A hot lineup on a cold day

TOTS Senior Baseball Network (TSBN)

60-and-over baseball


In the Tucson Old Timers (TOTS) baseball club at Udall Park the lineups are picked at the start of each game on Monday, Wednesday and Friday. The two starting pitchers are selected by the club manager and then it is up to each pitcher to select his team for the day. A coin flip decides the home team and the flip also decides who gets the first selection and it goes back and forth until all the players are selected. Quite an undertaking when 20 to 24 players show up. In most instances the teams end up pretty even with each team getting a mixture of young and old players and if the selector knows what he is doing his team should get a hand full of the cream of the crop players.

Sometimes a lineup just jells from top to bottom and that team more often than not wins the game. Today, on the coldest morning of the year, Team Blue had one of those games as they banged out 18 hits en route to a 13-10 victory over Team White.

The winning lineup today including their name, age and position from top to bottom included:

Pigpen Price      67  Pitcher
Jerry Hamelin    72  Left Field
Bob Daliege      64  Third Base
Tim Tolson        60  Shortstop
Dick Ducklow    71  Center Field
Jesse Ochoa       61  Second Base
John Petrick       70  Catcher
Floyd Lance      87  First Base
Denny Leonard  75  Right Field
Art Radtke        74  Short Fielder

All ten of the Team Blue players hit safety this morning with Daliege leading the way with three hits. Lance and Radtke, two of the oldest players in the lineup, banged out two hits apiece. Ochoa provided the biggest blow with a double off the left field fence. Price picked up the win, his first of the year, but needed help in the seventh inning from Daliege, who came on with two runners on and no outs.

Next week the TOTS will flip a coin and start all over again. You gotta love it!

Photos below: A hot lineup on a cold day (from top to bottom) Pigpen Price, Jerry "The Yankee Clipper" Hamelin, Bob "Orange Crush" Daliege, Thunder Tim Tolson, Dick "Big D" Ducklow, Jesse "The Sweeper" Ochoa, John The Texan" Petrick, Sir Floyd Lance, Denny "The Mounty" Leonard and Art "The Communicator" Radtke.