The youngest TOT

Tucson Old Timers (TOTS)

60-and-over baseball

They just keep getting younger.

If you play for the 60-and-over Tucson Old Timers (TOTS), you're already old when you dress out in full uniform, complete with the dark blue baseball cap. Hang around with the amateur baseball organization long enough and you'll look up and realize one day you have logged in ten years and have now reached the ripe old age of 70, 80 and in one particular case 90, if your name happens to be Floyd Lance, who turns the golden age of 90 next week.

And it is inevitable, a youngster will eventually join the senior ball club, which is in its 48th year of existence.

The latest newcomer is 60-year-old Tim Boyd. A local educator and vice-principal, Boyd received his TOTS' hat last week and it's official: Tim is now the youngest TOT.

Last week, Boyd made a running catch along the left field line as the rest of us "old-timers" looked on. One comment from the dugout, "Man, I used to run like that."

What skills we have as a TOT diminishes with time. As the years fly by, our ability to run down the fleeting ball gets harder and harder.

Most of us who don a TOTS' uniform are just like the Energizer Bunny. We never quit.

And, as we look on from the dugout and watch a 60-year-old perform, we say to ourselves. "There was a time when I could do that." To our credit, we still try.

Hats off to all the members of the TOTS who show up three days a week at Udall Park to play the game of baseball.

Photos: the new guy on the block: 60-year-old Tim Boyd. Welcome aboard!