Is it worth the price?

I woke up this morning. That's a good thing. But as I rolled out of bed, I first felt the soreness in my right shoulder. I tried to pinpoint the ache as I used my left hand to massage a spot or two, then I realized the arthritis in my left thumb was acting up and for a split second the pain in my shoulder went away as I quickly grabbed my wrist with my right hand.

I then put both feet on the floor only to receive a shock wave that extended from my toes up to my ankles.

I'm just three weeks away from a trip to Phoenix to compete in the 2009 Men's Senior League Baseball (MSBL) World Series, and in my mind,  I'm faced with the thought: will I be able to run, hit or throw? What's my problem?

I guess it's the fact I'm 64 years old and I should put a stop to the idea that I can beat back the clock.

But, awaiting me, in Phoenix, is 3,200 players and 340 teams--and they all have rosters filled with "over the hill" athletes who still play for the love of the game. I have friends who have told me on more than one occassion,"Give it up fool, you're crazy to play baseball at your age!"

Maybe...just maybe, this will be my last hurrah. My heart doctor shakes his head, but encourages me to persevere. Just 21 months ago I left the hospital after surviving a quadruple bypass. After getting all the morphine and a dozen other medications out of my system, I began to walk around my neighborhood, a month later I began rehab and exactly four months after my heart attack I was back on the field playing baseball.

I recently read an article about the baby boomers generation and how all the ERs across this great country of ours has seen a 47 percent increase in activity from that age group (44-62). I guess I'm considered a late-bloomer at 64, but I'll add myself to the group...who cares?

Even after writing this article, I'm still committed. I'll still take the field in October and chances are I'll meet plenty of players with the same aches and pains as I have. We'll shake hands after each game and maybe even discuss the reasons why we battle "father time" and all our injuries to play the game we love. Let's play ball!

Photo: Above photo is yours truly...awaiting my first MSBL World Series.

Fire out...Wind hobbled...Earth moves...

In the Stands Report by Bookemdano: A few weeks back a lot of preseason hype hit the media outlets regarding the Arizona Wildcats' 2009 football team.

Personally, I guess, you'd have to say this blog was just as guilty as the others as I picked up on the humorous report out of the Wildcats' locker room regarding Earth, Wind and Fire, the temporary nickname issued to a trio of running backs--Keola Antolin, Greg Nwoko and Nic Grigsby.

Antolin the "Wind" is now hobbled with a leg injury and Grigsby,  the "Fire" who came out smokin' with 400 yards rushing in the Wildcats' first three games, has now fizzled and is out indefinitely after he went down with a shoulder injury, following his only carry in Arizona's 37-32 win at Oregon State last Saturday. But it looks like Nwoko, the "Earth," finally got his opportunity to do his thing as he accounted for 120 all-purpose yards (44 rushing and 76 on pass receptions) at Corvallis to help lead the Wildcats to their third win of the season, and more importantly, a Pac-10 win on the road.

Kwoko, a freshman tailback, supported quarterback Nick Foles debut as a Wildcats' starter by hauling in four passes at Corvallis, including a 52-yard completion -- and he also recorded a 19-yard, second-quarter rushing TD, his first of the year.

Wildcat note: Thank goodness for a bye week. The injuries are mounting for the Wildcats. Rob Gronkowski is  out for the season. My favorite, Bug Wright, out with a knee injury. Grigsby and Antolin missed entire second half at Corvallis with leg injury. Brooks Reed out with an ankle sprain.

The list goes on...

Twenty two minutes in Iowa...not enough

In the Stands Report by Bookemdano: The trip from Tucson to Iowa City takes about three hours if you're lucky enough to latch on to a direct flight. A cab ride from the airport to Kinnick Stadium might take a shade over 30 minutes.

A football game last 60 minutes and if your team expects to win, they'd better be in possession of the ball for a good chunk of that hour. Twenty two minutes is not enough time to bring home a victory.

That is exactly what happened to the Wildcats Saturday afternoon in Iowa City as the Iowa Hawkeyes held on to the ball for 38 minutes and knocked off Arizona, 27-17.

The loss dropped the Wildcats to 2-1 on the season. That's the bad news. The good news: it is only Week 3 of the 2009 season and the Wildcats start anew with Pac-10 action starting next Saturday in Corvallis against the Oregon State Beavers.

It is an hour and 45-minute plane ride from Tucson to the great Northwest. The football game is an hour...the clock is ticking on the Wildcats.

Buddy clears the bar...

Back in 1965, his friends called him Buddy.

