Excerpt from The Loner

 

Excerpt from The Loner 

The Jacksonville East Lawn Cemetery is located four miles north of town. Maggie’s grandparents are buried there. In the near future, Charles and Catherine Haggerty will join Maggie. My parents are there, too. One hundred steps to the northern corner of the cemetery. My grandparents, on the other hand, never ventured far from Benton. Their final resting place is only three miles from the old dealership.

With a slight breeze at my back and the early morning sun reflecting off my face, I looked south across the valley. Back in the early 1950s, you could locate the old farmhouse in a fraction of a second.

Not anymore. New homes now filled the valley, all the way to the forest line. I stood next to Maggie’s gravesite and looked south, following the tree line to the old railroad track — the stretch of track I hopped and skipped my way to town on as a young boy.

Some say you can never go back. I think that might be true, although I do not have a clue who made such a claim.

I remember the hunting and the fishing. The yellow bus I took to school. The old high school basketball gym and those awful, prehistoric, oversized leather balls we used to play with. I remember cruising up and down Main Street, pulling into the drive-up hamburger joint, and ordering just about everything on the menu at one time or another.

Life was so simple then, long before I boarded that runaway train and never returned.

Note: All my books are free to read on my blog. Search for The Loner, The Legend of Bucket Smith, The Dancer, Where Eagles Fly, and Billy's Victory in the February/2026 issues. Happy reading!

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  Priceless Captures Photography by Amelia

Tucson Old Timers at mid-point of 59th season

 

The 60-and-over Tucson Old Timers (TOTS) are at the mid-point of their 59th season. The amateur baseball organization has been around since 1968, and here in 2026, they are still swinging away as 35 players between the ages of 61 and 88 saw action during the hot month of June.

The club owned a combined .428 batting average in June, collecting 230 hits in 538 official at-bats. Randy Livingston led the club in hits with 20, Doug Harding in runs-scored with 13, and Jon Beady continued his assault on TOTS pitching with a .783 batting average, going 18 for 23, and was the club-leader in RBI with 12.

Five newcomers also entered with a bang in June. Scott Bultman went 10 for 20, Paul Montes went 5 for 13, Don Halla went 4 for 14, Dave DeChamps received his TOTS hat and went 6 for 11, while Michael Price, the newest and youngest member of the club, went 5 for 8. The five rookies combined for 16 RBI.

Three pitchers, Glen Vann, Mike Dawson, and Joe Opocensky, posted 2-1 records for the month. Dawson logged the most innings with 28. Opocensky was the strikeout king with eight.

Father's Day and baseball

 "Hey, Dad, You Wanna have a catch?"

Another Father's Day is just a few days away. During three of my favorite baseball films, The Field of Dreams, The Natural, and For the Love of the Game, there is one constant, one moment when the hero of the film has a 'catch' with his son.

I'm in the midst of my ninth decade on this earth. I've put a baseball in the hands of both of my sons, my three grandsons, and two of my great-grandsons.

From the desk of Great-Grandpa Dan

Photos: Top photos 1) My two sons at the Field of Dreams Tournament in Iowa in September/2025; 2) Dan and son, Michael, playing in 2012 with the Orioles of the Tucson MSBL; 3) My youngest son, Dan, and his son, Chase, getting ready for school.

More photos: 1) Dan Sr. (80) and Michael (61), on the day of the first game for Michael as a member of the 60-and-over Tucson Old Timers. Photos 2 and 3) My great-grandson Braven at a Rockies game and with his first glove; 4) My grandson, Daniel, with his son (and my oldest great-grandson), Fallon, playing ball at a park in Colorado; 5) My oldest son, Michael, with his son Jadon, now 26, at Chase Field; 6) The oldest baseball player that ever lived with grandsons, Chase and Daniel...and a very special photo of my to sons, Michael and Danny, Annie and me...and the last photo (7) of my sliding grandson Jadon Price, who went from club ball, to high school ball as a centerfielder for Tucson Ironwood Ridge High School eight years ago.

Under the Ramada, 2026

The Boys of Summer, winter, and fall are still swinging the bat at Udall Park.

A bunch of Tucson Old Timers gather under the Ramada or grab a chair and sit behind home plate at Udall Park after their Friday morning games.

They meet after a 60-and-over baseball game. They pop a beer can or two, talk about the close plays, the booming hits, the dropped fly balls, the errant throws...well, you name it -- everything (I mean everything) is open for discussion.

The two dozen or so old-time ball players -- some with dust still clinging to their uniforms, some with bloody knees and skinned-up elbows -- range in age from 61 to 87. Baseball, America's favorite pastime, is generally the first subject discussed as the old timers try their best to recall stories of yesteryear -- back in the day, back when the LA Dodgers were the Brooklyn Dodgers and the San Francisco Giants were the New York Giants, back in the day when players like Willie Mays, Willie McCovey, Mickey Mantle, Duke Snider, and Henry Aaron led their teams to victory.

