North Shore’s favorite son, and retired Judge, was honored in January at the Texas USSSA Hall of Fame Banquet and Induction Ceremonies held at the Dallas Marriott South Hotel.
Mike Parrott was recognized as being in the Top 100 Greatest Softball players nationally by the USSSA softball association. His career in adult amateur softball competition spans from 1975 to 1983, and then two returns from retirement in 1987 and 1990.
Parrott’s awards are many, including in 1980 leading the nation in home runs, with 323. In his career he garnered 61 awards for his home run prowess and in tournament play.
Parrott attended Galena Park High School, and was an outstanding athlete in Football, Basketball, and Baseball. He also was a University of Houston graduate, where he played football. But he only played Softball after a friend asked him to fill in at a game, in 1975. As he told it, “I could play baseball so I thought I could also play softball, even though I never had.”
His abilities with a home run earned him honors in at least 8 All-Star teams over the years. He still holds the record in the Coca Cola Classic, played in Georgia, with 25 home runs in one weekend.
Over his career Parrott played for teams in Houston, Pasadena, Oklahoma City, North Caroline, Miami, and Lufkin, Texas. Parrott worked for Harris County for 43 years, first in the Pct. 2 Parks Department, and then in 1992 was elected as a Justice of the Peace. He retired in 2016, and with his wife Deby has two children and four grandchildren. He is well known in North Shore for the number of civic organizations he has headed, or been involved with, including the 100 Club, PTA, Chamber of Commerce, Optimist Club, Boy Scouts, YMCA, Shrine Club, 33rd Degree Mason, Masonic Builders Award, twice a Rotary Paul Harris honorary fellow, and chairman of the board of the HCA Hospital-Southeast.