Most of his fellow students at Frank M. Black, a middle school on the outskirts of Houston, Texas, knew the young man was destined for greatness. Bubba Sparks, a five-time All American pole vaulter and a three-time national champion who starred at Southwest Texas State in the 1970's, commented recently on his blog that Buddy was one of those kids in school that makes you stand up and take notice.

"I began vaulting at the age of 12 with the stud of our junior high school team. He was much more developed than us, and he pointed his toes going over the bar. He was our hero! I mean this guy could vault like we could only dream...and looked great doing it.

"I remember that he had a bit of a temper when things didn't go exactly as he hoped. At first I was mystified but then I realized that was why he was truly better than we were. I tried to be like Buddy and promised that no matter what, I would never give up and that I would not accept failure as a permanent destination."

Sparks took what he saw in Buddy and applied it to his own life. Now at the age of 56, Sparks is still vaulting and will be representing the USA at the Sydney 2009 World Masters Games next month. As for Buddy, he passed away yesterday at the age of 57.

People all over the world know him not as Buddy, but as the famous actor, dancer and songwriter Patrick Wayne Swayze.

Toros fold cards; Diamondbacks awaiting final shuffle

The professional baseball season in the state of Arizona for 2009 will be over in three weeks. And we can then sit back and watch the postseason with teams like the Dodgers, Cardinals, Phillies, Angels, Tigers and Yankees perform.

Our own Tucson Toros lost their best of five Golden Baseball League championship series in Calgary over the weekend. The Toros lost an 18-10 decision to the Vipers in game 4 as Calgary won the series, 3 games to 1. The Toros played their final hand by going with ace Lorenzo Barcelo, but it was to no avail as the Vipers rocked Barcelo for eight runs and 10 hits in just 3 1/3 innings.

As for the Arizona Diamondbacks, it has been a disastrous season and they are in the process of shuffling the cards one more time as the play out the balance of their schedule, which includes 18 grueling games left--six with San Diego,six with San Francisco, three with the Rockies and close it out with three games in Chicago against the Cubs. With 82 losses and counting, the Diamondbacks would probably settle for a split of their remaining games and that would leave them with a dismal 71-91 record. As it stands right now (Sept. 14) only the Pittsburgh Pirates and the Washington Nationals have worse records in the National League.

Spring training can't come soon enough for the Diamondbacks.

Keep an eye on number 9...

In the Stands Report by Bookemdano: Arizona (2-0) has 1,007 yards of total offense in two games, while the Iowa Hawkeyes (2-0) has 755 yards to their credit in wins over Northern Iowa and Iowa State. The Hawkeyes have won six straight, dating back to November of last year, while the Wildcats are currently on a four-game winning streak.

So, open up the corn fields...something has gotta give. If the Wildcats can amass 500 yards of total offense again this Saturday at Iowa City, chances are the Iowa fans will go into shock and the Arizona Wildcats could leave the confines of Kinnick Stadium with their helmets raised high in the air and return to Tucson with their third victory of the season.

But the Hawkeyes are not the Lumberjacks, or the Chippewas, and Matt Scott and Nick Foles better keep their eyes on number 9,Tyler Sash, a 6-foot-1, 210 pound defensive back, who is just 11 interceptions shy of an Iowa record. Sash is only a sophomore and he recorded three interceptions in the Buckeyes' win over Iowa State last week. Sash is chasing Nile Kinnick's record and has almost three seasons to get it done.

Kinnick, for goodness sake, was the Heisman Trophy winner in 1939 and the only Hawkeye to ever win the coveted prize. He's a legend in the Midwest. Hence, Iowa's football stadium is named after him.

Of course, we have our own defensive back in Trevin Wade, who has a nose for the ball and a habit of collecting interceptions. The sophomore cornerback picked off two last Saturday against NAU and now has six career interceptions. Sash has eight thefts. Let the game begin.

The pass reception that could have been...

In the Stands Report by Bookemdano: When Nick Foles retreated to the pocket, set up, and then unleashed a bomb that sailed 60 yards down field during the second half of last Saturday's 34-17 Arizona Wildcats' win over NAU, 50,623 fans followed the flight of the ball.

It turned out to be a 51-yard pass attempt that went awry as Wildcats' receiver Juron Criner couldn't hold on to the pigskin. In his defense, Criner did have to dive for the ball, but it could have been a reception which would have sent the crowd into a frenzy, but instead the ball sailed through his hands and bounced off his chest.

I wonder what would have happened, in the minutes that followed, if Criner had hauled in the pass?

