TOTS lose a loyal fan

TOTS Senior Baseball Network

60-and-over baseball


My blog is filled with stories of the old-time ball players who play three days a week at Udall Park as members of the Tucson Old Timers (TOTS) baseball club. As the club's historian, from time to time I summarize the results of the games, acknowledging great plays made and, in short, try to bring to print what it's like to be an old-timer and still play the game of baseball.

Sometimes I forget to acknowledge the ladies in the stands, the spouses who sit in the bleachers and support their husbands and the organization as a whole.

The organization lost a beautiful lady and its number-one cheerleader on the 22nd of November. Donna Tagg passed away at the age of eighty-one.  Her husband of 60 years is former TOT Larry Tagg.

Services will be held at Bring's Funeral Home on Friday, December 12 at 2:00 p.m.

The following is an excerpt from a previous post. It's just part of the story of the life and times of Donna and Larry Tagg.

Original post: April 15, 2013, just a year-and-half ago.

I admire all the TOTS, past and present. And now that I'm the club historian, I continue to sift through the archives, looking at pictures and faces of men who have come before me. Due to medical issues way beyond their control, a few of the honorary TOTS who are still alive and kicking,  show up and sit in the bleachers every week and cheer us on.

Take for instance, 82-year-old Larry Tagg. Larry sustained a brain injury a few years back and he was forced to retire from the active list, but he still makes the annual luncheon every year and attends  all the "dress out" games (every three months we play a game in our full uniform-- followed by a cookout -- all the honorary TOTS and former players are also invited and partake in our yearly Christmas party).

So, like a good historian, I checked up on Mr. Tagg. He was the TOT of the Year in 2000 and the team manager in 2001-02. In 2005, at the age of 74, he played in 63 games, collected 30 hits in 127 at-bats, knocked in 11 runs and batted .236. In 2006, his averaged slipped to .193, but he did step to the plate 166 times, had 32 hits, walked 25 times and was hit by a pitch four times.

As for his life before the TOTS, well that's a story in itself.

Larry was a service man...and I mean a military service man.

Tagg, who was born and grew up in Sioux City, Iowa, allowed his early "baseball playing" days to be interrupted, by enlisting in the Army in 1948. He returned home after his eight-year stint in the Army and played for some independent baseball teams, traveling around Western Iowa and Eastern Nebraska. It wasn't long before he ended up at a small college in Denver and met Donna Gensler. They married, he subsequently joined the Air Force and served as a chaplain for 20 years.

While on active duty, Tagg served in Alaska and Germany and close to home at Davis-Monthan AFB, just to name a few of the bases he was stationed at. He retired from the military in 1976 and eventually made his way to Tucson with his wife, Donna, and his two sons, Philip and Martyn.

And then along came the TOTS.

Special Note: Donna Tagg will be buried at the Fort Huachuca Cemetery at a later date. In lieu of flowers, please make donations in her name to the Humane Society of Southern Arizona or Adult Loss of Hearing Association.