CARL'S CORNER - INSPIRATION ON THE SENIOR DIAMONDS

May 1, 2011 – Carl Gustafson CA Regional Tri-Director (San Diego)

The difference one notices first between Little League and senior league is that people actually attend and watch Little League games.

The largest crowds I’ve seen in senior leagues are when the other teams in a tournament have an hour off and nowhere to go. I’ve seen many a lonely world championship because all the losing teams went home.

Children are hopeful bundles of unfulfilled dreams. They play with a sense of wonder and still believe in a future with the Yankees or Dodgers. Their cheering parents, now relegated to the rote of ordinary vicissitudes, have transferred their own hopes into the dreams of their progeny.

Old men have unenviable futures.

After senior ball comes death, and before it declining skills, heart attacks, and bone on bone joints.

It’s obvious why no one wants to share this dream.

But I’d like to point out that senior softball may be among the most fascinating human endurance testimonies in our society.

Many players in Southern California play up to six times per week. Some days include double headers. Many of these same players go to tournaments and play five to eight games on a weekend, and in big tournaments play up to five games in one day if they are coming through the loser’s bracket and at times in 100 degree heat.

I know players who play 200 to 300 games year in and year out. Not stand around baseball either, where players wait long periods between pitches and might get a hit or two that runs them 90 feet. We have scores in the 20s and score every inning because the ball is always in play.

Major league baseball players have a 162 game schedule and few play every game. They get months off and are pampered in elaborate locker rooms full of hot tubs.

This senior softball brotherhood is a rare breed, precious few our age can run a single step without pulling a tendon and nursing homes are filled with guys our ages and younger.

So I applaud and salute you because the rest of society will never see you play or know of your amazing deeds on the diamond.