San Antonio League Blossoms with 500 Players

Dec. 1, 2013

Softball News Report

The San Antonio Senior Softball League has now grown to 30 teams playing in five different age divisions (50+, 60+, 65+,70+, 75+) and with more than 500 senior players it may be the largest program in the country.

The league has three seasons (spring, summer, fall) and three league tournaments from March-mid-November every year.

Operating as a charity, the league keeps its fees low so that any senior can afford to participate. There is no paid staff. Volunteers do all of the league’s administration including scheduling, accounting, databases, finances, etc.

The league does pay its umpires and a groundskeeper.

The league has open practices three times a week all year in which both new and league players can hone their skills. Teams also hold their own practices.

The league is growing 10 percent or more every year as interested seniors find out about the program from word-of-mouth and stories written in the Express News, said league officials.

The league has never used a draft to allocate players to teams. Instead managers recruit players for their teams. To level out competition, the league uses a team-rating system and equalizer runs.

Bill Altman, San Antonio Senior Softball League chairman, reports that it signed a 10-year rental agreement with the city of San Antonio in 2009 to use two fields at the Normoyle Softball Complex to conduct our program.

“We took over fields that were in deplorable condition and converted them into two regulation softball fields. We raised money through donations and player fees to make more than $60,000 in improvements,” he said.

In return for the improvements, “the city gave us rental credits, which we used to offset all field rental. Rental credits have paid for all field rentals since inception of our contract and we have enough credits to carry us to term of the contract. We also expect to make additional improvements in the next year,” he added.

For more information, go to www.sassl.org for details on the league including a brief history, purpose, active schedules, league standings, and board members.