Would we then have a quarterback controversy? Let's say, Criner had caught Foles' north-to-south bomb, and then moments later found Criner alone in the end zone for a Wildcats' touchdown, would the crowd be yelling out, "We want Nick" the rest of the game. Instead, both quarterbacks, Matt Scott and Foles, will probably see action at Kinnick Stadium in Iowa City next Saturday. And that's the way it should be. Both quarterbacks are talented and bring a lot to the table.

As for the Wildcats' win over NAU at Arizona Stadium last Saturday, it turned out to be a bit boring, except for Foles' bomb that went awry and Nic Grigsby's electrifying 94 yard run in the third quarter that set up an Arizona score, which gave the Wildcats a 27-10 lead. But when you look at the final statistics, it's difficult to use the word "boring" as the Wildcats recorded 559 yards of total offense,giving them 1,007 yards for their two games at Arizona Stadium this season.

As for the Arizona quarterbacks, they combined for 240 yards and two touchdowns. We'll need that and much more in Iowa City on Saturday.

Tonto and the Lone Ranger...

Ran across a photo recently in the local paper of Jay Silverheels, who played Tonto, Clayton Moore's sidekick in the long-running 1950s TV western, "The Lone Ranger".

It brought back a lot of memories. Back in those days, the TV western was plentiful with half hour and hourly series such as Johnny Yuma "The Rebel", "Have Gun-Will Travel","The Cisco Kid", followed by "Gunsmoke" with James Arness and "Wyatt Earp" with Hugh O'Brian.

How many hours did I spend watching the old black and white tube in those days? The answer is plenty. I can recall all of them as if it where yesterday. A few years back I attended a festival down in Tombstone. The celebrity guest was Hugh O'Brian. I expected to see a young man in his 30s, instead I witnessed a man older than me, who walked the streets of Tombstone a little slower than I had remembered him doing so as the Sheriff of the "town too tough to die".

Our Western heroes are timeless! And most of them are gone now. Silverheels passed away in 1980 at the age of 67, while Moore died in 1999 at the age of 85. They spent their final years within a few miles of each other in the city of Calabasas, California. Nick Adams, who starred in "The Rebel" died tragically at the age of 36 in 1958 of a drug overdose. I can still recall the theme song from "The Rebel", which was sung by the great Johnny Cash. While John Wayne filled the silver screen, these men came into our living room in the late 50s and early 60s and caught the bad guy. Our parents would then turn off the television and either send us to bed or tell us to get our homework done.

Oh, the age of innocence!

As for O'Brian, he's 84 years old and lives in Benedict Canyon in southern California. He's working on his bibliography.I still recall John Wayne's final film, The "Shootist". In this 1976 film, Wayne portrays J.B. Books, a dying gunfighter who sets up his final shootout with a handful of bad guys, one of them is O'Brian.

My goodness, that was 33 years ago.

The Quiet Man...

Shortstop Derek Jeter made the sports headlines once again this week when he tied Lou Gehrig, the "Iron Horse", for the most hits by a Yankee, 2,721. Jeter should receive an Academy Award not only for his ability to garner hits, but his ability to withstand 15 seasons in a Yankee uniform in a quiet and respectful manner.

To play in New York is one thing, but to play season after season for the Yankees, while pushing all the right buttons on and off the field is a remarkable feat for the likable shortstop, who more than likely will end his career as a Yankee. Why should he depart the building? Jeter will be one Yankee who doesn't have to leave and will never jump the ship. Fifteen seasons and a career batting average of .317, chances are Jeter will hit the 3,000 hit mark before he tips his hat and turns in his Yankees' pinstripes. Selected sixth overall in the first-round of the 1992 draft,Jeter has performed in MVP fashion for the Yankees all these years, and owns a fielding percentage of .976, despite the pressures that go along with playing in front of the Yankee fans day in and day out.

As for Lou Gehrig, what a fantastic ball player he must have been. Gehrig died in 1941, four years before I was born. He played in 2,164 games, all with the Yankees. He stepped to the plate in a Yankee uniform 8,001 times and he heard that familiar,loud cheer 2,721 times as he motored to first base,after hitting safely. Gehrig, a first baseman, had a career batting average of .340 and collected 493 home runs. He broke Babe Ruth's record for hits during the month of September in 1937. The record held up for 72 years.

Until, now. Jeter should be a proud man, and he shouldn't have to be quiet about it either. He deserves all the applause.

Golden Aces molding into a unit...

The Golden Aces, Tucson's representative for the 2009 Men's Senior Baseball League (MSBL) World Series to be held in Phoenix (Oct.19 - Nov. 3), completed its first month of practice at Tucson Electric Park and have just five Saturday practices remaining before they head north to tangle with many of the 330 teams that have signed up for the annual hardball extravaganza.

