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The King of Diamonds softball team provides fun, support

J. Scott Truax
Citizen Journalist

Charlie Dobbins founded the four-man fastpitch softball team the King of Diamonds as a source of inspiration and camaraderie.

From left, King of Diamonds members Mike Branchaud, Eddie Feigner and Charlie Dobbins (cofounder of the team) play at South Garner Park in 1996. CHARLIE DOBBINS, CONTRIBUTED PHOTO

“What we ask is: ‘If you had a team, could I be on it?’” Dobbins said. “What we are saying is: ‘This is God’s team, and we’re just trying to find our place on it.’”

On one level, the King of Diamonds team is a fundraiser for the Garner Magnet High School Booster Club. On another level, KOD is entertainment. Rich Hoppe, who co-founded the team with Dobbins in 1991, is known as the world’s finest trick pitcher: He fires 85-mph pitches from behind his back or through his legs. With the team’s antics and back-and-forth banter with the crowd, KOD has been called the Harlem Globetrotters of softball.

But KOD is also about inspiring kids and teaching them important values.

“We present a message to kids that you can do whatever you want to do,” Dobbins said. “It’s about awareness, understanding the choices kids make and [understanding] that those choices determine their path[s].”

Although KOD has exceptionally talented members such as Hoppe, who is a 19-time national and world fastpitch softball champion, it does not seek to focus on celebrity.

“We’re not trying to create a cult of personality for ourselves,” said Dobbins. “We want them to see their own potential and then look to parents and teachers as their real heroes.”

The birth of the King of Diamonds

KOD grew out of another fastpitch softball team, the King and His Court, a team nationally known for its legendary player Eddie Feigner, who began it in 1946. Dobbins and Hoppe met while playing for the King and His Court team in the 1980s.

“In the 1950s and 1960s, men’s fastpitch softball was a top national sport, with the highest paid athletes in the United States,” Dobbins said. But times would change. Gradually, interest in the sport dwindled.

By the 1980s, fastpitch softball, once a center of community life in towns and cities across the country, had almost disappeared from the American sports scene. Hoppe and Dobbins looked for a unique way to continue using their athletic talents and to help kids make right decisions in their lives. So in 1991 they founded KOD.

The King and His Court team never faded away completely. Dobbins, who is the women’s fastpitch softball coach at Peace College, still plays fastpitch with King and His Court today.

Reaching out to communities

One aspect of the King of Diamonds presentation is the creation of a peace tarp that encourages kids in the audience to participate. A KOD team member first draws on the tarp the logo, a multicolored hand on top of a globe – or, as Dobbins describes it, “the hand that holds the world.” After the game, kids are invited down to the field to spray paint, graffiti-style, and sign the tarp.

“By signing the tarp, we’re asking the kids to commit to their dreams,” Dobbins said.

In 1992 KOD partnered with the Los Angeles Police Department, churches and other organizations for a “Guns for Gloves Exchange” program. KOD helped identify several crime-infested areas of the city and clean up their street corners.

KOD played exhibition innings of their fastpitch softball for seven consecutive nights as part of the program. On the last night, a game was held between the four members of KOD and a team of nine gang members and police officers.

Young people were asked to trade in guns for a baseball mitt during the program.

“We had kids 8 years of age, saying they took a handgun from their older brother,” Dobbins said. In total, 751 guns were taken from the streets and exchanged for ball gloves.

The international hit returns to Garner

KOD has toured across the US, Europe, Mexico, Canada, Australia and the Caribbean; but this year, Dobbins and Hoppe will bring the team to Garner for the July 4 weekend. The team has played in Garner before: In 1996, the Garner Area Youth Softball League sponsored them as a booster event for their softball program.

Dobbins, Hoppe, Mike Braunchaud of Cornwall, Ontario, and Chris Bowling of Durham make up the lineup this season.

“We are just ordinary guys who need a field or building to play ball. We create a moveable field of dreams,” Dobbins said.

On July 4, KOD plays at Garner Magnet High School at 7 p.m. More information can be found at kingofdiamonds.com.

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• Photos: King and His Court thrills 400

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