To my readers on Bookemdanosports

A note from the author

of  Bookemdanosports

Just a quick note to all my readers. My blog, Bookemdanosports, has been around since the summer of 2009 and today we reached 3,400 post and we are closing in on a quarter of a million views.

Now, in the grand scheme of things the stats are not overwhelming, but for an unknown 73-year-old blogger, who lives in the old southwest in the laid-back town of Tucson, Arizona, well, it seems meaningful.

My stories are not earth shattering, nor are they for everyone. I write about the local, regional and sometimes national senior athlete over the age of 50 with an emphasis on baseball, would you believe. As an example, I write about the characters on a local 60-and-over baseball team. The old-time ballplayers play three days a week at a city park. The backstop behind home plate has a sign attached with the words: "Home of the 60-and-over Tucson Old Timers."

Yes, there are stands behind the backstop. The playing field is maintained by city employees with a lot of help from members of the Tucson Old Timers who drag the field with a motorized tug. The members of the baseball club hose down the infield and line the field before every ball game ( and there are many of those, three days a week -- all 52 weeks -- year after year). The baseball club was founded fifty years ago, back in the summer of 1968.

For a retired sports writer with a lot of time on his hands, I find myself in the right place at the right time and I have plenty to write about when I focus on a bunch of "crazy old dudes" who play for the love of the game.

There are so many stories out there on these characters. All you have to do, if you know their name, is to google them on the Internet and you can read about their exploits. Many of them have nicknames, and yes, I plead guilty. I came up with the nicknames. Take for instance, my nickname on the team is Pigpen. Type those six letters and you'll probably get a picture of a pig, but you'll also see a connection to the Tucson Old Timers or to the blog itself, Bookemdanosports.

There are family members or acquaintances, from Los Angeles to North Carolina, who tune in, if you will, to follow the exploits of the Tucson Old Timers, better known as the TOTS. Now if you google TOTS, you'll get plenty of responses, some about the amateur baseball club or maybe you'll get a connection to Toys "R" US. Or, just maybe, you'll hit on a site to find a Christmas toy for your grandchild. But, chances are good, very good, that you'll hit on a pop up, which will take you to Bookemdanosports and put you in a world...a world where old baseball players live.

Once again, a big "thank you" to all my readers.