Edging closer to Senior World Series

I'm a week away from the four-month mark since my foot operation. The summer is about over and it's six weeks away from the Men's Senior Baseball League (MSBL) World Series in Phoenix. I'm still battling some stiffness and occasional swelling, but hope to be ready for practice next week when our 70-and-over team gets together for a workout next Thursday at Tucson Udall Park.

I'll be one of three players on the Arizona Scorpions' roster this year under the age of 70 who has received waivers to play in the World Series. The 70-and-over division begins play on October 15. The Scorpions will play five qualifying games during the week and the best overall won-loss records among the teams will advance to the championship game on Sunday, October 21, at Maryvale Park in Phoenix.

The home-base for the World Series event will be at Tempe Diablo Stadium and more than 300 teams and 3,000 players are expected to compete in the month long extravaganza, which will include age groups from 18-and-over all the way to the 70-and-over division -- including a week-long father-son competition.

This year will mark the 25th anniversary of the MSBL. Five players from the Tucson Old Timers (TOTS) team, who plays three-days a week at Udall Park, will play for the Scorpions. They include: yours truly (of course), Jerry Hamelin, Chico Bigham, DeLon "Doc" Thompson and Arnie White. White and Thompson are both 70 years of age, Bigham is 74, Hamelin 72 and I'm the young whipper snapper at 67 years of age. The Arizona Scorpions will be coached by Dohrman Sinclair, a businessman from Surprise, Arizona. Sinclair, in a statement earlier this summer, said, "we're in it to win it." I hope he is right. In all the years I've played in the MSBL World Series, I have yet to return home with a world series ring.

Win or lose, the MSBL World Series is a fun event for baseball players who still play the sport for the love of the game. The participants share a common bond and for one month out of the year the players rekindle friendships and play the game of baseball. You get teams from all over the country, including teams from Canada and the Virgin Islands, as they all lay it on the line no matter what the players ages are. Congrats, to the founders of the MSBL for the past 25 years.