Newcomers take the mound

Tucson Old Timers 

60-and-over baseball

Three newcomers on the Tucson Old Timers (TOTS) took the mound today at Udall Park. The trio, toeing the rubber for the first time for the 60-and-over baseball club, pitched well and offered their new teammates a sign of what's to come.

Pete Maldonado, who hails from Bronx, New York, pitched a complete game for Team Blue en route to a very competitive 9-5 win over Team White, which went with two 60-year-old players, right-hander John Mathews, a product out of Tucson Flowing Wells High School, and Reed Palmer, a Tucson resident who grew up in Portland, Oregon.

Mathews gave way to Palmer in the fourth inning. Palmer bats left handed but pitches right handed. "My dad taught me how to do that," Palmer said proudly, after the game.

Today, it was Maldonado who showed the most control. "I've pitched before," he said. Back in New York in the "old days" -- that is. Maldonado is the shortest of the trio at five feet, eight inches, while Mathews is 6 feet, 2 1/2 and Palmer is the tallest of the trio at six feet, five inches. He looks a little like Randy Johnson when he toes the rubber.

Things are looking up for the overworked TOTS' pitching staff.

Today, slammin' Bobby Stofft went 2 for 3 and drove in a run for Team Blue, while Pigpen Price and Mathews knocked in two runs apiece for Team White.

The TOTS will close out their weekly games with a game on Friday. The first pitch will get underway at 9 a.m.

Photo: Bobby Stofft went 2 for 3 and drove in a run for Team Blue today.