Mike Morales, the head coach of the Golden Aces, along with business manager, Joe Banner, spent the month of August molding the two teams into a unit. According to Banner,the 60-and-over squad has been trimmed to 14 players, while the 65-and-over team will carry a roster of 20.

"Some of the guys are playing in both tournaments. The 60-and-over division will play the first week and the 65-and-over will follow the second week," Banner said, following last Saturday's practice. "You need to carry a bigger roster for that second week, just in case of injuries. They are inevitable."

Banner says he enjoys his behind-the-scenes duties and he leaves all the on-the-field decisions to Morales. "Mike knows what he's doing out there and I'm busy enough with the financial end of things." Banner takes care of everything from the team and player fees to the hotel arrangements..and he plays right field, too. It goes without saying, that Joe expects a "Banner" year from the Golden Aces.

Congratulations to Tucson Toros...

Local baseball fans young and old will get their chance to see some post season championship action this week thanks to a hard-throwing, 31-year-old righthander and some last-minute heroics by his teammates.

Lorenzo Barcelo, who hails from the Dominican Republic, pitched in what turned out to be both ends of a doubleheader as he led the Tucson Toros to a 5-1 victory in the continuation of Sunday's rain out and then pitched five innings in the 5-4 walk-off win in the nightcap, which was held at Hi Corbett Field last night. The two wins allowed the Toros to clinch the five-game playoff matchup over the St. George Roadrunners and advance them to the GBL Championship Series against Calgary, which begins Wednesday in Tucson.

Calgary won its  playoff series by besting Edmonton, three games to one. Calgary scored 36 runs in its four-game battle with Edmonton.

Barcelo, who turns 32 on Thursday, was credited with the win in the rain-delayed game, pitching four shutout innings after taking over for starter Jason Jacome. Closer Reid Price (no relation ) hurled a scoreless ninth for the save. It was Barcelo's second win of the series. He was the winning pitcher in the 9-4 playoff opener in St. George.

So, all you old timers out there, let's head to the ball park on Wednesday to back our Toros. The first two games of the series will start at 7 p.m.

Iowa Hawkeyes update...

In the Stands Report by Bookemdano: Every head football coach in the country will issue to his players the philosophy: Don't look ahead...take one game at a time.

But as an old blogger, I'm going to do just that, seeing how I don't have a coach to keep me in line.

Assuming the Wildcats tend to business next Saturday at home against NAU, they'll travel to the Midwest for a confrontation with the Iowa Hawkeyes on Sept. 19. The Hawkeyes struggled this week and barely came away with a 17-16 win over Northern Iowa. My goodness, Northern Iowa out gained the Hawkeyes, 352-329, in Iowa's own back yard, no less.

The Hawkeyes travel to Iowa State next week. We'll have to keep tabs on our third opponent of the 2009 season to see if they continue to struggle. By the way, Iowa State made easy pickins of North Dakota State last week, winning 34-17.

Thunderbolt and Lightfoot...

In the Stands Report by Bookemdano: A thunderbolt or two, along with some colorful lightning both east and south of the city, made things a little uncomfortable for 51,683 fans at Arizona Stadium last night.

But in the end, it was Arizona quarterback Matt "Lightfoot" Scott who would lead the Wildcats to a 19-6 victory over the visiting Chippewas from Central Michigan. After a 45-minute delay due to lightning in the area, Scott threw for 202 yards and rushed for 83 as the Wildcats amassed 448 yards of total offense.

Earlier in the week, I added my prediction to the slew of other bloggers on Wildcat Scoop. I was off the mark, predicting a 44-21 Wildcat win. I did predict Scott would do his thing, though. And, the Wildcats should have scored forty. They were that dominate.

Borrowing from a 1974 flick, Thunderbolt and Lightfoot, starring Clint Eastwood and Jeff Bridges, I took liberty with the Arizona monsoon and Scott's performance to create a "weekend" nickname for the Wildcat quarterback.

If you check his stats for the game, you can see why he went the distance (with Nick Foles on the sideline) in this one. Actually, Scott carried the ball just nine times, but averaged 9.2 yards a carry, a pretty good average for most running backs. Not to be overlooked was the performance of place-kicker Alex Zendejas. Alex connected on four field goals and an extra point to account for 13 of the 19 points. Zendejas, who has quite the following, was met by many of his fans, after the game, at the north end of the stadium. He started with the "high fives" and had a hard time getting away from the well-wishers.

One fan yelled, "You're not gonna get a way from us that easy." Alex just smiled and took it all in. As for me, my 64-year-old back aches. I got there an hour early and watched the storm clouds move in. At one point, I thought it would be such a shame to have the opener called off.

