The Bucket Brigade

TOTS Senior Baseball Network (TSBN)

60-and-over baseball

They play two games at a time on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays.

One is played out on the field, wearing gloves, and everything. The other is played by the Bucket Brigade, over by the dugout.

The TOTs play year-around. When it gets really hot in the summer, they start earlier, and when it gets brutally cold, as it is now, Jim, the Scorekeeper, and other leather-bottomed guys, line up on buckets next to Jim out in the sun, and play the Other Game.

"Did you call that a fielders' choice on the ball I hit to the second baseman when he fell down and threw the ball to the left fielder?"

"How can you say I struck out when the ball was so far outside that the catcher missed it? I don't care what the ump said!"

"How can you call that an error on me? I never touched the ball! It went between my legs, for Pete's sake!"

"How many outs are there, Jim?  Four, again?"

The game on the field is often interesting and exciting. And while the game played by the Bucket Brigade is played sitting down, it is a lot more interesting than the other game. It is a kind of Second Chance Baseball. It is a chance to raise one's batting average, and to pick up an RBI or two. It is a second chance. It is redemption.

Note: From the blog of Conrad Royksund at: www.smokesound.blogspot.com

Photo: The Bucket Brigade