The magic offerings of Maldonado

Tucson Old Timers (TOTS)

60-and-over baseball

Pete Maldonado is a 66-year-old pitcher on the 60-and-over Tucson Old Timers baseball team. He throws right-handed and, like most senior citizens, he doesn't have a 94-mile-an-hour fastball.

But what he can do is throw strikes and at times some of his pitches seem magical. "I throw a lot of garbage" says Maldonado, who hails from New York and grew up in the da Bronx. "Sometimes the pitches break and some times they don't break at all."

Every once in a while a pitch will disappear on the way to the plate. Well, not really. But Maldonado has a rubber arm and he can pitch twice a week if called upon. It's up to the TOTS' batters to turn Maldonado's magical offerings into base hits.

Today at Udall Park, Maldonado's pitches seemed to have a mind of their own. Some broke left, some broke right and some just fell off the table, so to speak, and left the batter swinging at air.

Maldonado wins some and he loses some as a member of the Tucson Old Timers' pitching staff, but one thing is always the same with the "Man from the Bronx." He throws strikes.

"I hate to walk anybody," Maldonado admits. Today he even apologized to Team White batter Pigpen Price, who drew a walk on a 3-2 pitch.

"Pete pitched well today," Price said. "He walked me once but that was about it. I just returned from two weeks from playing in the Men's Senior Baseball League World Series in Phoenix and Pete gave me more trouble than the pitchers I faced up there."

The Team White batters had trouble squaring up on Maldonado all day and Team Blue walked away with a 7-4 win.

The only Team White player who had Maldonado's number was Pistol Pete Peters, another returnee from the Phoenix tournament, who went 3 for 3 today in a losing cause. Joltin' Joe Opocensky, just back from a runner-up finish with his Tucson Toros teammates at the MSBL World Series, went 3 for 3 today to help support Maldonado, while teammate Bob Daliege, another returnee from the senior World Series, knocked in three runs for the winners.

The TOTS will be back in action on Wednesday at Udall Park. Game time: 9 a.m.