Pitchers hard to find on 60-and-over baseball club

Tucson Old Timers (TOTS)

60-and-over baseball


The 60-and-over Tucson Old Timers (TOTS) baseball club plays at Udall Park three days a week and they play all 12 months of the year. That's a minimum of 144 games (minus a few rain outs, of course).

The baseball club, which has been around since 1968, is very seldom short of players. The TOTS have close to 60 members, including many members who spend their winters in the Old Pueblo. On an average, the TOTS will field two teams (Team Blue and Team White) with anywhere from 10 to 12 to a squad on a normal playing day.

The problem is: finding pitchers.

It's not easy to find an old timer who can take the mound and throw for seven innings. And you can pretty much forget the Major League Baseball rule of thumb of five days of rest between starts. Chances are if you throw for the TOTS you have a rubber arm. There's no pitch count with this 60-and-over baseball club.

A few of the young fellas (60 to 65) may even throw on Monday, on Wednesday and finish out the week tossing a few innings on a Friday. Or, maybe it'll be a Friday start, followed by a Monday start.

The 2015 TOTS are down to nine pitchers, the "Golden-armed 9" -- seven gutsy right-handers and two hard-throwing lefties.

Leading the TOTS pitching staff is 72-year-old right-hander Doc Thompson -- the only member of the TOTS with professional pitching credentials. Doc pitched two years of Class A ball in 1964 and 1965 as a member of the Minnesota Twins affiliate -- Bismarck-Manden Pards (1964) and Wisconsin Rapids (1965). Doc pitched 331 innings in his two-year minor league career, with a won-loss record of 16-22 and an ERA of 2.75. Doc is from Roland, Iowa.

DeLon "Doc" Thompson

Second in the TOTS rotation is 76-year-old right-hander Chico Bigham from Monroe, North Carolina.

The rest of the pitching staff includes:

Bob Daliege, a 66-year-old right-hander from Chicago, Illinois.

Lloyd "Baby Bull" Barzell, a 64-year-old right-hander from Bronx, New York.

Dennis Crowley, a 65-year-old left-hander from Boston, MA.

Pigpen Price, a 69-year-old right-hander from Little Rock, Arkansas.

Ron Petersen, a 70-year-old left-hander from Lamars, Iowa.

Danny Lundwall, a 69-year-old right-hander from Muskegon, Michigan.

and last, but not least, 85-year-old, 105 pounds of trouble, right-hander Billy Heiny, the true rubber arm on the club. "Give the ball to, Billy." Billy is from Terre Haute, Indiana.