Stephanie Sheff

#31 - C (profile)

Stephanie was one of the team’s charter members and played in the taxmen’s first-ever game on April 24, 1996 against the Bisons at Shea Park in East Hartford.

When the DRS team was first formed, Stephanie, along with co-worker Marjorie (McCoy) Terry, were both recruited by fellow Refund Unit employee Jerry Zayas, who had been one of the first players to sign up to play on the fledgling team. Later, when the team captain, Jim Chakulski, transferred to the Refunds Unit, the work area became the hotbed for DRS softball. (Of course, Annette D’Onofrio, the unit’s stern and strict supervisor, would come to hate all the water cooler conversation that went on during the mornings following one of the taxmen’s games. When players from other areas swung by to say hello, she literally chased them away.)

In her first game, Stephanie had an adventurous stint in right field before the DRS captain quickly learned she was better equipped to play as a catcher. Stephanie had never played softball before, and did much better behind the plate. In her first game as a backstop, she surprised her teammates (and herself) by ranging over and catching a foul pop-up against the fence behind home plate.

Stephanie is probably best known for looking impeccably fashionable at the field. She always wore matching warm-up suits in a variety of colors, and regardless of the condition of the infield – dry, dusty, damp, or muddy – never seemed to get so much as a speck of dirt on her tidy ensemble.

Stephanie only played one full season with the taxmen before moving away to Georgia. After a year away, she returned to Connecticut and played once in 1998 and once in 1999, but has never really had the time to rejoin the team on a more permanent basis. She is still on the team’s email list though, and continues to be kept up to speed on the latest game results.

Overall, Stephanie played a total of 12 games, scoring 6 runs, and rapping 6 base hits.