Iron man Smarik breaks a record every time he steps up to the plate

Tucson Old Timers (TOTS)

60-and-over baseball

Jerry Smarik is considered the iron man on the 60-and-over Tucson Old Timers.

Yearly statistics for the club go back to 2003. The organization was founded in 1968. So, for close to 35 years no one worried too much about stats -- games played, hits, runs and batting average. Instead, the old timers just played.

Mr. Smarik joined the TOTS in 1991. We're talking 25 years ago. So, as a rule of thumb, Jerry is the club's measuring stick. Back in the old days, the TOTS played 100 games a year. Now, for example, the most games played in 2015 were 118 by our oldest TOT, 90-year-old Floyd Lance. In 2014, one of the young guns, Pete Peters, played in 121 games.

No matter how you figure it, Smarik has played in the most games ever by a TOT. The 84-year-old Smarik, the third oldest member on the ball club, has played in 1,431 games through the month of February of 2016. If you were to calculate a 100 at bats a year from the beginning of 1991 through 2002, you'd come up with an additional 1,300 at bats. After all, Jerry's heyday would have been during those years. He was a young man between the ages of 60 to 72.

In other words, Jerry Smarik has stepped to the plate as a member of the Tucson Old Timers a grand total of 2,731 times (allowing, of course, for a margin-of-error of 3 percent, one way or the other).

Obviously, Smarik is the club's iron man. Of course, he no longer rushes up to the plate and his teammates jokingly refer to him as "The Rocket."

One thing is for sure. Every time "Iron Man" steps up to the plate his teammates will be looking on. After all, it'll be a record-setting performance.