The Professor

TOTS Senior Baseball Network

60-and-over baseball

Sometimes I'm in awe of my teammates on the Tucson Old Timers (TOTS), a 60-and-over baseball club which members get together three days at week at Udall Park to play America's favorite pastime.

I'm in awe not so much at the way they go about their business -- hitting, throwing, catching and running down the baseball,  despite the fact their ages range anywhere from 60 to 87, but I have first hand knowledge that many of these men retired from the workforce some 10 to 20 years ago after leaving their mark in their chosen profession.

The TOTS' roster is filled with retired lawyers, judges, teachers, doctors, professors, or in many cases fire fighters, police officers, military officers...well you name it...55 men in all, coming from different walks of life...all of them have left their footprints...their impressions, if you will, in their respective field.

Now, they're on the ball field, going about their business playing a young man's game.

If you corner one of them and ask him, "What did you do for a living?"

Well, be prepared. You're gonna get a lengthy answer.

Take for instance, 75-year-old Mal Zwolinski.

A TOT since 2006, Mal spent his "working days" as an educator.

His life started out rather quietly. A hard-throwing pitcher in high school, Mal won 19 games in his prep career.  His next stop, the University of New Hampshire. That made a lot of sense, since Mal was born and raised in Winchester, NH. He received his "first" degree in 1959, but that was just the beginning. He went on to Yale University and another degree in 1961. And his education didn't end there as Mal moved West, to Tucson, and received yet another degree at the University of Arizona in 1965.

But this time, Mal stayed put -- for close to 40 years!  His field of expertise: Forestry. He became a professor at Arizona and went on to become an expert on the ecological effects of fire.

Mal's title: associate director of the University of Arizona's School of Renewable Natural Resources.

Wow! I could run around the bases by the time I was able to blurt out Mal's professional moniker.

And if that wasn't enough, Zwolinski (photo above) served his country along the way by spending nine years in the Army Reserve. That's another story in itself.

Mal has certainly left an impression on me.

The next time I'm hanging out in the dugout with The Professor,  I may have another question or two. I'm sure there's a lot more to the story of Mal Zwolinski.