The players discuss what it was like going to a game at Ebbets Field, Fenway Park, Camden Yards, or Wrigley Field.

Some of the old timers tell of the day when they were just a youngster, with a bag of popcorn in one hand and a soda in the other, as Ted Williams stepped to the plate in Boston or Ernie Banks knelt down on one knee in the on-deck circle in Chicago, or when Pete Rose went 5 for 5 in Cincinnati, or when Hoyt Wilhelm unleashed a knuckleball in Baltimore.

The conversation moves on to "life in general" -- to such things as my first car, my first truck, my first job, the worst job I ever had, the best job I ever had...or there was a time I froze to death in Pittsburgh, Buffalo...or how I survived a cold and windy day at the ballpark in San Francisco...in Milwaukee, Cleveland or Chicago.

The old-timers will outdo one another with stories like I walked five miles to school -- in a driving rainstorm, or snowstorm, or drove to my first job with ice covering the front windshield. They will recall their first week at boot camp...when they got out of the service...their first day of college...the day they met the gal they would marry...or the day they walked down the alter with the confetti swirling above them as they hopped into a convertible and sped off with nothing more than a handful of dreams and a goal or two, written on a piece of paper and tucked away in their pocket.

The Tucson Old Timers are now 50, 60, 70, and, in some cases, 80 years old. They recall when they were young ballplayers, quick with the bat and quick to the ball. Now, in 2026, they grab a beer and toast one another.

"Nice hit today! Good throw! Way to run!"

They had survived the game. They had survived a lifetime.

And they aren't done yet.

Amelia's photos in Yellowstone

 More photos from Amelia. She has the world by the tail.

 Priceless Captures Photography by Amelia

The Boys of Summer at Udall: TOTS May stats

Tucson Old Timers (TOTS)

60-and-over baseball

The Boys of Summer at Udall Park, better known locally as the 60-and-over Tucson Old Timers, just completed a busy month in May, logging 13 games in 29 days as 42 members -- including a couple of rookies and a new father-son combination-- combined for 362 hits in 796 official at-bats for a club batting average of .455.

The usual suspects led the way with Randy Livingston (top photo) collecting the most hits (25 for 41 and the most runs scored with 16, while John Mathews was the top RBI-man with 14. Mathews maintained a .724 batting average in 11 games (21 for 29).

Joe Opocensky, 76, and Danny 'Pigpen" Price, 80, were the two most active players as both played in all 13 games. Opocensky went 22 for 44, a .500 average, while Price managed to collect 32 at-bats and had eight hits. The TOTS 'real' oldtimer, 88-year-old Ted Roberts, who doubles as the club announcer and scorekeeper, came off the bench and went 3 for 16.

Other super seniors (75-and-over) who hit the ball well during May included Bob Daliege (15 for 32) and Mike Steele (12 for 27).  Other notable hitters in the 60-and-over crowd included Mike Dawson (20 for 37), Sam Dean (18 for 30), Tim Tolson (16 for 36), and Reed Palmer (15 for 21).

Making noise at the plate in seven games or fewer included Dan Gruneisen (above photo), who went 17 for 25, David Musavi (13 for 20), and rookie Paul Montes (shown in photo below), who went 10 for 13 in six games while wearing an old crash helmet. Montes received his share of jibes from the dugout, but the helmet seemed to help in his view of the pitches thrown as he batted a hefty. 769.

As for the new father-son combination, that belongs to Pigpen Price, who turns 81 on July 2, and his son, Michael, 61 (pictured above in the sweater). Michael is just getting his feet wet as the newest member of the club and went 3 for 10, with a double and three RBI in his first week.

Another newcomer this month is lefty Scott Bultman (pictured above Michael), who is starting to hit the ball with regularity. Bultman, 67,  went 13 for 34, a .382 average.

The two pitchers shown in the photos above continue to be the workhorses on the mound for the TOTS. Glen Vann went 3-1 in May and recorded the most strikeouts (13), while Dawson logged the most innings (41) and was second in strikeouts with 12.

Way to go, TOTS! And now, June awaits! 

Congrats to the TOTS' new father-son combination, Dan 'Pigpen' Price and Michael Price (photo below), only the second father-son combo to play on the TOTS at the same time in the history of the organization (1968-2026).

   

A new father-son combo with the 60-and-over Tucson Old Timers

Tucson Old Timers (TOTS)

60-and-over baseball

Finally, the second father-son 60-and-over combination to play for the Tucson Old Timers. The first: Brad and Tim Tolson. Today at Udall Park: Michael Price, 61, and Danny ‘Pigpen’ Price, 80. Michael needs two more games and approval from the organization to make it official. Michael would then become the youngest member of the TOTS, and the old man will reach 81 on July 2 with 19 years with the organization.

Photo: Michael and Danny 'Pigpen' Price