrong, although I was getting a bit scared at that point myself.”

Dunlap would make a full recovery after a brief stay — and a week later, play the softball tournament of his life in the Sin City Shootout, the largest LGBT sports festival in the world. (This year's tourney, the 10th annual, is this weekend at various parks across Southern Nevada.) But that night, Jan. 6, 2016, when he was released and took his mother home, they were called right back to the hospital. The events unfolded in slow motion for mother and son as they watched Joe slip away. The official cause of death was sepsis, at 2:42 a.m., Jan. 7. He was 44. Jackie and Shawn were devastated.

“We had the most amazing, wonderful marriage in the world,” Jackie Pass says. “We never fought. Always told each other ‘I love you’ and we always held hands, even if it was just to watch TV.

“He supported Shawn and my other son, Charlie, in anything they did. He loved to watch Shawn play softball. And he was very proud of both of his boys. He called them his sons. They had a great relationship. He taught Shawn how to play darts, and they even played on a dart team together and came in first place.”

For at least two years, Joe and Jackie Pass regularly showed up to the Las Vegas Gay Softball League’s games to watch their son’s team, the Lightning. Joe and Jackie became mainstays at league events and house parties.

“These are the most amazing people I have ever met in my entire life,” Jackie Pass says. “Their kindness, the heart they have shown me and my entire family … they are not just a bunch of guys playing softball, they are heroes. They have more love, more heart than anybody I know. I just don’t call them my friends, I called them my family.”

This time last year, Jackie needed all the support from her extended family she could get. Distraught at the untimely death of her husband, she leaned on her son and friends, and found emotional refuge in the dugout of a softball field at Arroyo Grande Park in Henderson. She and the players of the Lightning, though shaken by the loss, still had a tournament to play. Their coach, Kevin Lecik, had wristbands made with Joe’s favorite number, 21, to serve as a reminder for the team that this tournament was different.

“My teammates were amazing during this time,” Dunlap recalled. “The day after Joe passed, a bunch of people came over to our house just to have drinks because they loved Joe and wanted to show their support. There is nothing better than having friends there to drink with when you’re having to deal with such a painful experience. I knew that our team was going to wear a sweatband in honor of Joe. I wasn’t expecting the other teams to do it as well. That was a really cool experience. You just can’t describe how it feels looking around and seeing all this support.”

A week later, it was time to hit the field.

“Emotions during the Shootout last year were all over the place,” said Frank Maione, one of Dunlap’s closest friends. “We had dedicated the Shootout to Joe. As each inning went by, we reminded each other to keep Joe in mind. Each hit, each inning, each win we focused on the fact that this was more than just a tournament. It helped ground us.”

The Lightning won their first three games, then lost a close one Saturday night to drop into the losers’ bracket. A tournament championship would mean starting at 8 a.m. the next morning and winning nine consecutive games with little or no break, including two wins against whatever undefeated team would come from the winners’ bracket.

One by one, the dominoes began to fall. There was the three-run comeback win in the last inning. Then a one-run win in extra innings. And another. A loss in any of those close games and the tournament would be over, but as the team won close games, the players’ focus intensified and their confidence grew.

“You joke with friends about how cool it would be to pull something like that off and I used to joke about the Cinderella story in many tournaments before,” Dunlap said. “You always kind of believe your team can do it, but I think I knew there was something special about our group.”

And suddenly, steeled by the frigid cold but warmed by the presence of Jackie Pass in their dugout cheering them on, the Lightning found themselves two wins away, facing the L.A. Cartel — the defending champion in the C division.

“The one thing I can say about Shawn during this tournament is that he was focused,” Lecik remembered. “He didn’t let his emotions get the best of them. He channeled those emotions and turned them into determination. … His focus and determination made all of us play better.”

For the Lightning’s players, it was an almost out-of-body experience. One by one, they strode to the plate and belted line drive after line drive, each seemingly harder and faster than the one preceding it. They performed at a level above themselves, cleanly fielding balls that on a normal day might get by, and letting loose with fly balls that carried just a little farther on this night.

The Cartel trailed by 15 runs before its players could get their bearings, and the Lightning earned the first victory via mercy rule. They won the championship by forfeit when the opposing coach decided it was not in his team’s interest to play a second game against the Lightning.

“The best memory of the tournament is after every win, Jackie would come down into the dugout and give each of us a kiss on the cheek,” Lecik said. “That made us just want to play even harder. I still get a little choked up thinking about it.”

Editor’s note: Dave Mondt, an editor at Greenspun Media Group, is a member of the Las Vegas Gay Softball League.