In the end the storm fizzled, much like the Chippewas.

Ring of Honor...

In the Stands Report by Bookemdano: One thing that sticks out in my mind when you compare an old time Arizona Wildcats' football fan to say, a young whipper-snapper who is just getting their feet wet at Arizona Stadium, is this. Well, the obvious, or course...forty years or more of life's ups and downs. But what I noticed Saturday night at Arizona Stadium, as I waited patiently for the kickoff to the 2009 season, was a hand full of elderly gentlemen who were sitting back and taking in all the color and pageantry that goes along with what we call "college football on a Saturday night", and I couldn't help but think, just what are they feeling?

And then it hit me. For one thing, they were eye-balling the "Ring of Honor", and the 39 storied names of players-- who had at one time or another-- ran, passed, caught, kicked, blocked and tackled their way to glory as an Arizona Wildcat. You have to be up there in age if you can recall some of the names like Art Luppino, Eddie Wilson and Jackie Wallace. In more recent times, the names on the "Ring" include Ricky Hunley, Tedy Bruschi, Chuck Cecil and the great defensive back Antione Cason, along with the latest addition, speedster Mike Thomas.

The young Arizona football fans will see things a little differently as they cheer on their Wildcats this season...and they have plenty of time to do just that. But on a Saturday night, in the future, say 2050, they'll enter Arizona Stadium with their grandchildren by their side. They'll take their seat and look up at the "Ring of Honor". They'll nudge their grandchild, point to the west end of the stadium, and say, "I remember when...".

Schilling makes his final pitch...

Ballplayers have a hard time retiring these days.

Brett Favre, my favorite quarterback over the past decade or so, can't seem to do it, and there are many more who struggle to hang up their old jersey for good. But some athletes would rather stay in the spotlight rather than head off to a quiet, secluded beach somewhere and enjoy retirement. They certainly have the funds to do so.

As I gulped down my first cup of coffee this morning (a dangerous time...if I have my laptop up and running), I noticed in my local paper that former Arizona Diamondback and Boston Red Sox pitcher Curt Schilling is contemplating running for office and for the senate seat held by the former Democratic Senator Edward M. Kennedy, I might add.

Edward must be rolling over in his grave. But, don't laugh, anything is possible these days. It wasn't long ago, back in 1988, when the former professional wrestler Jesse Ventura ran as an Independent for the governorship of the state of Minnesota. He won! And don't get me started on the Franken debacle. I'll need another cup of coffee or two for that one.

I also remember Bill Bradley, the great basketball player,who made a name for himself at Princeton. A three-time All American in the mid 1960s, Bradley went on to play for the New York Knicks, retired, and then went on to win a New Jersey senate seat two years later. He even ran in the 2000 primaries against Al Gore for President of the United States. Here in the state of Arizona, we had the great Mo Udall, who played basketball at the UofA in the late 40s, spent one year with the Denver Nuggets (NBL), and then went on to be our State Representative for 30 years.

Actually, the retired professional athlete is not old by any means. My goodness, they could clock in at a job for another 20 years and still not be my age. In reality, I'm retired and they are just in a mid-life crisis.

The sound of the beep...the crack of the bat

The Tucson Old Timers (TOTS) baseball team recently made a donation to an outstanding group of individuals. They are called SAAVI (Southern Arizona for the Visually Impaired).

The organization promotes the independence and the quality of life for those with vision loss in southern Arizona. They are the behind-the-scene supporters of the SAAVI BeepBall team, The Slammers. The Tucson team plays on Saturday mornings at Mansfield Park. In BeepBall there are just two bases, first and third, and the two are equipped with beepers that go off when the batter hits the ball. If the runner reaches base before the fielders touch the ball it is a run.

The defenders, situated mostly in the outfield, listen for the beep of the ball, and then try to get to the ball, or in some cases dive for the ball (to the delight of the crowd, I may add), before the runner hits the elongated pads at the respective base. It is fun for the SAAVI athletes and it gets very competitive, especially when they face competition from other parts of the country. It is obvious the participants respect the game of baseball and you can't help but admire how they play America's pastime within the rules that have been set up for BeepBall.

As a spokesman and a player for the TOTS, I can say without a doubt, that we salute all the BeepBall players for a job well done. Hats off to them. After I researched this story, I had a baseball game the very next day. I trotted out to my spot at third base and I closed my eyes, and for just a second I thought I heard a beep. I shook my head, tipped my hat toward the clouds above...and then waited for the crack of the bat.

(For more information on the SAAVI and BeepBall, please call 520 795 1331).