The Clinton Boys

Tucson Old Timers (TOTS)

60-and-over baseball

There are three members of the Tucson Old Timers who went to high school together in New York City. And it wasn't just any high school, but one of the most famous of all -- the historical Dewitt Clinton High School in The Bronx.

The oldest of the trio, Lloyd Barzell, played football and baseball for the Governors. Barzell graduated in 1968, while Pete Maldonado ran track and cross country and graduated in 1970 along with Ray Garcia, the newest member of the Tucson Old Timers.

Imagine that. Three thousand miles away from the TOTS' home field at Udall, and the three end up in Tucson on the same amateur baseball team, an organization which has been fielding 60-and-over  teams since 1968.

"I've known Ray since the third grade," said Maldonado. "Ray was a good athlete but we could never get him out for sports."  Barzell, on the other hand, couldn't make the basketball team, but played on the baseball and varsity football teams and was the captain of both teams.

"I couldn't make the basketball team," said Barzell. "The kids were just too good."  After all, Barzell is talking about a high school which produced the likes of Nate Archibald, Willie Worsley and maybe the most famous of all, NBA Hall of Famer Dolph Schayes.

Archibald was a star with the Boston Celtics, Schayes was a star with the Syracuse Nationals back in the 1950s and Worsley played for the Texas Western Miners, the first all-black starting five team, which beat Kentucky and Pat Riley for the NCAA title in 1966. The film "Glory Road" came out in 2006 and starred Josh Lucas as coach Don Haskins and John Voight as the legendary coach Adolph Rupp.

The list of alums from Clinton include Burt Lancaster, Neil Simon, Richard Carmona, Ralph Lauren, Stan Lee, Stanley Kramer and, in the world of sports, great baseball players like Ozzie Virgil, Sr., Eddie Lopat and Pedro Borbon. The list goes on. Clinton was a public school and an all-boys school for nearly 100 years. In 1983 it became a co-ed school.

Maldonado remembers his old high school days. But he wants his old stomping grounds to be referred to as da Bronx. "When I ran cross country we'd do our running at Van Cortlandt Park," he added. The Park is a 1,146 acre park located in the borough of the Bronx in New York City and is owned and operated by the New York City Parks and Recreation Department.

Pete no longer runs -- except from first to second at Udall Park, along with his two high school classmates, Barzell and Garcia, and the rest of the 60-and-over Tucson Old Timers.

The members of the TOTS are happy to have da Bronx connection on the roster of the oldest baseball team in southern Arizona, and maybe in the nation. The TOTS range in age from 60 to 93. The founder Joe Gorman, also from New York, moved to Arizona and formed the club in 1968.

Photos: Barzell (top), Maldonado (middle) and Garcia. The fourth photo is an old photo of Dewitt Clinton High School.

In photos below: It's our own Lloyd "Baby Bull" Barzell, back in 1968, fourth from the left, front row on the Clinton baseball team and number 65, front row, on the football team. He was the captain of both teams. The last photo is the Baby Bull himself, back in the day.