Big Al's and Aer Lingus Flyers

The Aer Lingus Softball team was founded in 1986 when an Aer Lingus mechanic went to New York on holidays and came home with a softball glove and ball. He issued an invitation to anyone who knew how to play to set up a team. Another mechanic had a wooden softball bat. Somebody else chipped in 4 car mats as bases. After the initial confusion of how to play the game ("What do you mean we ALL need a glove? We only have one!") the Flyers softball team was founded.

In the beginning, we played on what is now the site of hangar six at Dublin Airport. Bicycles marked the outfield, and dead balls occurred when the ball hit the runway, or a passing aeroplane (we actually played inside the airport grounds back then). (Actually, we’re only joking about the runway/aeroplane thing, but it sounded good). Fortunately, the Aer Lingus Sports and Social Club, ALSAA, gave us a dedicated pitch far, far away from the damage we could do to the runway, erected a backstop, and left us to our own devices.

Back in 1986 there were few softball teams in Dublin - the US Embassy and the Canadian Embassy often had softball challenge matches, and many US companies based in Ireland, also had softball teams. The Flyers were one of the first teams in Dublin, and we played a team from Datalex, a US company, every two weeks. Passers by joined in and eventually created their own teams. Very soon the IBSA (Irish Baseball and Softball Association) was founded and a league was established.

The Flyers reigned in the first division of this league for many years, and many other teams came along, eventually widening the league to 6 divisions in 1998. In 1993, Aer Lingus expanded to two teams - the Flyers and the Jets, in keeping with the airline spirit. We often wondered what we would call a third team - the Aer Lingus Turbo Props just didn’t have the same ring to it. Fortunately, this never happened. The Jets disbanded in 1995, with the Flyers continuing to bounce between the first and second division of the Leinster League for many years.

The Flyers, despite our record, have been one of the most active teams in the league. We host the longest running tournament in Ireland - aptly called the Aer Lingus Blitz - which celebrated it’s 11th successful year this year. We also run the "Gender Blitz" an all guys and all girls tournament, a fun day and for which the Flyers punch has become famous. This tournament is running 7 years now. We believe it is impolite to win your own tournament, so the Aer Lingus record is zero at these tournaments. This, of course, has nothing to do with our playing ability.

The IBSA organise a number of softball tournaments over the softball season (April to September) which the Flyers always participate in. Despite our record at our own tournaments, the Flyers have played competitively in IBSA tournaments, reaching the semi finals on a couple of occasions and the final once.

The Flyers, by our nature of being an airline team, travel to any foreign tournament we can. We have played in an inter airline tournament in Long Island, NY, for the past 10 years and, we have travelled to many tournaments in the US, the UK, Jersey (Channel Islands) and Europe.

These days the IBSA has become the IBSF and softball is thriving in Ireland with 64 teams playing in the Leinster Softball League. We became the Big Al's flyers this year when an enormous sponsorship contract was negotiated, but unfortunately our fab new gear doesn't make us play any better.