Mike O'Connor was deemed to be too small to make his high school baseball team.  A late bloomer, he didn't finish growing until after graduation.  Too bad for his high school baseball team.   

As a shortstop for downstate powerhouse Belleville Bud, as well as the Merchants, A's, Red Wolf, and Bud Light, the Waterloo native went on to compile a .675 lifetime average, with over 400 career homers, while anchoring their infield.  Between 1982 and 1995, he helped Belleville Bud win two state championships, including the 1984 USSSA B, and finish second or third at five NITs.  His teams also competed in 12 USSSA World Tournaments, finishing second once, and usually finishing top 10.  In a 19-year USSSA career, O'Connor earned five Class A and B tournament MVP awards and six Gold Gloves.  He also won numerous all-tournament awards at state and NITs in both USSSA and other associations.  

O'Connor's determination came from playing countless backyard games with his older brother Joe.  Not only smaller but younger than his teammates, O'Connor simply made up his mind to play that much harder.  

"He never let me win," recalls O'Connor appreciatively of his big brother.  

After Joe brought Mike onto the Belleville Bud roster, Mike met another softball mentor in Larry Mohne.  Whenever Mohne observed O'Connor being particularly down after a loss, he'd take him aside and point out that the sun will still come out in the morning, and to let the bad games go.  O'Connor has only one regret in his 20 years of softball.  

"We didn't win a World," he says, "though we came close." He was referring to Bud's mid-1980s second-place finish to Powers at the B World in Rockford.  

Mostly, though, O'Connor has good memories.  "Softball has been such a big part of my life," he notes.  "I've met so many good people. Good guys, great competition. It was just fun to play."  

The "good guys" included his brother Joe, as well as Mohne, the Kreher brothers, Leon and Mike, and Jeff Davenport and Rick Beatty.  

In the past, Mike O'Connor never gave much thought to any honors me might win, let alone being a future Hall of Famer, and tended to underplay what he and teammates had accomplished. 

"We just played the game," he'd shrug. "We were good and competitive, but not great."  

Now 20 years later, he's beginning to think differently. 

"This is a real big thing," he acknowledges. "I look back, and I realize we were respected more than we knew."  Tonight, the Illinois USSSA Hall of Fame hopes to remove any lingering doubts Mike may have, as it welcomes him into its ranks.