For at least 30 years, some of the top real estate companies on the Westside have gathered every week for a recreational softball league at the Palisades Recreation Center. In fact, one Palisadian’Gibson International’s Scott Gibson’has been a part of the league since its early days. He first got involved in 1978 when he worked for Harleigh Sandler, but notes the league was ‘going on well before I got into real estate.’ Gibson would play in the league with various teams for the next 25 years, before leaving for the East Coast in 2004. After returning in 2008, he began Gibson International in Brentwood and soon, formed his own team. ’I knew it had survived,’ said Gibson of the league while he was living in New Jersey. ‘One of the first things I did when I opened my company was to make sure I could have a team. It’s good for morale and a good way to introduce a new company for the real estate community. And it’s a lot of fun, too.’ The league meets every Tuesday at 7 p.m. and pits eight teams against each other’two from Keller Williams and Coldwell Banker and one from Partners Trust, Beverly Hills Financial, RE/MAX and Gibson. Currently, one of the Keller Williams teams sits in first, with Partners Trust in second and Gibson in third. Following two more weeks of regular season play, the top four teams will advance to the playoffs. And though Gibson notes the league is ‘good for camaraderie,’ he adds, ‘it’s still very competitive. We want to win.’ Like any softball league, this one features an assortment of unique rules. Each team fields 10 players, three of whom are women who bat third, sixth and ninth. Women start with a 0-0 count (men start 0-1); if a pitcher issues a walk to a man batting before a woman, he goes to second base and the woman is awarded first. On July 19, the Palisadian-Post caught a game at the Field of Dreams between Keller Williams and Gibson’s side. Keller Williams eventually won, 19-9, but Gibson was well represented by about a dozen friends, family and co-workers who enthusiastically cheered their team on. Gibson manned the coach’s role, though he competes regularly.
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